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teTHE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LOS ANGELES GIFT OF

WILLIAM

A.

NITZE

rr^

Jl

I

v-^ I

^xi

THE ORIGIN OF

PAGAN

Fag.

Idol.

IDOLATRY.

\oh.

11.

n '*K\k^

*-^-^

To thus

thelii,q/ii A'n'.'

0*

*





TIJOAL^S BITRCrESS DJ). I.OBD lUSHOF of

I'latf u' lYAjitrU'ully iiisciHieJ

hy

/lis ,ihlitn'>l liiiinhl<

'TV

S-'-J)AVJJ )X

SitviuiJ

THE .lUTHvR

liMuhal Fef 1 1316

.,..

iju

Aa dittcu

hrFCMndJltii'iiuiionJ^hiuU i7iur,-hy,ird,LoruUm

THE

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY FROM

ASCERTAINED

HISTORICAL TESTIMONY AND

CIRCUMSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

BY GEORGE STANLEY FABER, RECTOR OF

D.

B.

LONG-NEWTON.

Every reasonable Hj'pothesis should be supported on a

fact.

Warduiiton's Div. Leg.

vol. v. p. 433.

THREE VOLUMES. VOL.

II.

lontion; Printed by A. J. Valpy, Tooke's Court, Chancaj^ Lane,

FOR

F.

AND

ST. PAUL'S

C.

RIVINGTONS

CHURCH YARD.

1816.

;

V.

^B.R

/2.

AT A.

CONTENTS. BOOK

TIL

CHAPTER

I.

PAOE Respecting the fable of the four ages

Thk

are indifferently reckoned from the creation and the deluge

four ages

the golden age being that of the great father I.

The

fable itself properly relates to the period

deluge

:

-

it

was also made to

ib.

between the ages of

relate to the period

between the -

deluge and another yet future dissolution of the world

4

-

Arrangement of the ten postdiluvian generations, and extension of the iron

\l.

age,

when

it

was found

HI. The

that

.

Traditions of Plato

1. Traditions of 3.

Dicearchus

it

to have

been

in the tenth -

really the

o

-

age of

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

13

-

-

-

-

14 ib.

Traditions of Hesiod and Ovid

1

ib.

4. Traditions of the

Goths

-

-

-

-

5. Traditions of the

Hindoos

-

-

-

-

15

-

-

-

-

Iti

6. Traditions of the Jains .

-

-

descriptions of the golden age prove

Paradisiacal innocence 1

no fresh deluge took place

-

-

generation

1\

-

between the creation and the

but, from certain points of resemblance

i\dam and of Noah,

-

Saturn,

who

flourished in the golden age,

must have been Adam.

Yet he

CONTENTS.

VI

PAOE was

also

Noah.

Hence, when he was viewed as

age was placed after the flood 1.

Exeinphfication of

2.

The same mode

-

-

The same

also

fable

m

Hesiod

that of

-

-

-

-

-

-

19

(2.)

Summary of

-

31

Hesiod's arrangement

-

-

the deluge

Menu

-

period between the creation

and his three sons and -

Parallel traditions of the Atlantians

IV. Parallel traditions of the Iroquois

Atlas, Edris, Idris,

The The The

6.

37

-

-

-

-

38

-

-

ib.

-

-

39

-

-

40

-

-

ib.

-

3.

character of translation of

the

Enoch

Enoch -

a transcript of the Paradisiacal -

-

41

-

-

Adam

-

-

42 44

••

-

-

45

•-•

-

-

ib.

-

person as Idris

also into that

Buddha-Sacya

translation of Xisuthrus

Noah

-

same

Enoch melts

36 -

The character of Enoch Mount Atlas and Cader-Idris were each

4.

ib.

-

melts into that of

Thoth and Buddha were

-

murder of Abel

-

-

Ararat

murder of

-

-

translation of

Enoch

34

to the

-

the translation of

VI. Indian legend respecting the

32

II.

II. Parallel traditions relative to the three Cabiri and to the

V. Atlantian legend respecting

-

-

....

to the

-

-

may be gathered from

-

.

traditions relative to

Abel

-

-

high antiquity of the fable of the four ages

Hindoo

5.

18

-

23

and

1.

17

-

Miscellaneous traditions relative

2.

-

-

-

CHAFFER

VH.

ib.

Discussion of the Argonautic, Trojan, and Theban, epochs

Scripture

IH.

-

(1.)

The

I.

Hindoo

in the

-

of interpretation must be adopted in the fable of the

Jains S.

arrangement

this

-

-

the golden

tlie latter,

-

-

of

CONTENTS.

Vn

PAGE The legend of Annacus or Nannacus VIII. The longevity of the antediluvian patriarchs IX. The number of antediluvian generations

-

7.

CHAPTER

-

Avesta

On 1.

2.

III.

the authenticity of the

The

.

His hypothesis respecting Zeradusht the early history contained in the

Ahriman with

his rebel

angels

-

Arg-Roud

4.

Mount Albordi first man-bull The Aboudad is Adam The second man-bull Taschter with his

first

man-bull

is

viewed as reappearing

-

his three sons

8.

in the

Zend-

Zend-Avesta

He

(2.)

But he

Sum

is

-

-

-

declared to be the is

Sun

-

-

-

-

in the

person of the second

of the argument

-

IV. Mythological prayers of the Parsees

Moon

1.

Prayer to the

2.

Prayer to the sacred Bull

-

-

79 80 ib.

-

-

-Si

-

-

-

82

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

63

-70

three companions

-

-

-

-

also declared to be a remarkable Star

V. Remarks on the prayers

ib.

61

Zend-Avesta

Respecting the astronomical character of Taschter (1.)

58

-

-

The

7.

52

Zend-Avesta and the character of Zeradusht

3.

6.

49

-

history, as exhibited in tfie

Q.

5.

-

-

hypothesis of Dr. Prideaux respecting the Zend-Avesta

Remarks on 1

46

-

III.

Sketch of the antediluvian and diluvian history contained

II.

-

.-.-_-

On the antediluvian and dituvian

I.

-

-

is

Noah

with

-

-

-

-84

-

-

ib.

-

-

ib.

87

83

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

ib.

88

90

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

CONTENTS.

Vin

PAGE

On that On that

1.

2.

to the

Moon

to the Bull

-

-

-

-

-

90

-

-

-

-

-

93

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

94

-

-

-

-

ib.

(3.)

The regenerating rain The diiuvian serpent Ahriinan Mixed character of Oschen

(4.)

Characters of Oshander-Begha and Osider-Begha mingled with that

(1.) (2.)

of the Messiah (5.)

Reasons

-

for believing this

ledge of the ancient

(6.)

commixture

Hebrew

of Christ

from a know-

-

-

-

-

98

-

-

-

-

-

102

-

-

-

-

103

materials of the Zend-Avestaic history

work

itself

may be

a comparatively

seem

to

be genuine, though the

modern compilation

CHAPTER

-

104

-

IV.

Pagati accounts of an universal deluge

Pagan

9G

-

Sentiments of the later Zeradusht respecting the promised future deliverer

The

to have arisen

-

prophecies before the manifestation

-

(7.) Tlie river Voorokeschci

VI.

-

-

"•

-

107

-

accounts of the deluge have generally some reference to the creation

:

a circumstance, which originated from the doctrine of an endless succession of similar worlds I.

-

-

Babylonian account of the deluge from Berosus

II.

Syro-Grecian account of the deluge from Lucian 1.

Dove and Ark

2. DiflFerent places, 3.

III.

The name

the

is

said to

-

-

ib.

.

-

-

108

-

-

-

110

-

-

-

111

have landed

known to the Hindoos deluge, more or less literal

of Deucalion

Hindoo accounts of

-

-

where Deucalion

-

ib.

-

J2

-

-

1

-

-

113

CONTENTS.

ix

PAGE 1.

2.

3.

Legend of

the

first

Avatar

-

-

-

-

u^

-

-

-

-

116

(I.)

Form

(2.)

Intercommunion of character between

(3.)

Sleep and night of Brahma

(4.)

Menu

(5.)

Character of the

of the fish-god

constituted the

Legend of

-

and Vislinou

-

117

-

-

-

II9

-

-

-

ib.

-

.

.

f[|0 ib.

god of obsequies

demon Hayagriva

the second Avatar

It relates jointly to the creation

(2.)

Remarks on

-

-

-

-

i^i

-

-

(1.)

Legend of

Menu

and to the flood

the legend

-

-

-

.

jgS

the third Avatar

-

-

_

_

J24

-

-

-

227

the lotos -

-

-

ib.

-

-

128

(I.)

Paradisiacal water of immortality

(2).

Mount Mandar surmounted by

(3.)

Productions from the churned ocean

(4.)

Fire mingled with water in the destruction of the earth

IV. Druidical account of the deluge

-

-

-

1.

Specimens of bardic fragments

relative to the

2.

Respecting the genuineness of

tliose

deluge

fragments

-

129

-

-

ib.

-

-

130

-

-

134 136

V. Persian account of the deluge

-

-

-

-

VI. Egyptian account of the deluge

-

_

>

.

jgy

VII. Chinese account of the deluge

-

-

.

_

j^Q

VIII. American accounts of the deluge

-

-

.

_

141

1.

Mechoacan

2.

Peruvian

3. Brazilian

-----_---.. -----. -----

4.

Nicaraguan

5.

Terra-Firma

6.

Cuban

7.

Otaheitean

-

-

-

-'

-

"

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

_

145

Respecting the sacred books

VOL»

ib.

-

-

-

or preserved or recovered from the deluge

Idol.

144

V.

There was a general notion, that certain sacred books were

Pag.

ib.

-

CHAPTER

I.

ib.

j^g

by II.

either

the great father

147

composed -

ib.

b

X

GONTKNTS. PAGE Books of Xisuthrus

-

-

-

-

-

147

2.

Pillars of Seth

.

_

.

.

-

HS

3.

Pillars or

-

-

-

-

ib

4.

Books of Taut

-

-

-

-

ib.

5.

Books

of the Buddliic great father

-

-

-

149

.

-

.

ib.

ib.

1.

(I.) (2.) (3.)

-

Of Mahabad Of Buddha Of Menu

-

.

.

_

6.

Books of Minos

7-

Books of

8.

Books of Seth and Enoeh

Remarks on

If.

books of ThotU

-

Hu

-

the sacred books

Cities and mountains of the

1.

books

2. '^The fable of the sacred

by the S.

Israelites

book is

...

-

_

ib.

-

150

_

.

-

_

.

.

-

,

-

-

ib.

-

-

^

-

151

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

152

-

154

the books are ascribed

155

-

-

Respecting the character of Seth, to

whom

CHAPTER Pagan

the invasion of Palestine

older than -

-

VI.

accounts of the deluge, as erroneously conjined by local

appi'Opriation to particular regions

The

pagan accounts of

partial deluges

have

in a

-

great measure originated

...

from the phraseology of the commemorative Mysteries Local floods produced by

I.

.

tlie

157

-

alleged submersion of a city or an island

-

ib.

-

159

J.

Tables respecting the island Atlantis

'2.

Fables respecting Samothrace

.

.

.

_

163

3.

Fables respecting Orchomenus

.

-

-

-

i67

4.

Celtic fable of the submersion of a city beneath a lake

-

-

170

}6o

CONTENTS.

XI

PAGE 5.

II.

Remarks on

tlie

siibuieislon of

Sodoin beueatli the Dead sea

172

Local floods produced by an irruption of the sea 1.

Fable respecting

tlie

island of the Pbieg)2e

Fable of the island Maurigasiiiia

2.

-

17G

-

-

_

ib.

.

.

.

179

III. Local floods

produced by the bursting of a lake without mention being made of the submersion of an island .

1.

Tradition artificial

of the Arabs

lake

of

-

Yaman

respecting

.

2. Tradition respecting tiie disruption of

.

the

bursting .

_

the British lake Llion

1.

2.

3.

-

Egyptian legends

-

-

(1.)

That of Prometheus

(2.)

That of Menes

(S.)

That of Phoroneus

-

-

'

.

.

lf).i

ib. ib.

-

195

-

.

.

(1.)

That of luachus

(2.)

That of Athens

-

(3.)

That of Corinth

-

(4.)

That of Deucalion

in

(5.)

That of Ogyges

(6.)

That of the Rhodian or Cretan Telchlnes

in Argolis

in

197 ib.

Thessaly

198

Beotia

_

196 ib.

199 .

BOOK

.

200 201

IV.

CHAPTER

I.

Concerning the identity and astronomical character of the great gods of the Gentiles . _

All

189

194

Greek legends

Cilician legend

-

ib.

185

3. Tradition of the North-Americans respecting the bursting of a lake IV. Local floods not marked either by the bursting of a lake or by the

•inking of an island

180

of an

205

the gods of the Gentiles resolve themselves into one psrson, the great universal father lb.

CONTENTS.

Xa

PAGE I.

The

ancient myihologists unanimously assert, that each of their gods equally the

Saturn

1.

2. Jupiter

4.

Bacchus

5.

Priapus

6.

Apollo

7.

Jauus

8.

Pan

9.

Hercules

or

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

Pluto

3.

---------»_---------

Sun

]

ib.

ib.

ib.

ib»

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

-.

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

-

207

-

-

-

-

-

Phanes

Amnuin

Esculapius, Asclepius

1

206

-

10. Vulcan, Hephestus, Phtha, 1

is

-

ib. ib.

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

ib.

Mercury, Hermes, Thoth, Herni-Anubis, Theutates, Tuisto, Twash-

2.

Tat, Datta, Buddha, Sacya

-

-

-

-

ib.

13. Mars, Ares, Theus-Ares

-

-

-

-

ib.

14. Osiris, Horus, Serapis

_

-

_

208

-

ib.

ta,

.....

15. Belus, Baal, Molech, Baal-Peor, Adramraelech, 16. Adonis, Attis

Dak-Po, Dagun, Pouti-Sat

17.

Dagon,

18.

Brahma, Vishnou, Siva

Siton,

19. Mithras

2a Hu, Beli,

-

BelatTicader, Abellion

_

Anammelech -

.

289

-

ib.

-

211 ib.

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

21. VitzHputzli

-

-

-

-

-

S12

22. Virachoca

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

n. The

ancient mythologists assert, that

all their

CHAPTER

gods are the same person

213

II.

Respecting certain remarkable opinions which the Gentiles entertained of the

I.

Sun

The Sun was viewed

-

-

-

-

-

215

as a mariner, placed either in a ship or in the ac-

knowledged symbol of a ship

.

-

-

-

ib.

CONTENTS.

Xui

PAGE 1.

Eg)iptian legends

_

-

-

.

.

glo

2.

Hindoo legends

-

-

-

_

.

gjg

3.

Greek legends

-

-

-

-

-

217

4.

Ship of the sphere

-

-

-

-

-

218

5.

Gate or door of

Sun

-

-

-

-

the

The Sun was thought to have been plunged into the ocean III. The Sun, wlien pursued by the ocean, took refuge in a floating II.

1.

Legend of

2.

Legend of the Grecian Apollo

3.

Legend of the Peruvian Virachoca

the Egyptian

Horus

-

island

ib.

219 ib.

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

220

-

-

-

221

IV. The Sun delighted to dwell on the top of a sacred mountain, which

had been V. The Sun was

lelt

dry by the retiring flood

bom

_

upon

earth

-

-

-

VI. The great god of the Gentiles, though acknowledged to be the Sun, yet positively declared to be a deified mortal

2.

Origin of astronomical hero-worship

What

oog

out of a floating egg, triplicated himself, and reigned

a sovereign prince

1.

.

.

particular

-

-

ib.

is

-

-

223

-

_

£25

man was venerated by the Gentiles in union with

the solar orb

_

_

.

VII. Aptness of the physical character of the Sun for the deified great father

-

. its

-

-

CHAPTER

.

228

union with that of

231

III.

Respecting the division of the gentile mythologists into two great

primeval sects

1.

Paganism

-

-

divides itself into the

two

sects of

the former being prior to the latter

.

.

..

233

Buddhism and Brahmenism, -

-

_

ib.

CONTENTS.

VIV

FAC U. The

least siicieiit of thein

of the lower

and

:

tiie

camiot have originated later than the building

more ancient seems

to

have been a step,

the progres-s of <;orruption, preparatory to the otker

IH. The

luiniixed Scythians

vhile

stiti'Hi,

mixed

tribes rather

extent of country, throughout which

stition

they

:

great father I.

Horus, Osiris, 1.

Horus

2. Osiris,

IV.

Bacchic or Saivic or Brahmenical super-

differed only in

the

viewed as reappearing

Isis

That person was the

in the great father

_

.

237

the adherents of both super-

mode.

-----......

Adam

235

236

professed

the great father, as exhibited

same person was equally venerated by stitions

is still

......

human character of

in the Osiric or

The

-

-

Buddhism

CHAPTER Respecting the

23*

the Brah-

aft'ected

.

_

menicul superstition

IV. Wide

-

were •peculiarly attached to the Buddhic super-

various

the

in

-

Argo, Danaus, Jason, Theba

Noah

ib.

-

.

_

238

_

_

_

239 240

-

and Typhon

-

248

4.

Priapus, Phanes, Baal-Peor, Dionusus, Silenus, Adonis

-

5.

Typhon,

.

250 252

6.

Proper character of Typhon

3. Theocrasical identity of Osiris

7.

Typhon, Ahriman, ther

-

is

-

.

the ocean at the time of the deluge

Siva, Corybas, viewed as the

253

murderer of a bro-]

255

Thammuz

.

_

-

-

-

256

Legend of Adopis

-

-

-

-

-

258

II. Adonis, 1.

Osiris, Seth, Sothi

CON'TKNTS.

-------------_.-..

C. Getiealogy of Adonis

lir.

Attis, Atys,

_

_

Esmuni

-

Meiies

IV.. Asclepius, Esculapius^

*

_

2G0

-

-

-

2G2

-

_

-

2G4'

-

2.

His descent into Hades

-

-

3.

His Orgies

-

_

4.

His ark

5.

His birth on mount

Meru

_

G.

His nurse Hippa or Nusa

7.

His genealogy

8.

His character

VI. Deo-Naush

is

26S

-

-

ib.

-

_

2(>j

_

.

_

267

_

_

_

_

ggg

-

.

.

_

-

-

269 270

-

--



-

_

2j9

-

His dilaceratiou by the Titans -

PAGE

_

V. Bacchus, Dioniisus 1.

XV

compounded of Noah and Adam

VII. Ishuren^Iswaia, Siva, Brahma, Vishnou, Crishna

ib.

272 27 -t

1.

[ndian Bacchus, Seba, Maidashuren, Siva

-

-

-

ib.

2.

Death, Brahma, Brumius, Vagis, Bagis

.

-

-

277

3.

Vishnoii, Narayan,

.

_

.

279

4.

Crishna

-

-

-

28i

The Trimurti or triad of Hindostan is composed of the three sons of Adam, viewed" as reappearing in the three sons of Noah VIII. The Trimurti of Hindostan is the same as the classical triad of Jupi-

2S3t

Tamas -

-

. -

5.

ter, 1.

Jupiter (1.)

2.

.

_

-

285

-

-

-

-

-

286

Cretan Jupiter

-

-

Jupiter was universally worshipped

(3.)

Jupiter-Sabazius

(4.)

Jupiter-Triophthalmus

Phito

_

287

-

29O 092

-

-

_

(4.)

Proserpine

(5.)

Muih, Dis, Mot, Mannus, Maotus

.

-

-

(1.)

Exploits of Neptune

(G.)

Eumo)pus, Chion^

Dwy van,

No'e, Acdd.)n

.

-

-

_

-

Styx,

.

Menu, Charon

293

.

294 ogj

-

298 299 30O

.... ....

(3.)

IIu, Dylan,

.

-

Cabiri of Samothrace and India

Neptune

-

-

------

The door of hell, the three judges, The helmet of invisibility

(2.)

IX.

.

(2.)

(1.)

3.

_

Neptune, and Pluto

-

-

.

-

-

_

-

-

-

-

302

-

-

-

-

ib.

_

-

-

\\j_

$03 304

.

CONTENTS.

XVI

PAGE X. American

gods

Ho

-

.

-

_

_

-

-

-

-

-

Tlaloc

-

1.

Yo,

2.

Vitzliputzli, Mexitli,

3.

Virachoca, Pacliacamac, Manco-Capac, Con, Tangatanga

-

XI. Otaheitean Ooro and

....

triad

-

CHAPTER Respecting the in the

name by claiming

2.

His character melts into

3.

Legend of Buddha

4.

Character of Buddha

that of

to

A

333

V.

333

-

-

-

-

336

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

339 340

-

341

......

342

Fo, Teeshoo-Lama, Taranath -

-

Buddhism

China

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

343

2.

Introduction of

3.

Legend of Fo-Hi

4.

Fo-Hi

5.

Ancient Buddhism must have been the religion of China from the

6.

Buddha-Datta

into

-

.....

Fo

or

Buddha

VI. Buddha of Cochin-China, Tonquio, Japan, and Tartary sects of Buddhists

330

-

-

as

328

-

Passage of the name Buddha into the name Fo

same

-

-

V. Buddha of China

the

ib.

.

.

IV. Buddha of Thibet and Boutan.

is

327

comparatively modern im-

be one of his Avatars

Buddha of Ceylon. Gautameh Somono-Codom, Baouth III. Buddha of Siam.

VII. Three

317

Vishnou and Menu-Satyavrata

II.

1

-

of the great Jather, as exhibited

Discordant opinions respecting him. postor usurped his

.

31

Buddhic or Thoihic or Hermetic or Samanean theo-

Buddha 1.

ib.

-

-.--.-...-.

human character

logy

I.

-

307

:

first

-

-

345

346 347 348

proper Buddhists, Jainists, and Arbanists.

Jain and Arhan are the same as

Buddha

-

-

-349

CONTENTS.

XVU

PAGE The

VIII.

various

titles

Buddha have been

of

coniinunicated to his votaries

1.

Enumeration of his

2.

Notice of the two prinaeval sects by Greek writers

349

titles

ib.

IX. Buddha of Iran. Aboudad, Mahabad X. Buddha of the Goths or Scythians 1. Woden is the same person as Buddha

350

-

-

_

352

-

-

_

354

-

-

.

ib.

2.

The name Woden

3.

Character of VVodeUj and points of resemblance between him and

Buddha XI. Buddha of 1.

is

same appellation

the

Voden or Poden

-

-

356

-

the Celts

Teutates, Hesus, Taranis

2.

Budd, Man, Arawu, Tat, Saman

3.

Buddhic

titles

as

.

.

.

-

-

-

_

.

are yet preserved in the

names of various Scottish

.

361 .

1.

2.

Head Head

of Osiris of

_

.

-

.

367

-

_

-

_

.

368

-

-

.

.

-

-

-

-

_

.

371

-

-

_

373

.

_

374

_

377

XIII. Janus or Jain

-

1.

His history and character

2.

His

and

366

-

Summanus

ship, his dove,

362

islets,

agreeably to the express testimony of Demetrius

XII. Summanus

360

his



ib.

369

-

ib.

mystic door

XIV. Vadimon, Vandimon

-

XV.

-

_

-

-

-

-

-

-

_

_

378

-

-

_

ib.

Terminus, Betylus, Cappotas

Xyi. Dagon

or Siton

1.

Oannes, Annedot

2.

Dogon, Dagun, Dak-Po, Doca

-

3.

Dago, Taurico

-

-

_

-

_

380

4.

Dagh-Dae

-

_

_

_

_

ib.

XVII. Hercules 1.

2.

_____ --_...

In the garden of the Hesperides he

He

identifies

rajah

is

himself with Buddha,

Adam

Dagon, Menu, or Dherma-

4.

He He

5.

Hercules-Ogmius, Hercules-Magusan.

3.

was worshipped was an

infernal

in

god

Terminus and Mercury

Egypt and Phenicia _

He

_

Idol.

VOL.

ir.

ib.

382 .

. XVIII. Mercury, Hermes 1. Wide extent of Mercurial stone-worship

Pag.

ib.

381

identifies

.

_

383

himself with

-

_

.

384

_

.

.

386

.

_

_

387

XVm

CONTENTS.

Identity of

2.

...... --..-. ....

Mercury and Buddha proved from

titles

PAGE

the identity of their

388

3.

Proved further by

4.

Fabulous history of Mercury

-

_

_

.

396

5.

Mercury was an

.

_

.

.

398

-

-

-

-

Phtha, Vulcan, Hephestus, Aphthas, Twashta

-

-

401

XIX. Thoth 1.

Taut of Phenicia

2.

Taut

XX. XXI.

or

arbitrary points of resemblance

infernal

-

Thoth of Egypt

Mendes, Pan

ib.

S99

.

.

.

405

-

.

.

.

.

ib.

-

.

-

-

_

ib.

-

_

.

.

_

40(5

Cupid, Cama, Eros, Caimis, Camasson, Pothos, Maneros, Pappas

407

Pan

2.

Era of Pan

Pan

3. Character of

.3.

He He He

4.

His genealogy

5.

Lamentation for Maneros

6.

Cupid and Psyche

2.

ib.

.

Phallic

1.

395

-

1.

XXII.

god

between them

was the

first-born lord of the Universe

was exposed is

the

same

at sea in

an ark

Buddha

as

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

-

ib.

_

_

_

-

409

-

-

-

-

ib,

-

-

-

.411

------

The bow of Cupid XXIII. Mithras 7.

1.

He

2.

His Mysteries, and

3.

Persian triads

-

was symbolized by

-

-

-

-

ib.

-

_

-

_

412 413

a bull, a serpent,

and a lion

-

-

ib.

from a rock

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

-414

birth -

-

417

2.

Cadmus. He is the same character as Cadam or Somono-Codom The hypothesis of Bochart respecting him Cadmus was venerated in many countries besides Phenicia -

3.

His fabulous history

XXIV. 1.

XXV.

.

Mars-Camulus or Cadmilus

415

ib.

.

_

-

-

42O

.

_

-

-

422

1.

He

-

-

423

2.

Respecting the universal worship of the sword-god

-

-

425

3.

Mars was

-

-

430

Respecting the birth of the Buddhic god from a virgin

-

431

XXVI. 1.

2. S.

was the same

Mars Buddha Fo-Hi

as

Mercury and Hercules

-

__..-. --_...

the piscine navicular great father

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

432 434

CONTENTS.

.----.-----

4. Mexitii

XIX

PAGE 434

5.

Vulcan or Phtlm

-

_

-

-

.

435

C).

Perseus

-

-

-

-

-

ib.

7.

Zingis

-

-

-

436

-

-

437

.

_

_

439

-

_

-

440

-

-

ib.

441

-

XXVII. Perseus various parts of the in 1. He was venerated 2. He was represented like Mercury 3. He was the solar god exposed in an ark

world

4. Elucidation of some particulars in his history

He

5.

was a

XXVIII. The 1.

They were

They ;

three in

-

-

-

-

-

442

number

.

.

_

-

444

their chief being the is

the

three Cabiri

;

same

as

XXIX. Memnon Memnon On The

2.

(1.)

is

as

and are

said to

Nilus or Oceanus

Wilcan or Phtha

;

be infernal

445

-

-

the three Cyclopes,

as the

--.-....... Memnon

marches

to

Cyclopes

in the forehead of the

same character

the

legend of

He

same

-

447

-

448

and the seven Cyclopes, as the seven Cabiri

Fable of the single eye

4.

1.

-

-

are ascribed to the era of the deluge,

Cyclops

3.

-

-

giant, like

Cyclopes

2.

gods

Buddha

ib.

as

the oriental

Troy from

Mahiman

_

.

-

the African Ethiopia

or

ib.

Maiman-

_

-

449 450

-

-

ib.

who, to (2.) The difficulty of this story was felt by ancient writers mend the matter, would bring him out of Asiatic Ethiopia and exhibited just (3.) The Africans however themselves claimed him ;

....

45

;

as decisive circumstantial evidence of his being their countryman,

the Asiatics could do (4.)

He

is

also said to

have been a sovereign of Egypt

represented by a marvellous gigantic statue (5.)

The

perplexities in his

.

.

some

A discussion (1.) ,

He

vvas

of the legend of

give

_

-

-

up

all

his

-

4,57

-

458

-

459

-----the great god of the

therefore worshipped in Asiatic

Memnon

453

-

(6.) Utter impossibility of adapting his history to that of Troy

3.

452

and he was

-

history are such, that

expedition to Troy in toto

:

as

Chusas or Ethiopians; and was

their

settlements, whether African or ib.

(2.) Discordant opinions respecting the complexion of Buddha und

Memnon,

both

in ihe east

and

in the

west

-

-

-

4;)2

CONTENTS.

XX

PAGE (3.)

He was

(4.)

The

the

same

Osymandyas or Ismandes or

as

great father and the great

(,5.)

Respecting the

(6.)

The

pillars

funereal birds of

466

mother were represented by two

Various instances of

gigantic statues.

-

Sesostris

-

this superstition

467

and era of Sesostris

-

-

472

Memnon

-

-

476

were his

CHAPTER

priests

VI.

Respecting the union of the two great superstitions in the worship

of Jagan-Nath, Saturn, and Baal

As

the

------

same object was venerated

in

both superstitions, we find them at

length uniting together in the worship of

Baal I.

Jagan-Nath, Bal-Rama, Subhadra 1.

The worship

of Jagan-Nath

contending sects

2.

is

(2.)

Jagan-Nath

the

as either of

same both

as

-

He

is

adored

forms of these

conjunction with

deities united

(2.)

As

Om

The

483

-

-

ib.

-

.

.

434

The

But

Om

or

Awm

was

the

by whatever name he might be venerated

ib.

therefore, all sects agree in worshipping the triplicated her.

_

_

form of the god has been contrived on principles well -

to the ancient mythologists (4.)

ib.

-

produce the cypher Pranava, which repre-

maphroditic Jagan-Nath (3.)

-

-

Bal-Rama and Subhadra.

sents the holy monosyllabic divine name. triplicated great father,

ib.

Vishnou and Siva, but not the

them exclusively

in

,

Nature of the worship of Jagan-Natli (1.)

ib.

-

-

Antiquity of his temple in Orissa is

-

confessedly a point of union for all the -

.

Jagan-Nath, Saturn, and

-

-

(1.)

same

482

-

-

Jagan-Nath

is

the

same

as

Suman-Nath

_

435

known

-

-

-

-

-

-

486 488

CONTENTS.

The

(.5.)

tice II.

1

-----

of the Gentiles,

a disgraceful mixture of homicide and obscenity

is

Saturn, though immediately connected with the Jupiter,

Neptune, and Pluto, yet

identifies

god of the Buddhic superstition

Ua

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

490

Remphan

-

-

-

ib.

-

-

491

(1.)

Chiun, Chivan, Che-Kya,

(3.)

Satyaur-Ata, Sei-Suther, Seater, day of Saturn

----------

The name Saturn is most probably Babylonic or Chaldaic The character of Saturn proves him to be Noah viewed as a reappear-

(1.)

Adam

Character of Saturn as

(2.)

III, Baal,

2.

-

-

-

Character of Saturn as

Molech

Proofs of

Proof of

his identity with his identity with

Adam

Noah

-

Saturn

His

ib.

-

-

ib.

-

-

-

494 500

-

-

-

ib.

Jagan-Nath and Buddha from

his peculiar -

502

cliaracter ascertained from the hitherto imperfectly-understood sar-

casm, which the prophet Elijah employs in addressing his ministers.

Fag.

493

-

worship and sacred footstep on the top of the mount of Olives 3.

ib.

triad of

himself with the principal

(2>)

ance of

1

-

Brahmenical

489

-

II,

(4.)

2.

PAGE

present worship of Jagan-Nath, accorfling to the general prac-

Cronus

Saturn,

XXI

Idol,

VOL.

II.

ib.

/

XXll

EXPLANA ION OF THE FIGURES IN PLATE II. i

Fi£C.

1.

Vislinou floating in deep slumber on the folds of the great navicular sea-serpent,

while the whole earth

is

covered with water

BrahuKi springing from his navel

:

in the calix

Lacshmi chafing of the lotos.

his

From

feet

:

and

an Indian

painting in Moor's Hind. Panth. pi. 7. y.

Buddha

sleeping during the intermediate period between

statue .3.

Buddha

1

two worlds.

From

his

8 cubits long in his temple at Oogul-Bodda.

seated in a contemplative posture

;

of him, the mystic trident on his head.

bearing, as in the Inst

with the great father in the centre supplying to his statue in his

temple

at

representation

This represents the lunar ship Argha it

the place of a mast.

From

Oogul-Bodda,

4.

Two

/).

Crishna, an incarnation of Vishnou, with his three companions, his flocks, and his

colossal statues of the great father and the great

Memnon

in the

Thebais.

mother near the palace of

From Norden.

herds, taking shelter from an impending danger, in a vast serpent; wiiich the

hero-god had formed for that special purpose. pi.

G.

Front view of a Cherub, as described by Ezekiel.

7.

Side view of a Cherub, as described by Ezekiel.

8.

Ardha-Nari, or the hermaphroditic god produced by Isi,

From Moor's Hind. Panth.

64.

Origin of the

fabulous Amazon.

ilie

lateral

From Moor's Hind.

union of Isani and

Panth.

pi.

24.

\

THE ORIGIN OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY. BOOK

Pag.

Idol.

III.

VOL.

II.

CHAPTER

I.

Respecting the Fable of the Four Ages.

j\n

ancient notion has very generally prevailed both in the east and in

the west, that there have

been four successive ages,

symbolized by the

four metals of gold, silver, brass, and iron, during whirh ally

mankind gradu-

degenerated from a state of peace and holiness to one of violence and

But

wickedness.

form

:

served,

which

this notion is

in the fables that

which at in

reality

first

not always exhibited precisely in the same

have been founded upon

might seem to involve a

it

a variety

may be

ob-

sort of contradiction, but

was only the natural consequence of the doctrine of an

endless succession of similar worlds.

The

variety

is this

:

the series of the four ages

the creation, and sometimes from the deluge

are joined together, the series of the latter series of the

former terminates.

At

;

is

sometimes deduced from

when

so that,

commences

the two fables

precisely

where the

the head of each series however the

great father, in the west denominated Crotius or Saturn, and by the oriental

Hindoos Menu,

manner they

is

universally placed

:

so that the four ages, in whatever

are reckoned, always begin from the days of the great father

whence the golden age isproperly the age of the great at the

commencement of a new world.

father's manifestation

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

4 BOOK

III.

Now,

since world

was believed

sive manifestation of the great father

the

same personage

at the

and since each succes-

to succeed world,

was esteemed only a reappearance of

opening of each mundane system

the golden age,

;

being the age of the great father, was of course placed at the beginning of every world

and hence we perceive the cause, why the

:

ages, though always

deduced from Saturn or Menu,

duced from the epoch of the creation and

is

of the four

series

yet sometimes de-

at other times

from that of

tlie

flood. I.

The

between the creation and

fable itself properly relates to the period

the deluge

;

for the golden age,

the days of man's innocence and happiness in

who

mythologists,

can only be applied to

in absolute strictness,

Paradise

:

but the ancient

delighted to trace a resemblance between the two worlds

as tending to establish their favourite doctrine of an endless succession of per-

mundane systems, perceived, that after the flood there was what might be termed a new golden age. This was indeed but a faint and imperfectly similar

fect

image of

predecessor

its

purpose, and as such

They

:

yet the similitude was sufficient to serve their

was eagerly caught

it

observed, that the antediluvian world

happiness and innocence ; that the

he subsisted

a simple

in

state

first

on the

ject either to the artificial vices or

matters rapidly

agriculturist

;

period of

and that

of the earth, without being sub-

restraints of civil society.

They

was speedily corrupted

;

further

and that

passed from bad to worse, until at length a profligate and

lawless generation the corruption

commenced with a

man was an

fruits

observed, that his primeval innocence

was swept away by the waters of the

was gradual,

it

division of the period during

was

at.

was not unnatural

which

it

took place

aptly represented by the noblest metal, so

to

Now,

flood.

make a

since

chronological

and, as the age of purity

:

was an obvious idea

it

to

describe the subsequent progressive deterioration of manners by three metals,

all inferior to gold,

preceded

and each successively of

value than that which

less

it.

Such were the inclined to stop.

followed by a

first

observations of the ancients

The

;

but here they were

iron age ushered in the deluge

new world and

a

had commenced with a golden

new order of age,

things.

so likewise

;

little

and the deluge was

As

the old world then

must the new

:

and they

THE ORtGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. found, that

S

They observed, when compared to

a certain extent, was actually the case.

this, to

that the renovated system began with a period, which, the age of violence and

licentiousness that had immediately preceded

it,

might well be deemed a golden period of innocence and happiness, a period of restored integrity and of renewed siniplicity of manners. They observed, that the first

man

of this reproduced world, like the

world, was an agriculturist

;

gion of the globe which his predecessor had tenanted alike

from the vices and restraints of advanced

fi-eedom of rural

And

;

of the former

same Paradisiacal and that he

too,

re-

free

enjoyed the artless

society,

and subsisted on the productions of

life,

man

first

that he dwelt in the very

all-

bountiful nature.

they observed, that a deterioration of manners, which, in point both of

violence and licentiousness, bore a striking resemblance to the progressive

corruption of the antediluvians, speedily succeeded the golden age of the

Hence

great postdiluvian father.

no

less

would

than before

similarly

it

commence with

followed by those of II.

:

But here an obvious

was assumed, that every new world

it

a period of gold, which would similarly be

and

brass,

silver,

iron age was succeeded

the four ages were placed after the flood,

and hence

iron.

In the antediluvian world, the

difficulty arose.

in the tenth generation

new world

forthwith

commenced with

was easy

to specify the age of gold,

the

:

by the

flood;

but, in that

new

and a new

series

world, though

it

and though the progress of corruption

soon introduced what might well be esteemed an age of iron, no deluge occurred in the tenth generation, nor did another

place of

its

who

trifling nature,

which they,

similar worlds,

had to contend with.

and they found themselves rolled away,

mundane system occupy

Here then was a

lately renovated predecessor.

difliculty of

the

no

advocated the doctrine of a succession of

living in

They had pointed out an age of

an age of iron

:

gold,

but the tenth generation

and the world which they mhabited was destroyed neither by a

by a deluge of

flood of water nor

age of iron to be fixed

?

Had

extended to an indefinite length decisively, that

it

it ?

had commenced

Where then were the limits of the not as yet commenced or was it to be The manners of the times proved but too

fire.

;

:

and the

afforded a sufficient argument tor those, that the beginning of a

new

series

who

arrival of the tenth generation

delighted in analogical deduction,

might be expected, and that the reforma-

tion of another golden age might be

hoped

for.

cuap.

t.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOT,ATRV.

6

Now,

had occasion elsewhere

as I have already

this tenth generation

to observe,'

precisely in

a partial reform did take place, and an awful event oc-

curred which by those in

a season to have

vicinity appears evidently for

its

been mistaken for a destruction of the world by a deluge of

The

fire.

[ireter-

natural call of Abraham from Ur of Chald^a must have excited very general and, in the then early state of colonization, must Iiave been attention :

known throughout a

great part of the imperfectly peopled east;

because

Chaldea was the central point from which the rudiments of each future nation proceeded, and because most probably as yet they had by no means reached

The knowledge

the utmost extremities of the vast Asiatic continent. call

would be yet further spread by the wandering

himself. settled

And society,

to

life,

which withdrew him from the

this life,

and which

of

which he devoted artificial

habits of

some measure presented an image of

in

primeval simplicity of the golden age

the

united with the pristine in-

this life,

:

liis

tegrity and holiness of his manners, would readily suggest to those,

who

were already on the tiptoe of expectation, that Abraham was a reappearance of the great father, and that with him a

The

ing.

new age

of gold was

now commenc-

idea would be strengthened by the miraculous destruction of

Sodom and Gomorrha

and,

;

when

was found that the subversion of those

it

w as neither the end of the world nor the prelude to it, a new modificaof the fable of the four ages would be the natural consequence.

cities

tion

This

fable,

in

manners from the

its

described the gradual deterioi'ation of

original state,

commencement to

that each successive world

a

its

new

destruction either by

series of ages

to be not altogether true in matter of fact

must be contrived, which might mi"ht prevent the necessity of accordingly was devised

:

and taught,

;

would experience the very same deterioration,

which would regularly bring on

new world would usher in

the termination of a world

and, since

its

abandonment. it

or water,

when

a

but now the theory was found

and some

preserve

still

its total

;

:

fire

arrangement

different

plausibility,

and which

Such an arrangement

had been perceived that the postdi-

luvian iron age did not precede a second destruction of the world, but only

ushered in a partial reformation and a faint image of the golden age in one particular family (the national golden age of the people Israel) '

Vide supra

b.

i.

c. 2. sect. xiii.

;

it

was then

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

7

asserted, that the four ages succeeded each other in perpetual rotation, that

the iron age of one series that there

was ever followed by the golden age of another,

were naany such cycles

each world, and

in the duration of

that,

although an iron age would at length be assuredly the harbinger of a general

many

many

successive

degeneracies, previous to the awful catastrophe of a complete

mundane

deluge, there would be

reformations of manners and

dissolution.

This age

is

They

the doctrine of the Hindoos.

commence with

invariably

make

their golden

the appearance of a IVIenu, and they invariably suppose

the golden age to be followed by three others of progressive corruption but, in

each Manwantara or mundane reign of a Menu, they place seventy-

one cycles of four ages each at the

;

and

end of the iron age of the

complete Manwantara.

In

each cycle begin with a

this

Menu

:

believe, that every

last cycle,

that

is

arrangement, the for they

world

to say, difficulty

is

destroyed only

at the is,

end of the

how

to

make

were well aware, that the proper

golden age was the Paradisiacal age of the

first

Menu

or great father; and

they were no less aware, that the true epoch of the great father's appearance

was the commencement of each Manwantara or of each grand cosmical revolution. If then the great father was manifested in the golden age at the beginning of every Manwantara, immediately after the retiring of the inter-

mediate deluge, on the waters of whicK he had floated in a state of deep meditative slumber

:

ii

such was the true period of his manifestation,

golden age was invariably his peculiar age^ and seventy-one golden ages in the course of each

if

if

the

yet there were no less than

Manwantara; how, under these

circumstances, could evcrj/ golden age be the age of a

Menu, when

his real

era was the period immediately after the intermediate deluge or that Jirst

golden age with which

all

new worlds

are supposed constantly to open

?

The way, in which they managed the difficulty that necessarily resulted from they maintained, that every the new modification of the fable, was this Manwantara or entire mundane revolution was the reign of every Menu over his own proper world but that, as every INIanwantara comprized sevent}':

;

one cycles of four ages, and as in times of impurity,

and disappears

each

it

Menu

was incongruous

to place a holy

personage

only reigns personally in each golden age

in the three corrupt ages that follow

it,

continuing to dive

'^"^'-

'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

8 BOOK

III.

and emerge

a water-fowl (such

like

comparison)

is tlieir

of

until the close

Maiiwantara.'

his

It

is

obvious, that this opinion involves the belief, that every reformer of

mankind, who should age,

up

start

was a reappearance of

at the close of

Menu

what might be deemed an iron

or the great father.

Such, accordingly,

was the precise notion which the Phenicians, who were a colony of Scythic Hindoos, entertained of Abraham, as may easily be collected from the

They termed him Cronus

mythic history of Sanchoniatho. like

Menu was

shewed, what person they

sufficiently this Ilus

born

the proper appellation of the great father

once reigned

literally intended,

Now

circumcision.*

should they give him the

by

and yet they asserting, that

who was

that he first introduced the rite of

upon Abraham the title of Ilus or

the bestowing

him a reappearance of Menu

proves, that they esteemed

:

that he sacrificed his only son

in Palestine,

him of the nymph Anobret, and

to

or Ilus, which

name ? And

this opinion,

;

Menu

otherwise,

why

which they entertained of

him, exactly accords both with the speculations of their Indo-Scythic fore-

and with the

fathers,

Abraham's own

peculiarities of

in the tenth generation after the flood

the tenth descent after the creation

deemed

;

like

:

Noah,

history.

He flourished

or Menu-Satyavrata, did in

he lived at the end of what would be

:

Noah

the postdiluvian iron age, as

vian iron age

as

did at the end of the antedilu-

Noah, he had communication with God, and was a

preacher of righteousness

:

and,

like

Noah, he was a reformer of corrupt

manners, and was therefore considered as the introducer of the golden age of a new cycle.

We

shall

now

see the reason,

tenth generation after the flood

pagan

writers,

why is

the circumstance of his living in the

noticed so industriously by those ancient

who have mentioned

him.

Berosus and Eupolemus are alike

curious in specifying this genealogical particular and in dwelling on the juslice

and uprightness of Abraham.'

no doubt

but

;

it

was not a

record such particulars.
and

jfiere

love of accuracy, which induced them to

The appearance his

ii. p. 112, 126. Joseph. Ant. Jud. lib.

of

Abraham

eminent charactei *

Asiat. Res. vol. ^

In doing so they are 'perfectly accurate

i.

c. 7.

in the

for justice

tenth post-

and

integrity,

Euseb. Praep. Evan. lib. i. c. 10. lib. Euseb, Praep. Evan. lib. ix. c. 17.

iv. c.

l6.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. caused him to be deemed a new manifestation of

honourably distinguished,

by the

title

in tlie

writings both of

of Sadik or the just vian

in the tenth generation,

and

and

:

this

9

great fatlner

tlie

who

;

is

Moses and Sanchoniatho,

appearance of

his precisely

character which he bore of justice, are

this

mentioned by Berosus and Eupolemus, because to these points the atten-

who deemed him a new Cronus or Menu, was

tion of his contemporaries,

particularly directed.

Such then was the manner,

in

which originated the theory of many suc-

mundane

cessive cycles of the four ages in the course of each

Finding that in the tenth postdiluvian

revolution.

generation the then state of

the

world corresponded with the character of the iron age, finding however that

no deluge came to sweep away mankind from off the face of the earth, and yet finding that a just vailing iniquities

:

man

then arose to bear his testimony against the pre-

the ancient mythologists of the east

were reduced to

adopt the supposition, that the iron age was not always the harbinger of a flood

when one

but that,

;

menced with

cycle of four ages had expired,

the appearance of a

Menu

and with an attempt

another com-

at reformation,

which in some measure revived the integrity of the golden or Saturnian age.

Agreeably tion of

to

such a theory, the Hindoos are wont to esteem the manifesta-

any remarkable character the reappearance of a

or a Salivahana,

and to reckon

Thus

all

which

titles

Menu

or a

are descriptive of one and the

this manifestation the

commencement of a new

Buddha

same person,

series of ages.

the oriental heretics early corrupted Christianity, by pretending that

Jesus was a Buddha or Salivahana

was thought Jesus and

:

thus the Arabian impostor

to be another Salivahana

Mohammed

Mohammed

and thus the appearance both of

:

was equally said to constitute a new chronological

era.'

Such a notion was the more plausibly adopted by those philosophizing converts of the east,

who sought

to engraft

Christianity

upon the old stock of

Paganism, because the evangelical prophet has foretold the birth of the Messiah in language borrowed from the imagery of the golden or Paradisiacal age.

The

future Saviour of

face of the earth,

and

mankind was

to introduce afresh the reign of equity

See Asiat, Res. vol.

Pag.

Idol.

to destroy the wicked from

is.

p.

212

ct infra, vol. x.

VOL. U.

p.

27

oft"

the

and righteous-

et infra.

B

*''**''

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

10 BOOK

III.

Justice

jjggg

was

The

his reins.

to be the girdle of

lamb; and the leopard was mysterious infant series of ages,

was to

who was

to lie

down with

vainly

deemed

on

to play, with perfect safety,

like the

:

was

that holy

Menu

the

child,

of a fresh

the lion, and the fatling

and was

;

The cow and

fearlessly

the bear were

Destruction was

mountain of Jehovah

religious knowledge,

;

which, hill

of

boundless as the interminable

sweep away every remnant of corruption, and should

diffuse itself over the surface of the

whole

earth.'

similar idea of an age of iron being succeeded by an age of gold

carried likewise into the west it,

joung

or Ida of the Hindoos, was a transcript of the sacred

and a flood of

diluvian ocean, should

A

calf,

the hole of the asp

to eat straw like the ox.

unknown throughout

Meru

Paradise

the lion

:

A

new-born

on the den of the cockatrice.

to feed together

again to be

faithfulness the girdle of

the kid.

the

band the

to lead with one

was

lay his hand

and

loins,

liis

wolf once more, as of old in Eden, was to dwell with the

and the

:

poet,

who most

was

distinctly exhibits

has been equally indebted to the mythological speculations of the oriental

sages and the glowing imagery of the

Hebrew

The PoUio

prophet.

of Virgil,

though replete with allusions to that mystic theology in which he was so profoundly versed,

is

Isaiah, that I think

yet so strongly tinged with the peculiar phraseology of

it

only not demonstrable that he had read and availed

himself of the Greek translation of the Jewish Scriptures.

In

this extra-

ordinary poem, he celebrates the expected birth of a wonderful child,

was destined

to put

who

an end to the age of iron and to introduce a new age of

gold.

The grand of one

last period,

series

sung by the Sibylline prophetess,

of ages, that

mundane

is

nmo arrived: and

which recurs again and again

series

Now

revolution, begins afresh.

in the

propitious on the birth of a boy iron,

and introduce throughout

;

who

the xvhole

shall the herds no longer dread the '

4

a

:

now a new

thou, Lucina, smile

close the

present age of

world a new age of gold.

fury of

Isaiah xi.

Do

holiness.

will bring to

S,

course

the virgin Astrea returns

from heaven ; and the primeval reign of Saturn recommences race descends from, the celestial realms of

the

Then

the lion, nor shall the poison

of

JHE ORIGIN OF PAGAy IDOLATRY. the serpent any longer be

formidable

every venomous animal, and every

:

deleterious plant, shall perish together.

the grape shall distil

hang

in

11

Thejitlds shall be yellow with corn,

ruddy clusters from the bramble, and honey shall

spontaneously from the rugged oak.

The universal globe

the blessings of peace, secure under the mild sway of

shall enjoy

new and

its

divine

sovereign.

Thus,

and licentiousness, was the golden age

after a long period of rapine

appear again, and the ever revolving cycle to commence afresh

to

:

thus

accurately does the mythological poet express the sentiments of the oriental philosophers.

Nor

is

this all

:

while he exhibits to us the doctrine of successive cycles

occurring throughout

also at that great catastrophe,

which closed the

followed by a second imperfect age of gold.

every

mundane system terminates with a

the great father floats in the ship

Argha

According

doves, until they are manifested at the

the

Argha of the Hindoos

is

the

to

Hindoos,

deluge, on the surface of which :

and,

when

the waters retire, he

for

a season the form of

new world, as renovated human race.

commencement of

and through them of the

the parents of three sons

liints

and which was

real iron age»

and the vessel which had sustained him assume

Now

Manwantara, he

vast duration of a whole

tlie

the

palpably the Argo of the Egyptians and

the classical writers: consequently, the fictitious voyage of the

other than the diluvian voyage of the

Argha or Ark.

Hence

Argo

Virgil,

is

no

true to

the doctrine of a succession of similar worlds, in each of which every event

was but a

repetition of a parallel former event, tells us, that,

series of ages

commences

when

afresh with that of gold, there shall

Argo manned with chosen heroes and another Tiphys

to steer

it

the great

be another safely over

the mighty deep, another eminent attempt at navigation, another beginning

of

civil society,

III.

The

and another Achilles

to destroy another Ilium.

several descriptions, which are given of the golden age, prove

very clearly, that, however

it

may have

been afterwards applied to represent

period immediately subsequent to the flood,

tlie

its real

prototype was the

age of innocence and happiness in Paradise. 1

.

Plato informs us, that, in the

ordained of God, there were neither

first

arrangement of things wliich was

human

politics,

nor the appropriation

^^*^'^-



THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

12

'"

of wives and children; but that

all

lived

in

common upon

productions of the earth.

They had abundance of

they were blessed with a

so rich, that

soil

it

and

trees

brought forth those

fruits

open

beasts

and they associated together without shame

air,

They conversed, not only with each

ness. :

yet

God was

their special guardian

provided them with

food, as

domestic animals.

He

an ancient fable aside,

until

Though

:

have become

men

are

;

their

and

:

spon-

time in

in a state

of naked-

other, but likewise

with the

and by a peculiar interposition

now wont

to provide for the inferior

mentions, that he had learned these particulars from

and concludes with saying, that such matters must be

some meet

it is

of Genesis

fruits

They spent

taneously and without the labour of cultivation. the

the exuberant

laid

interpreter of thehi should be revealed.'

not impossible, that Plato

in the

course of his travels

may

acquainted with the writings of ]\Ioses, and that the exordium

may

be the ancient fable to which he alludes, yet I doubt w hether

these opinions were exclusively borrowed from the Pentateuch

;

I

should

rather be inclined to believe, that, if ever the philosopher did indeed meet

with that venerable book, he was struck with finding in

it

a narrative that

remarkably accorded with the traditions which had been handed down by -

own

ancestors.

of uncertainty

;

his

That he ever perused the book of Genesis, must be a matter but, that he received his knowledge of the Paradisiacal age

from the legends of

his country, is indisputable,

declares that such was the case.

because he himself positively

Our forefathers,

immediately after the first revolution,

says he,

who sprang up

delivered these things unto us.

knowledge therefore was traditionally derived from

His

his Hellenic progenitors

:

and he wrote only from the common stock of information equally possessed by

all his

inquiring contemporaries.

speaks, can only, as

it

The

appears to me, be the deluge.

that Plato's notions of a primitive state of

or

may

great revolution, of which he here It follows therefore,^

happy innocence, whether we may

not suppose them to have been corrected and modified by an acquain-

tance with the divinely inspired theology of the Hebrews, were yet originally received, vians.

down

the stream of unbroken tradition, from the

first

post-dilu-

That he meant the age of Paradise by the golden period which he

so particularly describes,

is

manifest from

which I have already had occasion •

to notice.

one remarkable circumstance

He

Plai. Polit. p. 271, 272.

asserts,

that the deprava-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAhT IDOLATRY. by which

tion of the soul,

commenced this

was reduced

it

at the close of the

That

2.

however from

it

must

account of the

Plato's

are well assured, that

The age

peri6d was received traditionally,

first

might have been improved by extrinsical information, appears

coincidence with other similar narratives both in prose and

its

vve

scribe M'hat he calls

mode

tiie

ancient

appropriated to

own

its

of living

among

peculiar ancestors.

to this writer, were born near to the gods,

most holy

lived

modern race of

age. 3.

:

so that,

the Greeks, but

what

which every nation spe-

The

men, according

first

were of a most excellent nature,

when compared with

the degenerate

mortals, they might well be esteemed a golden generation.

that ti/ne, nothing

felicity

lives

in verse.

from Porphyry, undertook to de-

learn

really the life of the primeval antediluvian age

cially

At

we

inevitably be the fabled age of gold.

Dicearchus the Peripatetic, as

and

Now

depravation took place at the end of the Paradisiacal age.

therefore of Paradise

was

a state of spiritual bondage,

to

golden age.'

13

which had

life

was slaughtered

which then prevailed, the poets borrowed

:

and, from the universal

their pictures of the

golden

This age, Dicearchus adds, was the age of Cronus or Saturn.*

With such

accredited traditions agree the legendary

accounts of the

poets.

When gods and

mortal men, says Hesiod, were Jirst born together, the golden age commenced, the precious gift of the deities who acknowledged

Cronus as

from tormenting unknown. of disease

Mankind then led the and exempt from labour and

their sovereign. cares,

of the gods, free sorrow. Old age was life

Their limbs were braced with a perpetual vigour

were

unfelt.

When

at length the hour of

;

and the

evils

dissolution arrived,

death assumed the mild aspect of sleep, and laid aside all his terrors. blessing

was

Every The fruits of the earth sprang up spontaneousli/ Peace reigned : and her companions were happiness and

their oxvn.

and abundantly. pleasure.^

The manner,

in

which he accounts

for the

both clearly points out the period alluded

upon

it

the marks of primitive tradition. '

'

lies.

Oper.

et dier.

to,

this blissful condition,

and bears strongly impressed

Originally, says he, the tribes of *

Plat. Polit. p. 231.

change from

lib.

Porph. de abstin. lib. ver. 108 119.

i.



iv. sect.

2.

THE ORIGIN

14 nooK

III.

^g„

lived Upon

the earth, free

PAGAN IDOLATRy.

01"

from

and labours and

those evils

diseases

but the Jirst woman, endowed by the gods with

which protiuce old age:

every accmpUshment, yet destined to be the ruin of prying man, opened a

fatal casket, and

out miseries and calamities innumerable.

let

when her mischievous curiosity was and latidwere of the

?wzv alike replete

with

late,

but sea

evil; hope alone remaified at the

bottom

casket.^

I think

it

evident, that this legend contains a disguised history of the

for the whole connection, in which

Hence

such a supposition.

am

I

Cluverius, that that hope, which is

Too

replaced the lid:

satisfied, she

it

stands,

seems imperiously

said to

is

have been

once bruise the head of the serpent and be offered up

Hesiod

account, which Ovid gives of the golden age,

same primeval

the

:

simplicity,

are equally celebrated by the

:

not disposed to censure the conjecture of left

alone in the casket,

the never-forgotten hope of redemption through a Saviour

The

fall

demand

to

Roman

who

should at

as a sacrifice for sin.* is

but a transcript from

and the same universal happiness,

bard as essential characteristics of the

ancient reign of Saturn. 4.

A

The

similar idea occupied the

first

minds of our Gothic ancestors.

inhabitants of the world, according to the usual system of the

pagan nations which elevated the great father and his children to the rank of demon-gods, were considered by them as something more than human.

Their abode was a magnificent hall

The

of love, joy, and friendship.

glittering with burnished gold, the

ed of the same precious material; and the age of golden. piness,

which they were destined not long

innocence was soon contaminated.

integrity

In

itself

acquired the denomination

Such was the happiness of the primitive race of mortals

of the giants

and

and, by

;

a hap-

The blissful period of women arrived from the country

Certain

their seductive blandishments,

corrupted the pristine

purity.*

this tradition,

female agency •

;

to enjoy.

we may

observe, as well as in that of the fabulous Pan-

dora, the introduction of sin at the close of the golden age

'

mansion

very meanestof theirutensils were compos-

:

but

it

Hes. Open et dier. Ovid. Metam. lib.

is

ascribed to

seems probable, that the two legends do not relate to lib.

i.

i.

vcr.

ver.

59—105.

89— 112,

*

Cluver. Germ. Ant. p. 225.

* Edda. Fab.

vii.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. precisely the

same circumstance.

prototype of

the fatal curiosity

the country of the giants, and

The

pure line of mortals, can scarcely the

fail

is

but the arrival of

:

the obvious

women from

m ith a distinct and more

intercourse

tlieir

Eve

transgression of

of Pandora

15

of bringing forcibly to our recollection

maniages of the sons of Seth with the daughters of Cain, which were the

principal cause of the universal depravity of the antediluvians.' 5.

The same

belief in a primitive state of holiness

may

be traced no less

distinctly in the fables of Ilindostan.

There can arise

little

words of Mr. Maurice, but

doubt, to adopt the

that by the Satya age or age of perfection, the golden age of classical

Brahmens

the

mytliology,

obscurely

and happiness enjoyed by man

allude

Paradise.

in

to

the state of perfection

It

is

impossible

to explain

•what the Indian xiriters assert, concertiing the uiiiversal purity of

and

the luxurious

and unbounded plenty prevailing

among

and

all the orders

in that primitive era,

Justice, truth, philanthropy,

without this supposition.

classes

manners

were then practised

There was then no extortion,

of mankind.

no circumvention, no fraud, used in their dealings with one another. tual oblations smoked on the altars of the Deity

praises

and every heart glowed with gratitude

;

;

Perpe-

every tongue uttered

to the

Supreme Creator.

The gods, in token of' their approbation of the conduct of mortals, condescended frequently to become incarnate and to hold personal converse zvith the yet undepraved race

to instruct

;

own sublime functions

arid

them

in arts

pure nature ; and

the economy of those celestial regions,

translated when

diately

Nor

is

this

to Strabo, held

much

the lapse of the

first

the

among

On ing

life.

the Hindoos:

Calanus, according particularizing

Formerly, ;

and

said he,

abundance,

kinds of wickedness; insomuch Gen.

vi.

2, 4.

la-

corn of all sorts abounded

the fountains pouredforth streams,

some of milk, some of honey, some of nine, and some of

to this luxurious

'

which they were to be imme-

same language, with the addition of

as plentifully as dust docs at present TiOter,-

make them acquainted uith

race and the consequent necessity of procuring by

bour the necessaries of

some of

to

sciences ; to unveil their

of their terrestrial probation cvpired^

the period

notion of late origin

into

and

man became

that Jupiter, disgusted *

and fell

corrupt,

zvith

Hiit. of Hind. vol.

i.

oil.

into all

such a scene, p.

371.

16 BOOK

III.

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

THF,

abolished to be

the.

and permitted the

ancient order of things,

necessaries of

life

medium of labour? A tradition thus cirbe little more than a transcript of the scriptural

obtained only through the

me

cumstantial seems to

to

account of Paradise, of the

Adam

and of God's denunciation against

fall,

that the ground should be cursed for his sake

and that

in the

sweat of his

face he should eat bread.'

The Hindoos sometimes express the in a figurative manner. The former become

salt

and

To

the preceding

mankind.'

sins of

Hindoo legends may properly be subjoined the

curious traditional fable of the Jains, a sect

under the

These suppose,

them

Brahmenists, that the great

like the

The

of

tlie classical

teristics,

ing

first

Menu

or

periods, :

and,

the subdivisions a cycle of

but, in addition to the

:

a remarkable particular

we

is

and that the people, who then

commonly

specified charac-

introduced into the account of

men

are told, that

flourished,

Dur-

it.

subsisted on the produce of ten

no kings; that

that there were

celestial trees;

mundane

to all eternity

of these ages exactly corresponds with the golden age

writers

continuance,

its

and again

among

they particularly notice

also,

four ages.

who worship Buddha

of Jain-Eswara.

title

as well as their subdivisions, revolve again like

either wholly disappeared,

and the colour of the white island has been

bitter:

changed into black on account of the 6.

(according to their allegorical

seas

and wine, have

writers) of milk, butter, honey,

or have

deterioration of the Paradisiacal state

all

were abundantly blessed

;

were distinguished by the appellation

of the supremely happy inhabitants of the earth.*

Perhaps

it is

almost superfluous to observe,

celestial trees has manifestly

that the notion of these ten

been borrowed from the fruit-bearing trees of

the semi-celestial garden of Paradise.

IV. Since then the in

first

or golden age

Eden, Saturn or Cronus,

name he may

in other

be distinguished,

consequence be

tiie

patriarch

ages before the flood

:

is

is

evidently that of man's innocence

words the great

Adam.

'

Strab. Geog. lib. xv. p. 715. Asiat. Res. vol.

viii.

p.

302.

who, by whatever

must by a necessary

Accordingly, Ovid places

and, after assigning the

'

father,

the prince of that age,

*

Gen.

first

iii.

all

the four

or the age of Saturn to

17, 18, 19.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

i.x.

p. 257,

258.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

17

the period which immediately succeeds the creation, he represents, in a

man-

ner perfectly corresponding with Scripture, the three following ages as gradually introducing a greater and greater degree of corruption and lawless violence, until at length the supereminent wickedness

of the iron age be-

comes the moral cause of the deluge.

Yet

the whole history of Saturn or Cronus or the great father equally

Noah

proves him to be the patriarch character, the golden age

must be placed immediately

find

The Brahmenical

1.

four

we

accordingly,

here,

when he

hence,

:

it

is

viewed under

this

And

after the flood.

placed by the Hindoos.

mythologists represent

it,

as synchronizing with the

Avatars or incarnate descents of Vishnou; the three former of

first

which, as Sir William Jones rightly observes, relate to some stupendous

But we must

convulsion of our globe from the fountains of the great deep.

not adopt in

Satya

Yug

its full

extent the opinion of this learned writer, which fixes the

exclusively to the period that immediately succeeds the deluge.

The Hindoos hold

the doctrine of a series of worlds, each of which

equally

is

preceded by a flood and by the escape of the great father with seven companions in an ark.

Consequently, in ascribing their Satya

after the deluge,

they by no means limit

they merely assign

it

it

to the earliest period of every world.

When

for an apparent contradiction in their theology.

they paint the Satya

scription,

Yug

in

In

world.

fact,

resemblance, as

we

:

find ourselves in

but,

This

will

Noah account

they descend to de-

when they arrange

their

the present or postdiluvian

new world bore a

the progress of corruption in the I

to the period

such colours as agree only with the

state of Paradisiacal innocence and happiness

four ages chronologically,

Yug

to the postdiluvian age of

have already observed, to that

in the old

world

the iron age of the former produced the catastrophe of the flood

;

:

strong

and, as

so,

at the

yet future close of the Call or iron age of the latter, the Hindoos place the tenth incarnation of Vishnou,

of the present

Such,

though

it

mundane

have

I

little

who

will

then be manifested for the dissolution

system.

doubt,

is

the original and consistent form of the legend

does not accord with that modification of

it,

which exhibits many

cycles of the four ages as revolving in the course of a single

mundane

reign of

Fog.

Idol.

Menu.

Sir

Manwantara or

William Jones has remarked, that the progress

VOL.

II.

C

««*«'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATHY.

18 BOOK

III.

of time after the deluge naturally divides

the deluge obviously presents

of Paradise

is

we read

as

itself

the golden age

the Mosaical

the silver age

is

Nephilim, or tyrannical and gigantic oppressors of the :

and

'

may

it

history.

the age, which succeeded the

:

while as yet mankind were few in number,

brazen age

:

with equal propriety, that a similar division of time before

be observed

The age

four periods

itself into

line

fall

the age of the

:

of Cain,

the

is

and the age of the promiscuous intermarriages of the children of

Cain and the children of Seth, which speedily occasioned an universal lawlessness

The

2.

the

and depravity of manners,

is

the iron age.

*

legend of the Jains ought, I think, to be understood precisely in

same manner

though, as the Hindoo chronologers chiefly describe

:

postdiluvian time in their account of the four taries, like Ovid, have especially fixed

Yugs; so these Buddhic

sec-

upon antediluvian

their attention

time.

The

age, as

first

and the people of

it

we have

gifts

though they

were

still

was

that of the ten celestial trees

were distinguislied by the name of the supremely happy

On

inhabitants of the earth.

miraculous

recently seen,

the

commencement of

the second age, the

of the heavenly trees were less than in

supplied the wants of mankind: but the

the former age,

men

and longevity

inferior in complexion, stature, strength,

were called the moderately happy inhabitants of the earth. lowed by the third age: and, during straitened in the produce of

least

;

hence they

This was

period, the people wore

colour,

health,

and happiness

happy inhabitants of the earth.

periods there were born at different times fourteen

;

hence they

During these three

Menus

;

and the

last

fourth age, no miraculous fruits were produced by the heavenly trees;

destruction seemed to be nearly approaching to

their disappearance, Tirthacar

teenth

Menu.

By

became

his auspicious birth,

incarnate

and by

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

236, 237.

*

and,

mankind through

as the son of the four-

his instructions,

ledge of good and bad, of possible and impossible, and of the '

was

In the

the father of a personage denominated Vrishabhanatha Tirthacar.

when now

fol-

more

still

the celestial trees, as well as again inferior to

their predecessors in longevity,

were named the

its

of that age

See Gen.

vi. 4.

the

know-

mode

of

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

19

He

acquiring the advantages both of earth and heaven, was obtained.

arranged the various duties of mankind, and

all

He

stitutions,

did he esta-

delivering to their care the

blish the religion of the Jains in its four castes,

also

composed several books on the

improvement of mankind.

After he had settled laws and

charge of those sacred volumes.

regulations of

also

the several

Thus

mankind, and composed the four sacred books.

sciences, for the

men

In consequence of this arrangement, he became king

means of subsistence. over

allotted to

mankind, from that period, began to follow

sorts,

all

looking upon him, in every respect, as equal to

his departure from

G od

:

his in-

and, upon

world to the state of the Almighty, his image was

this

worshipped as Jain-Eswara.' It

is

easy to perceive, though no direct mention

that Tirthacar

who

is

same

the

made

of the flood,

who was saved in an ark, of a former world, and who was acknowmankind. The four ages of the Jains

as Menu-Satyavrata,

preserved the arts and sciences

ledged as the universal sovereign of therefore are antediluvian

is

but they are not exclusively so

:

;

for,

as there

have already been many similar cycles, so likewise will there be hereafter.

Numerous have been ancient Tirthacars,

all

the

of

Tirthacars of long-expired

whom

like

cycles

Noah were endowed

prophecy, foretold the future succession of other Tirthacars

:

witli

and these the gift of

who should be

manifested in the various worlds of the indestructible universe. 3.

These remarks

four ages, as

same

it

is

will

lead us to understand by analogy the fable of the

exhibited by Hesiod with a curious discrepance from the

fable as detailed by the

Roman

poet.

Hesiod derives the birth of Cronus and

his three sons,

together with

the,

whole generation both of mortals and of immortals, fi-om that watery chaotic mixture, out of which the habitable vvorld was produced. This watery mixture,

which

same

as the universal

is

described as being the origin of

all things,

certainly the

deluge, which the Hindoos place between each two

successive worlds and out of whicli the great father

mysteriously regenerated. father,

is

viewed either as '

The Cronus

Adam

or as

is

considered as being

therefore of Hesiod

Noah

:

for

is

the gi-eat

each of those patriarchs was

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 258, 259.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

20 '"*

equally supposed to have been born out of the watery Chaos at the com-

mencement of his own

Now

peculiar world.

Cronus, after his

of the golden age

:

and

birth,

is

said to have flourished during the period

is

described by Hesiod in a manner, which

age

tliat

The golden

obviously refers us to the age of Paradise. the silver age,

when a

partial deterioration of

are

now

said to have

and

in

understanding.

become

To

introduces a yet greater and

hearts were of

adamant

:

manners takes place

now brought

both in nature

The men, who

more extensive depravation. and

strong, warlike,

fierce,

their corporeal strength

to the age

will

follow and that the

and

:

irresistible.

when we

World

dissolved in consequence of the irreclaimable wickedness of

its

unawares in

selves iuster

the

and better than

postdiluvian world.

is

When removed

earthly existence, the almighty father allotted to

:

then be

inhabitants,

During a

and we

These are

find our-

they^

from the present

them

arrangement of Hesiod

state of

for their residence

seei?is to

:

and thus the

correspond with the Hindoo theory, which

places more than one cycle of the four ages within the period of each It

wantara.

may

therefore be

assumed as indisputable, so

Man-

far at least as the

concerned, that these four ages of Hesiod are postdiluvian, and

consequently that his Cronus

But

who

of the blessed, which are seated at the very extremity of the earth

and which are washed by the eddies of the deep ocean.' Here then we have a reformation instead of a dissolution

letter is

We

generation of demi-gods,

their predecessors, springs up.

fought against Thebes and Troy.

the isles

effected

A

their

are in full

will

are suddenly presented with a very unlooked for amendment.

fourth age, not iron but heroic, a reformation

Their

insolent.

was immense

and,

of lawless violence:

expectation that the iron age

we

and men

:

the silver age succeeds the brazen age, which

nervous arms, firmly knit to their broad shoulders, were are

followed by

is

inferior to their predecessors,

were

lived during that period,

age

it is

is

Noah.

just so far as the letter, and no further.

If

we more

attentively

observe the tradition which he has handed down to us, we shall perceive, that the idea of antediluvian times is never once lost, that his four ages •

Hesiod. Oper, et

ilier.

lib.

i,

ver.

120—171.

THE OHIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. agreeably to the ference,

He dora

:

dogma of a

and that

in effect

succession of similar cycles have a double re-

he makes them

like

Ovid terminate with the

he

for

tells us,

had been

after her fatal curiosity

that,

and

affliction

to experience old age

;

free

decrepitude of old age:

The

similar exemption.'

dom from that

liable to the pains

for

;

such

is

evidently implied in the declara-

never tasted sickness and never grew old

with that period of the

woman's

first

answers only to the Paradisiacal age

life,

;

and to that age

If

certainly be

we next

confirmed.

and

But it

this description

minutely answers in

it

is

thus viewed, his Cronus

Adam.

pass to his silver age,

we

abundantly

shall find this conclusion

Men are now become mortal

:

but

still

their longevity

is

decidedly

He

the longevity, not of postdiluvianism, but of antediluvianism. tliem, as

coincided

it

Therefore the Paradisiacal age must inevitably be the

prototype of Hesiod's golden age ; and, when

must

:

which preceded her transgression

and the consequent introduction of death and calamity.* every particular.

and

they no longer enjoyed a

latter,

golden age of Hesiod then was marked by a free-

the penalty of death

men

during the

but,

the golden

During the former,

age terminated and when the silver age commenced.

men were

this precisely

when

accords with the change, which he represents as taking place,

from labour and trouble, and were not

men

gratified,

to neither of which

Now

they had been subjected before she opened the casket.

tion,

flood.

describes his golden age as synchronizing with the formation of Pan-

began to taste

first

21

speaks of

remaining infants for the space of a whole century, and as afterwards

having their lives shortened not in the

by the sword of

They

violence.

common

course of nature but solely

are cut off in the flower of their youth, after

a childhood of a hundred years, by bloody feuds and intestine discord, not

by a peaceful and gradual decay. •

Hesiod. Oper. et dicr.

*

Hesiod does indeed represent

gods; but

this involves

lib. i.

after all

nothing move than a

originally constituted immortal

were buried.

83

— 104.

ver.

his first race, as

108

— 125.

dying and as afterwards becoming hero-

a plain contradiction to what he had previously said, which clearly

implies an exemption from death. is

ver.

Could they have abstained from war and

They were

Yet even such a contradiction, palpable

literal :

statement of real matter of fact.

but, in consequence of sin, they died

as

The and

it

may

first

(as

seem,

race

was

Hesiod says)

also (as he no less truly remarks) subsequently deified, and wor-

shipped as demons by their posterity.

See ver. 120

— 125.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

22 BOOK

III.

niutual injuries, their adult lives might have been prolonged in proporlion to their infancy

:

whenever

their allotted

term was shortened,

own

the poet observes, in consequence of their

men were made

mortal

but

;

began to be abbreviated. occuired

was not

it

An

it

was

solely, as

Btfort the flood

folly.'

until afttr the flood,

that their lives

infancy of a century can only be said to have therefore Hesiod's silver age, not merely

in antediluvian times:

by

succession to his golden age, but likewise by internal evidence furnished

its

from

itself,

must be placed before the deluge.

His brazen age exhibits

Ovid

and

:

shewn

tlie

transactions of the brazen

to be antediluvian, as well as

and licentiousness, proves, that Yet, as

flood.

and iron ages of

succession to the golden and silver ages which have been

its

I

it

own

its

also

peculiar character of bloodshed

must be deemed antecedent

have already observed, when we might least expect

we

scene suddenly changes,

to

the

it,

the

are intioduced to the ostensibly postdiluvian

heroes of Thebes and Troy, and a reformation takes place without any literally specified dissolution of the world.

But, unless I

ken, such a dissolution, though not literally specified, this part

of the fable

:

ages, though apparently

it

From

appears, that his three

and with a secondary reference placed

properly antediluvian.

assigned to the era of Thebes and

The

covertly alluded to in

catastrophe of the deluge.

the preceding examination of his chronology

the reformation of

greatly mista-

and the corruption of manners, which Hesiod ascribes

to his brazen age, really ushers in the

are really and

is

am

first

after the flood,

This being the case, the reformation

Troy must coincide

in point of time with

manners or the new golden age which succeeded the deluge.

fabulous age therefore of Thebes and of Troy must be the age of the

deluge

:

or,

at least, there

must have been some

blance between the two ages, some

common

sort of analogical resem-

intermixture of tradition

;

other-

wise Hesiod would scarcely have placed the warriors of those two renowned cities in the precise

chronological epoch where

Ovid

places the flood.*

126— 13(^.

'

Hes. Oper. ct dier.

*

In exact accordance with such an opinion, while Hesiod makes his brazen age terminate

lib.

i.

ver.

with the fabulous epoch of the Trojan war, the scholiast on sent

a

flood to destroy the

men

of the brazen age.

coincides with the epoch of the deluge.

The epoch

Schol. in Horn. Iliad,

Homer

tells us,

that Jupiter

therefore of the Trojan lib.

i.

ver. 10.

war

THE OniGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. This point

not unworthy of a full discussion

is

S3

and the discussion

:

will

shew, that the arrangement of Hesiod was neither arbitrary nor accidental.

The

(1.)

heroic age of

Thebes and Troy must

as comprehending the age of the Argonauts niede,

is

been at the siege of Thebes; Theseus, the

said to have

of Helen,

is

inevitably be understood,

Tydeus, the father of Dio-

for

:

first

lover

described as contemporary with Etcocles and Polynices,

who

were conspicuous characters

at the

same

siege

Castor and Pollux, the bre-

;

thren of Helen, are enumerated among the Argonauts it

and Helen

;

herself,

need scarcely be observed, was flourishing

in

complete beauty during the

But Helen was born exactly

at

the

siege of Troy.

same time with Castor

Therefore Helen, according to the preceding statement, must

and Pollux.

have lived during both the Argonautic expedition, the siege of Thebes, and

Troy

the siege of

and these three celebrated events stand so inseparably

:

linked together in the traditions of the ancients, that they

must

deemed

utterly impossi-

either historically true or mythologically false.

ble to dissever

be

them from each other

and,

fictitious;

if

if

:

It

is

the rest must

the one be fictitious,

the one be true, the rest

must be true

jointly be

Thus,

also.

Diornede were really at the siege of Troy, there must have been a siege of Thebes, because there bis father

Helen were

really carried off

Tydeus

signalized himself

by Paris, there must have been a

:

and,

literal

if

literal if

Argo-

nautic expedition, because her brethren were two of the chosen mariners of the Argo.

Thus

again,

on the other hand,

a palpable mythologic fiction,

it

plainly impossible, that the

is

Thebes and Troy should be sober

the Argonautic expedition be

if

historical realities

because,

:

two sieves of if

Castor and

Pollux and their adventurous companions in the Argo be mythologic characters,

Helen cannot be a

and the other Grecian

real one,

Diornede

;

genuine history can have no concern with his father Tydeus and the

be false

;

or,

one and

we must be content

Now

Helen be not a

who reclaimed her at the point of the sword characters and, if Diomede be a mytholocical cha-

heroes of the war of Thebes. all,

if

chiefs

equally cannot be real racter,

one; and,

real

to

In short, the events all,

No

be true.

admit them

in the

question must, one and

middle way can be selected

:

mass, or to reject them in the mass.

the whole Argonautic expedition bears

strong impress of mythologic fiction.

in

The

sliip

upon the very Argo,

we

face of

it

the

are told, was the

^'•*"'* '•

THE ORICrN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

24 BOOK

III.

first

ship that was ever built.

the Baris or

Theba

inclosed by

Typhon

But, as Osiris tifies itself

theoue

is

is

was

It

we

likewise,

are assured, no other than

or lunilorm ark of the Egvptian Osiris, within which he was or the ocean and thus set afloat on the sacred river Nile.

palpably the same as Noah, so his character likewise iden-

Hence the ship Arj^o of The Argha however is in-

with that of the Indian Iswara or Siva.

certainly the ship

Argha of the

disputably the Ark, because

it is

other.

have sailed over the surface of the

said to

delude and to have been afterwards changed into a dove.

Tlicrefore the

Argo, as indeed necessarily follows from the character of Osiris, must also

be the Ark that

;

a conclusion, which exactly again corresponds with the notion

was the

it

Now,

first-constructed vessel.

since the

confessedly the ship of Iswara and Osiris, and since

its

Argo or Argha was

own legendary

history

as coiniected with the legendary histories of those deities proves

it

been the Ark of Noah;

Jason and

his

it

clearly follows, that the whole fable of

companions must have been a mere Hellenic which

gical system,

Egypt.

in

upon the theolo-

fiction, built

Jason have sailed to Colchis

literal

of Iswara and Osiris

?

have

degree the Greeks received from

a considerable

For how could any

first-built ship

to

And how

in the sacred

could the knowledge of a

petty voyage, performed by an obscure adventurer of a semibarbarous Hel-

we have abundant testimony

lenic state, have been diffused, as diffused, over the

whole both of

tiie

east and the west.

that

ii

was

Nothing but the

genuine Argonautic expedition could have been thus universally celebrated and,

when we

either

that the pretended voyage of

Jason

m

the very ship of Osiris

but a locally appropriated transcript of the mystic voyage of Osiris or

Iswara, and that Jason and Osiris and Iswara are

and the same character. Accordingly, the whole legend both of Jason and satisfactory internal evidence,

history of Osiris and the is

:

mythology of Greece was altogether derived

from the Scythic Pelasgi or the Phenicians or the Egyptians, we may

rest assured, is

recollect that the

Argo

that

it

is

all

fundamentally one

his ship affords the

most

nothing more than the Hellenized

or of Iswara

and the Argha.

said to have been inclosed in an ark during his

Jason himself

infancy like one that was

dead, in order that he might escape the fury of Pelias; just as Osiris and the infant

Horus were shut up

either in

an ark, or a floating

island, in order

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Typhon.

that they might escape the rage of

In

this situation, his

women

death was loudly lamented in the night-time by the just as the allegorical death of Adonis or

was bewailed,

deity)

Osiris (for they

during the celebration of

becomes the captain of the Argo, which was the

Egypt

into Greece,

Danaus and

imagined hisfamily;

were the same mysteries,

period of his

life,

he

identical ship of Osiris

in allusion to the introduction of the

and which,

of

nocturnal

tlie

At a subsequent

by the women of Byblos and Egypt.

25

Argonautic Orgies from

also feigned to have been the vessel which conveyed

is

his family

from the former country to the

latter

:

and, in the

course of his fabled voyage to Colchis, he on one occasion sends a dove out

of his ship, and on another receives a dove into

Argha

fly

Noah first we

find

away

in the

their shoulders

his

Iswara and

it

again into the Ark.

Lastly,

companions on the coast of Africa carrying the Argo on

precisely as the priests of

;

just as

form of doves at the close of the deluge, or rather as

sends out a dove and then receives

him and

it;

Ammon

or Osiris were wont to

bear in solemn procession the sacred ship of their oceanic deity.

Thus

accurately do these cognate legends correspond in every particular.

But, though the Greeks

seem

have peculiarly borrowed their Argonautic

to

expedition from Egypt, there was not a nation on the face of the earth which

was not more or the Argo,

less

if literally

acquainted with

it.

The

utterly impossible

which the not merely licentious imagination of the poets conducts

to

terious siiip

and a wonderful mariner were devoutly reverenced.

this account of the

voyage

facts exactly agree.

The Argo

:

and, in

from Thessaly little

to Colchis

with

the Baltic,

and

if

contemptible voyage being thus diffused over the face of the whole

globe?

Its

genuine prototype was assuredly the

the first-built ship inclosed Osiris

'

And

we admit a literal Argonautic expedition how can we account for the knowledge of this

But, ;

a mys-

these parts of the world, a ship and a ship-god

all

were equally venerated.

it,

visited the coast

of Africa, the western part of Asia, the Danube, the Po, the British isles

voyage of

understood, serves only to shew, that in every region,

See

lUis

Pag.

;

that ship,

voyage performed

in

w hich was the work of the eight Cabiri, which

when pursued by

matter discussed at large in

Idol.

first

the ocean, which bore Iswara in safety

my

VOL.

Dissert,

II.

on the Cabiri. chap.

viii. '

D

CUAP.

I.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATIIV.

S6 BOOK

III.

Qver the waters of the deluge, and which in the earliest ages was placed

among

the constellations with the raven, the hieroglypliical sea-serpent, the

and the

altar,

sacrificing Centaur.

The Argo,

'

was the Ark

in short,

and

:

the Argonautic expedition, which the Greeks ascribed to a band of Thessa-

which was celebrated in every region of the earth, had

lian adventurers, but

no

save as the voyage of

real existence,

Noah and

his family.

If then the Argonautic expedition was a mere mythological altogether on the history of the flood '

The

;

must

it

very position of these remarkable catasterisms

built

from the preceding

follow,

may

fiction,

serve to prove, that the history

of the Argo could not have been written on the sphere by the Greeks

whence

:

it

will follow,

that the fable of the Argonautic expedition was no further a Greek fable than

as

it

was

adapted to the neighbourhood of Thessaly.

Canopus, the principal star

in

the constellation Argo,

pole, and the greatest part of the constellation lies

is

only 37 degrees from the south

nearer to

still

courseof the Argoan voyage lay between 39 and 45 degrees of north sphere had either been constructed by

if the

the

or for the

fictitious

were bound. dwelt

The Argo must assuredly have been placed and

to

in the

which the constellaiion

alike

sphere by a nation, which itself

was

will follow, that the history of the

nation, anterior to

Argo must have been

known

its

own

to that

history.

southern

In other words, the Argonautic

localized adoption by the Greeks.

its

well

But the

visible.

Argo could not have been placed in the sphere, previous to the existence of it

Hellas,

a constellation,

Pagasae whence they are fabled to have set out, and at Colchis whither they

far to the south of Greece,

Hence

Consequently,

Argonauts of

framer would not have given the name of the ship Argo to

invisible, at

But the pretended

it.

latitude.

expedition, as detailed by the Greeks, could never have really taken place: but the whole story of

and

it

As

it

was borrowed from the southern

was only

so far altered as to

nation,

which

for the people that originally invented the sphere,

Cuthim

of Babylonia

first

placed the ship in the sphere

wear the aspect of a national Hellenic I

talc.

have no doubt that they were the

and precisely the same argument, which proves the origination of the

:

various mythologic systems of Paganism from the

prove the origination of the sphei'e from the

common centre of Chaldea, will equally To omit other coincidences, the

same region.

twelve si^ns of the zodiac perfectly agree both in appellation and in order of succession, wheBut this they ther delineated on the sphere of Hindostan or of ancient Egypt or of Greece.

could not have done, unless the several spheres of those nations had all been framed by one and the same people. Such then being the case, we can scarcely hesitate to pronounce, that that people were the architects of Babel, and that the sphere thus alike carried off by the

founders of different nations was

itself

invented before the dispersion.

This hypothesis seems to be confirmed by strong internal evidence. As the constellation Aroo is plainly the Argha or Ark, and as the neighbouring constellations all relate to the hislory of the deluge

:

so

what we now

call

Oiion and

his dogs are

apparently the great

THE ORIGIN OF PAOAV IDOLATRY.

27

wars of Thebes and Troy cannot be admitted as

train of reasoning, that the

portions of authentic history

:

for all the three,

as

it

has already been shewn,

are so inseparably linked together, that they must stand or if

one be a

literal

matter of

be purely fabulous, nautic expedition

is

fact,

must be

all

literal

must be purely fabulous.

all

the age of the deluge.

of Troy, as they are exhibited

conjointly

fall

matters of fact

;

if

one

But the age of the Argo-

Therefore the ages of Thebes and

us in poetry, must also be the a^e of the

to

deluge; whether we choose, or choose not, to suppose the existence of some piratical squabble, which may probably enough have taken place betw-een the

Greeks and the

of Thebes and of Troy

is

Accordingly, the whole history both

Ilicnsians.

diluvian

and

:

am

I

fabled wars of each city are, at least in the

first

inclined to believe, that

much

instance,

the

the

same

in

tliat

of

import as the allegorical wars of Typhon and the Titans.

The name

of the Beotian Thebes was confessedly borrowed from

Thebes

the Egyptian entirely

and the legendary account of

;

upon the worship of the sacred

brings out of

Egypt no

less

have been conducted

which had the

to

as

foundation

Cadmus, whom

heifer.

than out of Phenicia, and

was the same person

after see)

its

Mho

(as

we

Thoth or Hermes or Buddha,

is

built

tradition

shall hereis

said to

the place destined for his future city by a cow,

figure of the lunar crescent imprinted

on

its

side.

Now

this

precisely answers to the description of the bull Apis, which was marked by

a similar lateral stigma

cow were worshipped great mother.

:

and, as I have already shewn, the bull and the

conjointly as

Accordingly

we

symbols of the great father and the

tlie

are told, that the heifer of

hunter Nimrod and his hounds; while the bears, the the

game which he pursued.

Nimrod sphere

is

the

same person.

Hist.

lions,

the linx, and the hare,

Cedrenus accordingly scruples not

Compcnd.

to

I may add, that the Virgo of our present who was sometimes mystically deemed a virgin.

Isis, who was confessedly the same as Ceres and the Hindoos woman standing in a boat and holding in her two iiands a lamp and an last mode of delineation was, I am persuaded, the original one: but,

For the Egyptians called her

ear of corn.

This

though the Greeks

represent

pronounce Orion and

p. 14.

certainly the navicular great mother,

delineate her, as a

Cadmus was

lost the

concomitants of the female

mythological notions to which they said to have borne a

:

refer.

figure, they accurately

Their Ceres or

lamp during her nocturnal search

Isis

preserved the

was a ship-goddess: she was

for Proserpine,

whence lamps were

introduced into the celebration of her Mysteries; and she was described, as being peculiarly the goddess of corn.

'^"*^-

^•

^*0

BOOK

III.

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

TIIK

denominated Thcba ; which,

in

consequence of the hieroglyphical apph'cation

of that animal, denoted in the dialect of Syria and Egypt both a caw and

an ark: and we are likewise informed, that the Thebes both of Greece and of the upjjer Egypt received

name from

its

the

Theba

or that mystic arkite

cow, within which Osiris was once inclosed and set afloat on the Nile.

Such was the fabled precisely resembled

by an oracle should

lie

to build his projected city.

common

interpreted by the other

same, that we cannot doubt of their

In

Minor and

fact,

in

idolatry both of

world.

Ilus

the very

Greece:

and

less

the one

must be

respect to

the

must be the case with the Trojan

same mode of worship was

established in Asia

again identifies itself with the peculiar

this

Egypt and the whole

was no

Hence

Theban legend have

the

if

prevailing diluvian superstition, such also

legend.

*

mytliological source.

and,

:

was directed

guidance of a cow, and, wheresoever the animal

stories are so perfectly the

having arisen from a

and that of Troy or Ilium

:

the reputed founder of the latter,

Ilus,

it.

to follow the

down, there

The two

origin of the Beotian city

east,

or rather indeed of the whole

a Phenician, than a Trojan, hero-god

and he

:

is

represented by Sanchoniatho, as being the same as Cronus or the great

whose golden age every successive world invariably commenced.

father, with

The the

Ilus of

same

as

Troas and Phenicia

Buddha or Menu

:

who

is

and the feminine Ila of that country

is

is

the masculine Ila of Hindostan,

who was

described as being the wife and daughter of the ancient patriarch,

preserved in a ship with seven companions

when

the earth Avas inundated

She likewise bore the cognate name of Ida; and the

an universal deluge.

summit of the Paradisiaco-diluvian Meru was from her denominated vratta or Ida-tratta. culine and feminine hill

It

Ila

Theba and

Ila-

was from these two primeval characters, the masor Ida, that both the city of Ilium and the sacred

of Ida received their appellations.

and, as

by

Ida was the Meru of the Troas

the female Ila were the

same mythological

:

character,

Thebes and Ilium, agreeably to the connnon legend of their foundation, were only designated by two '

Ovid. Mctam.

*

ApoUod.

lib.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

iii.

ver.

c. 11.

different

1—23.

names of one

gi-eat

mother.

Tzctz. in Lycopli. ver. 1206.

Lycoph. Cassan.

ver. 29-

TzeU. Schol.

Etym. Magn. vox

in loc.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. In exact accordance with such

made

their

which the Thebans, the

fictions,

Ilicnsians,

and the Hindoos, have severally by local

the Phenicians, the Egyptians,

appropriation

29

own, the old

liistory

of the Trojans, which

is

so

genealogically connected with the war of

Troy

or rejected together, finally and

like the fabulous early history of

literally,

must be accepted

that they

other ancient nations, resolves itself into the deluge.

all

Thus Dardanus, one of

their first pretended

w as believed to have

kings,

previously been a king of Arcadia, and to have escaped from a flood which

Driven from Arcadia, he took refuge

inundated his dominions.

thrace, the peculiar country of the Cabiri

of

tlie

first ship,

;

and who were reported

the relics of the ocean or delude

:

who were esteemed to

have consecrated

Troy, having, according to some, escaped another

of the former: each

His

^

is

latter

is

to

Neptune

flood,

Avhich laid that

declared to have been the very same

escape

evidently a

is

mere reduplication

equally a local fable, the one Arcadian,

Thus

Samothracian, built on the history of the general deluge. another of the

Samo-

the builders

and from Samothrace he removed to

'

sacred island under water, and which as that of Deucalion.

in

the other

also Tennes,

of Troy, was said to have been set afloat in

fictitious princes

an ark on the surface of the ocean, and to have afterwards safely landed on the island of Tenedos.

Now

'

this is

nothing more than an exact counterpart

of the legend of Dionusus or Bacchus,

who was

specially venerated

by the

Thebans, and whose ^Mysteries were thought to have been brougiit by Cad-

mus out of

While

Eg}'pt.

the god

was yet an

he was inclosed

infant,

in

an

ark and cast into the sea; but, like Tennes, he drifted to land without receiving any injury from his perilous exposure.

All such parallel ancients

tales,

which occur perpetually

and which have thence been adopted

ecclesiastic

'

into

and heroic,* are nothing more than

general history; which equally concerns Dion. Halic. AiU. Rom.

lib.

i.

c.

all

in the

mythology of the

modern romance both

local

appropriations of a

mankind, because

6l. Euseb. Prsep.

Evan.

lib.

i.

c.

it

is

the his-

10.

Tzetz. in Lycopb. ver. 29, 69.

Conon. Narrat. xxix.

'

The holy Cuthbert and infra

book

v.

c. 8.

jj

I.

1.

the redoubtable II. 7.

Amadis were equally

set afloat in

an ark.

Vide

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAK IDOLATRY".

30 •ooK

jii.

Agreeably to

Thebes and of Troy

we

Hesiod,

this hypothesis,

upon

tlie

face of the earth.

find, places the

deceased heroes of

tory of the primitive ancestors of every nation

in the sacred isles of the blessed,

which he describes as

But those

being washed by the waves of the great western ocean.

M'e have already seen, were the fabled Elysium of the poets

Hence

doubly symbolized Paradise and the Ark.

somehow

or other,

tliere

was a

isles,

:

notion,

they were the same as the Egyptian Thebes

as

and they that,

by which

:

nothing more was meant, than that each of them shadow ed out a Tlieba or Ila-vratta.

By

the

Hindoos they are considered

tris or patriarchal forefathers of mankind,

preserved from the deluge.

makes them

was

Hence

the abode of those

a\

as the residence of the Pi-

ho d^elt in Paradise and who were

was not without

it

Theban and Trojan worthies

the age of the Argonautic expedition,

that Hesiod

reason,

whose history stands

ble connection with legends of the deluge, and

who

whose age

;

in insepara-

are placed in a period

of reformation immediately successive to a period of universal corruption

and of

that followed the two ages of silver

In

short,

if

gold.

Homer's poem has been founded on any predatory

\Aar

which

took place between the Hellenes and the Iliensians, a circumstance not improbable

;

he has certainly embellished

by an immediate connection with the

it

Such a mode of

hero-gods of the old diluvian theology.

by no means without

parallel

;

and

Avhicli all

is

and indeed was almost the necessary conse-

quence of that humour, which bestowed upon men the

sons

treating a subject

titles

of

tlie

considered the initiated as scenically exhibiting in their

the allegorical sufferings of the deified patriarchs.

of the ancient mythological Arthur,

who

Avas saved

Thus

gods,

own

per-

the actions

in a ship with seven

companions at the time of an universal inundation, have been blended with the history of the British prince

ated or disguised by that pagan tic

who title

:

at a long subsequent period

and thus the

was decor-

arkite demi-gods of Cel-

theology, and the mystic circle of Ida or Ceridwen, have

been con-

verted into the romantic heroes of chivalry and the far-famed military bro-

therhood of the round table.' '

It

docs not appear to inc, that Mr. Bryant's

really confuted.

Though

it

is

hading idea on

this subject

has ever been

only agreeable to the chaiacler of the times, that there

may

have been a marauding war between the warlike pirates of the two opposite coasts of Europe

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

On

(2.)

the whole, the four

sequent addition of his

first

ages of Hesiod, ^nlh the remarkable sub-

may

fifth age,

rious instance of the doctrine of a

hending similar cycles

:

for they

51

be considered as exhibiting a very cusuccession of similar worlds compre-

shew an attempt

to blend together into one

narrative the antediluvian and the postdiluvian series of ages.

He deduces

whole theogony from Chaos, which he makes the

his

World

ning of the

but his Cronus or great father, as evei-y part of that

:

god's history demonstrates,

Adam

and

;

is

at least as

his chaotic ocean,

much a

which appears as the

originally formed,

than the deluge out of m hich

what was esteemed

its

tically antediluvian

:

new

be

fairly in

Noah

them down

it

emerged

first

Argo

to the identical awful catastrophe

fifth

ages are characteris-

to a fourth heroic age

:

and

then,

it is

yet conscious that he himself Avas age,

is

when we view

livin<^

ia

name

of an iron

one

:

basis of his

as nearly allied to authentic history as the

Jerusalem of Tasso or even as ihc Orlando of Ariosto.

poem

in-

its

he proceeds to lament that he had been

impossible to admit, that the Iliad

ters themselves,

when we

which Ovid rightly places at the termi-

age which might well deserve the

as exhibited in the great

of the

or Argha, to be suddenly transported

and Asia, and though some such war may have been adopted by Homer as the ;

the time of

Lastly, as if the poet were thoroughly bewildered

own arrangement and

thrown into a

at

at which time he places a moral reformation, that,

any thing rather than a golden

poem

as of

parent of the

a postdiluvian period, \ve find ourselves, through

nation of his iron age.

with his

common

only occurred immediately after the flood

separable connection with the ship

back

His three

formation.

yet he brings

Theban and Trojan wars,

we know, to

transcript of

cannot be more deemed the Chaos out of which the World was

hero-gods,

seem

becrin-

The

actors in perhaps a literal

war

of the Hellenic bard, can scarcely be received as literal charactheir

immediate connection with the Argo, with the deluge, and I cannot but think it very inconclusive

with the gods of Egypt and Pheniciaand Hindostan. reasoning, though

it

has been hailed with loud applause, to argue the actual existence of

Ho-

mer's heroes, under the circumstances which he attributes to them, from the accuracy of his local descriptions, even if that accuracy had not been considerably exacoeratcd. By asimilar process

I

will undertake to demonstrate the exploits of Brute, Corincus,

worthies, to be manifest historical verities.

had

;

local

accuracy of a poet

and other British

may

prove that he where he lays his plot and that he had availed himself of the established but I see not what it can prove more.

visited the country

popular legends

The

CHAP.

I.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

32 • OOK

III.

but at the same time he uses language, which necessarily involves the doctrine

and

that each series of ages

;

that,

when

was always followed by another

the iron age had arrived,

it

similar series,

would be speedily followed by a

better age of gold."

V. The remote antiquity and veiy general reception of the four ages, also the application of

as a cycle ending in a reform of manners,

it

may, I think, be collected from Scripture

itself.

In Nebuchadnezzar's vision of the great image, breast and the arms of silver,

of

legs

iron,

fable of the

the belly

the head of gold, the

and the thighs of

and the

brass,

the four successive ages of four sovereignties

exhibit

:

and,

at length those four ages have fully expired, and « hen the four sove-

when

reignties

have been swept away from off the face of the earth

;

a

new age

and a new kingdom of pure and holy nianners, the age and the kingdom of

Messiah and his It

saints, are described as

worthy of observation, that in

is

legs of the

image are of pure

Such a mode of

clay. really

happened,

is

commencing.

this

his feet are of iron

iron,

though

painting,

symbolical prophecy, though the

it

admirably represents what has

yet in strict correspondence Avith ideas, which must have

been perfectly familiar to the pagan king of Babylon.

known

usually

the

as the age of iron,

is

The

though

last age,

denominated by the Hindoos the age of

Into the vision each hieroglyphic

earths

mixed with earthy

is

curiously introduced

:

and, by

combined use of the two, such a modification of the iron age

is

ex-

hibited as best shadoAved out the realities of futurity.

Even

the peculiar symbol of the great statue itself has been adopted with

the strictest regard to congruily.

which the king caused to be erected

It

nearly allied to the gigantic image,

is

in the plain

This image was

of Dura.

one of those stupendous statues of ]\Ienu or Buddha or Jain, m inch the of ancient Paganism delighted to set up.

toiling devotion larly in the

He

east,

are

still

in existence

:

and the personage,

whom

particu-

they rc-

expresses a wisli, that he had cither died before or lived after the iron ago, in which he

had the

ill

luck to be placed.

But,

if

his lot

would ha\e been mended by

of course he must have expected that his iron age would Uihcr

Oper. ct *

]\fany,

dier. lib.

i.

Asiat. Res. vol.

vcr. i.

172

— 174.

p. 236.

in a

living after

it,

then

renovated golden age.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY. presented, was he

;

who

reigned indeed through

visibly nmanifested himself only

glyphic in '

who

As a

in

Thus exact

that of gold.'

being inseparably

Dwapara, and Kali, depend on each of those four ages.

connected with them. the conduct

Sleeping, he

is

of the king

the Kali age

;

he

is

Jll the ages, called Safya, ;

is

himself represented by them conjointly.

Pag.

Idol.

VOL. n.

I^Ienu,

described in the Institutes

Treta,

declared in turn to represent

uaking, he Instit.

is

of

the

Dwapara ;

Menu. chap.

In a similar manner, Nebuchadnezzar's great image extends or reigns through is

the hiero-

of the universal sovereign

who

himself in action, the Treta; living virtuously, the Satya.

»Dd

is

all its parts.

king was esteemed the immediate representative

as

who

the four ages, but

all

reigns either visibly or invisibly through all the four ages,

of Menu

33

exerting

ix. p.

all the

284.

four ages,

*^"'*^''-

CHAPTER Miscellaneous

pagan

traditiotn relative to the period between the

and

creation

1 HE

II.

the deluge.

Gentiles have preserved various traditions relative to the period be-

tween the

creation

and

the

which from

deluge,

miscellaneous

their

nature will best be noticed conjointly under a single division

of

my

sub-

ject. I.

I have frequently had occasion to observe, that, according to the theory

of a succession of similar worlds, the great father and his three sons constantly reappear

dane system a revival of

:

by transmigration

whence Noah and

Adam and

commencement

of every

new mun-

were considered only as

his triple offspring; while the latter

thing more, than one of the

great

at the

his triple offspring

were deemed no-

numerous manifestations of the

self-triplicating

fatlier.

Thus Brahma, Vishnou, and

Siva, the three sons of the Indian

are proved to be the three sons of tory which

is

ordinary

Ham and Cama

titles

:

for

Vishnou

is

called

which correspond with the scriptural

Brahma, Pra-Japati or the lord Japhet. the sons of the

first

large part of their his-

and by the very names which they bear

clearly diluvian,

dition to their

Noah, both by a

Brahm,

Menu, who

is

Yet

Soma

or

Ham

and

Shem

;

in

ad-

Siva,

Cham ; and

are they also declared to be

denominated Swayambhuva

;

and not only

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. sons, but likewise,

his

Pra-Japati, the sons of the

Menu

first

he bore the

under the very names of Sama, Cama, and

ei^erj/

plain therefore, that he

is

was called moreover Adima

Now

;

w hile

was known by the appellation of Iva.*

Adam.

the scriptural

Sama, Cama, and Pra-Japati,

sons, the

without exception.'

son of the Self-existent, whence

tlie

He

of Swayambhu-oa.

the consort, assigned to him,

Menu

transmigrating

declared to have been

is

title

still

35

Consequently, his

is

three

world, are Seth,

peculiar

of his

It

Cain, and Abel

Such a conclusion

is

by a curious legend, which I have

firmly established

With

already had occasion to notice at large.

Menu had three distinguished. What became

told in one fable, that the first

were particularly

manner

his brethren

were distinguished,

it

we are daughters and two sons, who respect to this legend,

of the third son, or in what

does not inform

us,

except that

the Deity descended from heaven to be present at a sacrifice which they of-

But the

fered up.'

deficiency in both respects

From them we

fables.

learn,

that,

Brahma becoming

woman Satarupa or Iva sprang out of man Adima or Menu-S\vayambhuva out three sons tion of

:

Dacsha, or B)-ahma

Cardama

in a

one half of

title

Brahma

he was performing a

Adima it is

to

in

the

sacrifice,

two agreeably

Siva,

;

is

the

of Ruchi.

Cardam-Eswara, the destructive power united his brother

his

incarnate, the

body, and the

to

mortal character of

first

under the appella-

Mohammedan name Of these, Cardama or

a form of clay, finding

Dacsha,

slew him

and thus reduced the number of

to the specification of the

first

This pair had

of the other half.

human shape

or Capita or Cabil, which last

of Cain; and Vishnou, under the

amply supplied by other

is

former

tlie

fable.

Dacsha,

added, had previously reviled his antagonist, m ishing that he might

ways remain a vagabond on the face of the view,

Adima had

earth.*

as

sons of

al-

Thus, in one point of

three sons; and, in another, only two.

Now,

in exact

accordance with these varying numbers, the traditionary history of the Puranas

is

constructed.

It

> Asiat. Res. vol.

viii.

• Asiat. Res. vol.

ii.

p. Il6.

' Asiiit.

ii.

p. l\G,

Res. vol.

is

asserted in them, that from Cardama, Dacsha,

p. 254, 255. vol. viii. p.

254. vol.

v. p.

250, 252.

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi, p.

472^77*

""*'' "'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT,

35 BOOX

III.

and Ruchi, the earth was

filled

with inhabitants

yet in the

:

are told, that Brahma, being disappointed, found

we

sons to Adima, from

whom

at

last the

earth was

These two sons were Priyavrata and Uttanapada

same Puranas

necessary to give two

it

filled

with inhabitants-

who, as Mr. Wilford

;

justly remarks, appear to be the same with Cardama and Ruchi or Cain

and Seth.

Hindoo

In short, what sufficiently shews the true character of the famous

'

triad

which

is

manifested as the triple offspring of the great father at

commencement of every world,

the

of the Trimurti

and

;

is

it

were created by the Deity

fairly

it is

nical theologists, that the three sons of

acknowledged by the Brahme-

Menu-Swayambhuva

generally declared in to

are incarnations

Puranas, that

the

marry the three daughters of the

with a view to avoid the defilement of

human

first

they

man,

conception, gestation, and

birth.*

The classical Cronus or Saturn, considered as flourishing during the real golden age, when men were exempt from sin and disease and death, when they innocently appeared in a state of nudity, and the brute creation,

while he

is

no

is

evidently the

less evidently their

vian character.

first

Menu

when

or

Adima

Menu-Satyavrata,

Hence, as Swayainbhuva

they conversed with

if

of the Hindoos

considered in his dilu-

denominated Adima

is

learn from Stephanus of Byzantium, that one of the eastern

;

we

so

names of Cronus

was Adan.^ II.

The

may serve

preceding Hindoo legend

to explain a tradition respect-

in" the Cabiri.

These are sometimes described, as being the whole family of the great father biric

gods are spoken

of,

eight in

number,

in allusion to

sometimes, when the most ancient Ca-

;

and a female, who are the

as only two, a male

great father and the great mother; and sometimes as three brethren, in re'

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 249, 250.

* Asiat. Res. vol. '

Stcph. dc urb.

ference with Gale,

viii.

Von

p.

254.

Sav«.

It is

rather

a curious anecdote, that Bochart, in a con-

allowed the propriety of referring the character of Cronus

to

Adam

;

but

owned, that he had purposely omitted the stories which induced such an opinion, because they contradicted his system which would

make Cronus

chart possessed that key to pagan mythology,

he would have perceived,

that this

to be exclusively

Noah.

Had Bo-

the doctrine of a succession of similar worlds,

management was no

less

unnecessary than disingenuous.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

Their history proves

ference to the triple offspring of the gi'eat parents.

them

to

have chiefly been the arkite liero-deities

but,

:

37

since the doctrine

of a succession of similar worlds was the very basis of pagan theology, we

The

are not to imagine that they were exclusively diluvian gods. biric brethren wer<. the

same

Hindoos: they represent indeed the three sons of Noah; but they do

Adam.

that account, the less represent also the three sons of as one of the persons of the Trimurti,

Swayambhuva or Adima,

of

time of a solemn sacrifice:

when incarnate

said to have been slain

is

in the triple offspring

by

his brother at the

with a slight variation, one of the three Ca-

so,

represented as having been murdered by his two brethren.

added

in the legend,

by the

that after his death he was,

crated as a god at the foot of

on

not,

Accordingly,

biri is

mount Olympus

fratricides,

the slaughter of a brother by his brothers

the Orgies of the Corybantes.'

These

It is

conse-

he had been

that, stained as

;

with blood, the Thessalians worshipped him with bloody hands

;

and that

was esteemed a sacred mystery

in

particulars confirm the supposition,

that the fable originated from the death of Abel.

The

INIysteries

of the an-

were a scenic exhibition of the events of Paradise and the deluge transactions of two worlds were blended together into one

cients

the

Ca-

three

as the Trimurti or triplicated great god of the

early

drama, agreeably to the doctrine of a perpetual succession of similar mundane systems and mount Olympus, where the slaughtered Cabirus is feigned :

to have been consecrated, local transcripts of

diluvian It

is

Meru

as I

A\'as,

have already shewn, one of the many

or Ilapus; that

is

to say,

of the Paradisiaco-

mount Ararat. not impi'obable, that, on the same principle of double allusion,

murder of

Osiris by his brother

Hades

by his brother Jupiter,

history

of the deluge, have

Typhon, and the detrusion of Pluto

may

tlie

into

each, though severally adapted to the

an ultimate reference to the slaughter

of

Abel. III.

We

may

observe a similar fable in the early mythological history of

the Atlantians.

Hyperion, one of the sons of their reputed •

Jul. Firm, de error, prof. rel. p. 23, 2

Cohort, p. 12.

1.

first

king Uranus,

Arnob, adv, gent.

lib. v, p.

169.

is

said to

Clera. Alex.

*^"*''-

"•

38

THfe

BOOK ui. j^^yg is

tjggj^

murdered by

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. his brethren:

but the legend, as

mingled with diluvianism; for Hyperion

is

described as being the father

of the Sun and the Moon, and his child the Sun

feigned to have been

is

This

plunged by the Titans into the sacred river Eridanus.' stance

is

same

the

usually the case,

is

last

circum-

as the consignment of Osiris to the Nile; for the Nile

and the Eridanus and the Ganges were equally deemed holy streams, were equally symbolical of the deluge, and were equally represented as bearing on their

waves the Argo or Argha or ship of the great

was astronomically the Sun

offspring of Hyperion,

mere human

;

and the many incongruous

character:

but

in reality

he was a

of the Sun being

tales

on the surface of the

in a lake or a river, being set afloat in a ship

plunged

Osiris, like the

father.

ocean, or being compelled to take refuge from the fury of the ocean in a

wonderful floating island, have

a

man

arisen from applying the literal history of

all

Thus,

to his sidereal representative.

Hdius and

children of Hyperion, though styled as being nothing

more than mortals

Selene,

have been received among the gods and to have been

The

and Moon.

actions

venly bodies, were

and

in fact

are

but, after their death,

:

two

in the present instance, the

sufferings therefore,

first

represented

they are said to

identified with the

Sun

ascribed to the two hea-

only actions and sufferings, which had once been

performed and undergone upon earth.

IV.

It is

a remarkable circumstance,

that the

it,

Iroquois,

a

if

we may venture America,

savage nation of

curately preserved a tradition of the primeval history

to give credit to

should

have ac-

now under

considera-

tion.

They

are said to believe, that the

dience to

God

and

;

that, in



More

were the ancestors of

V. In

children

all

it,

Diod. Bibl.

:

seduced from her obe-

she was banished from heaven.

of these, having

armed himself with an

who was unable to resist his afterwards sprang from the same woman, who

mankind.

other,

*

the legendary history of the Atlantians,

had many sons •

One

weapon, attacked and slew the

superior force.

woman was

consequence of

She afterwards bore twosons. offensive

first

Uranus

is

fabled to have

but three only are mentioned by name, Atlas, Cronus, and

lib. iii.

p. 191,

192.

'

Moeurs

des sauvages, torn.

i.

p. 43.

THE ORICIV OF PAGAN I0OLATUV.

S9

Hyperion; who, as we have just seen, was thought to have been murdered

by

These

his brethren.

Adam,

three sons of

three, standing in this connection, are evidently those

whom

of

the history

;

is

the

as

doubtless

it

his brethren divided

Of these former

as

among them

the

further in

After the death of

kingdom of

Atlas and Cronus were the most renowned

fell

we advance

according to the established system of

is,

theologizing, with clear references to the deluge. rion,

;

their father

and

name

his

Uranus.

to the lot of the

those western regions, which border upon the ocean.

a learned astronomer, and communicated

Hype-

to a celebrated

Atlas was

mountain

within his dominions, the top of which he employed as an observatory. his father

Uranus, he also had a numerous family: but, among them,

Hesperus was by

far the

most eminent

and philanthropy towards

tice

the

same philosophical

the

summit of Atlas

in piety

towards the gods and

Like his

son

in jus-

Hesperus addicted himself

his subjects.

pursuits as his parent

make

to

murder of the righteous Abel.

will receive additional strength,

mixed

down

alone the names have been handed

us; and the murder of Hyperion

Such an opinion

:

to

and, having one day ascended

wonted observations on the

stars, he was suddenly carried away by a violent whirlwind and never more appeared in the

to

The

haunts of men.

his

people, venerating his

traordinary virtue, enrolled

new

memory on account

of his ex-

him among the immortals, and worshipped the

deity in the beautiful star of evening.

almost superfluous to observe, that we have here commemorated, as the next remarkable event after the murder of Abel, the miraculous translaIt

is

tion of

Enoch

:

and, that the two Atlantian legends are to be thus understood,

will incontestably appear,

to shew, that the

whole

when we

as I shall presently have occasion

find,

series of events,

of which they form a part,

is

une-

quivocally placed before the submersion of the old world.

VI. Precisely the same circumstance occurs the Hindoos; and

A

son of

it

in the antediluvian history of

occurs also in the very same connection.

Adima and Iva

kills

his

brother at a sacrifice

death of that holy personage, the earth

One

two surviving brethren. •

cha*. u.

is

of these has a son

Dioil. Bibl. lib,

iii.

:

and, after the

peopled by the descendants of the

named

p. 193, l^i.

Z)/jn
who,

in

.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

40 BOOK

III.

consequence of the unjust partiality which

Uttama,

into a forest

retires

shews to

his father

his elder brother

on the banks of the Jumna.

Here he

gives

himself up to the contemplation of the Supreme Being and to the performance

of religious austerities. and, after delivering

His extraordinary piety gains the favour of

many

salutary precepts to mankind, he

heaven without tasting death

;

where he

is

God

:

translated to

shines conspicuous in the polar

still

star.*

The

close resemblance between these

Hindoos proves them

the

to

two legends of the Atlantians and

common

have originated from a

source

and that

:

source can only have been the ancient patriarchal history of Enoch, with

which the family of

Noah must have been

well acquainted long before the

composition of the Pentateuch.

VII. The character of the Atlantian astronomer Hesperus melts of his philosophical father Atlas

and Enoch, thus exhibited,

:

is

into that

manifestly

the Edi'is of the east and the Idris of the Celtic Britons.

Edris

is

declared by the oriental writers to be the same person as

who, like the Atlantian Hesperus,

and as making

his

is

Enoch

described as being a skilful astronomer

observations on the summit of a lofty

hill

:

and

Idris,

according to the old legends of the Druids, was also an eminent astronomer,

who pursued

his favourite studies

on the top of a high peak which from him

bears the appellation of Cader Idris or the chair of Idris.

still

This

personage was thought, like Atlas, to have been of a gigantic stature the general coincidence between the two fables

is

Mount

proved by

Atlas was by the Africans.

acknowledged that he

is

history to be

his

to

also

Enoch

;

'

and

:

such, that ^ve can scarcely

doubt Cader Idris to have been viewed by the Celts as

last

in exactly the

same

light

But the astronomer Hesperus

is

and the oriental astronomer Edris

be the same patriarch.

We

may

is

therefore safely conclude,

shadowed out under the character of the

British astronomer

Idris. 1.

At

this point,

the righteous

Enoch

Gentiles, to melt insensibly into a

patriarch '

will

be found, in the legends of the

more recent preacher of repentance,

Noah.

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 252.

* Davies's Celtic

Research, p. 173, 17^.

the

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATllY. reality of

Such a circumstance, the

which seems

fectly

harmonizes with the notion, that the great father

at the

commencement of every new

by transmigration

me

to

is

,41

indisputable, per-

not only manifested

world, but that he repeatedly appears

person of each eminent reformer during the conti-

in the

own proper mundane system. Thus, of the seven primeval Menus, we are told, that the first was IMenu-Swayambhuva or Adam; and

nuance of

the

his

Menu-Satyavrata or Noah,

last,

for he

is

described as having been pre-

Between

served in an ark during the prevalence of an universal deluge.

Adam

Noah, the Hindoos place

therefore and

five

Menus, or

five

supposed

manifestations of the great father in the persons of five principal antediluvian saints.

It

were an

idle

patriarchs they

five

am

per-

mean by

suaded, that the series of

waste of time to attempt to ascertain what precise these five intermediate

number

arl)itrary

scriptural

families

Enoch, and when we

firom the seven

when we

but,

:

I

seven, which equally occurs in the

Menus, has been borrowed

two great primeval

Menus; because

next

members of each of

the

recollect the holy character of the

find that the

memory

of his righteousness

and consequent translation has been accurately preserved at the two opposite extremities of Asia and Africa, we can scarcely doubt that he at least would be esteemed one of the therefore and

Noah

antediluvian appearances of

five

Menu.

Enoch

were each viewed as a manifestation of the great father

the one, to give timely warning to the world; the other, to preside over

its

destruction and Venovation.

The two

patriarchs being thus mystically identified,

it is

natural to con-

clude that their two characters will be so intimately blended together as nearly to be amalgamated the case

:

the history of

able event in that of

:

and

Noah

Enoch

is ;

this,

accordingly,

we

shall find to

have been

perpetually decorated with the most remark-

and Enoch, while we gaze upon him as exhi-

bited by the Gentiles, assumes imperceptibly the aspect of his successor

Noah. ^2.

Mount

Paradisiaco-diluvian Ararat to the study of

astronomy as

:

and Noah was supposed

Idol.

to

be as

From this intercommunion believed Edris or Enoch to be the same as F VOL. II.

his ancestor

of character, the early Christians

Pag,

Meru or the much addicted

Atlas and Cader Idris were each a transcript of

Enoch.

<="*'•"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

42 BOOK

III.

'pjjQj.ii

is

or Hermes.

Nor were

'

tlicy far

mistaken

Buddha; and Buddha or Menu,

certainly the eastern

cessive manifestations,

is

Adam

once

at

and

Thoth

in his different suc-

Idris

Idris

and Atlas, are

Noah and Adam, each on

but they are likewise

;

for

:

Enoch and Noah.

Cader

therefore and Hesperus, on the summits of

deed Enoch

opinion

in their

in-

the top of the

primeval Ararat.

The

3.

identity of

their history

Thoth and Buddha cannot be doubted can be as

little

doubted, that they are

is

primarily

Adam

and secondarily Noah.

severally the great father,

who

But the character of these

deities runs into that of Idris or Edris

they appear no less will

when

and,

it

inquired into,

is

:

than he to be the patriarch Enoch, so he no

prove also to be the great father

who was

manifested at the

less

and, as

:

than they

commencement

of both worlds.

In allusion

was believed

to the triple offspring of to

Adam

have triplicated himself, and

Mach

the triad springing from unity.

the

we may which was bestowed upon him for,

tertained of Thoth or est

Hermes,

as

:

distinctly

and Noah, the pronounced

is

to be the

same idea seems from the

Buddha

oriental

to

same

as

have been en-

title

of Thrice-great-

as his identity with

Buddha may be

collect

proved from other considerations, and as Buddha was esteemed a

triple deity,

the descriptive

title

of Thoth must obviously be understood as

relating to his supposed triplication.

Now we may At

trace the existence of a similar opinion

the foot of the British mountain which

once, like other lakes in the ries,

on

still

respecting Idris.

bears his name, there

same country, deemed

sacred.

is

a lake;

In the Myste-

a lake was a constant symbol of the deluge: a small island reposing

its

bosom, frequently an

and any

lofty hill in its

artificial floating island,

immediate

vicinity

represented the

each of these had a further reference to yet earlier times typified

the

hill

Ark

shadowed out mount Ararat. :

and,

while the

:

But hill

of Paradise which coincided indeed geographically with

Ararat, the lake was a copy of that lake of the hero-gods from which issued the four rivers of Paradise, and the island denoted the literal greater

which

like the smaller arkite



World was supposed

to float after the

Stanly's Hist, of Chakl. Philosoph. p, 36.

World

manner of

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr. The peak

a huge ship on the surface of the abyss. script of the Paradisiaco-diluvian

was devoted in old times precisely the

By

same

mountain

43

then of Idris was a tran-

and, with the neighbouring lake,

;

to the celebration of the Druidical Orgies,

as those of the Samothracian Cabiri

which were

and the Egyptian

the side of this lake, there are yet shewn three gigantic stones,

The popular

Tri Greienyn.

notion

which the vast giant Idris shook carelessly out of :

but

his

name from Greian which They were, I the Greeks.

Gryneus of

signifies the

Sun, whence

believe, three ambrosial or

by which Buddha or Thoth or

solar stones, of a similar description to those

Hermes w as

shoe before he ascended

Davies justly supposes,

IVIr.

that they derived their

the Apollo

called

that these were three grains of sand,

is,

the chair of his mountain observatory

Isis.

represented in every quarter of the globe

:

and they were dedi-

cated to the triple great father or to the three aboriginal patriarchs, each of

whom,

Thus

to the solar orb.

Sun

Siva, are the

the Hindoos

tell

us,

that

in his three diflerent altitudes

yet higher god Brahm,

Om

common

in inseparable conjunction with their

the

is

same

:

while

we

;

parent,

was elevated

Brahma, Vishnou, and

and that

their father, the

are additionally assured, that

or the Trimurti mysteriously unite together in the person of Buddha.'

In

tliis

opinion respecting the three stones of Idris I

am the more confirmed

by the existence of other points of resemblance between him and the herogods with

whom

I believe

he ought to be

identified.

His supposed gigantic

stature exactly corresponds with the similar gigantic stature,

which

is

ascribed

Buddha, Jain, Mahiman, and Atlas; and which probably came to be

to

thus ascribed, from the custom of representing the great father by enormous

stone images

:

while his reputed astronomical knowledge

ledge, which Thoth,

is

the very

know-

Buddha, Atlas, Edris, and Hesperus, were each be-

The mountain also of Idris corresponds with tlie African mountain of Adas and Hesperus, and When with the no less famed Ceylonic mountain of Buddha or Gautama!).

lieved to

possess in a peculiarly eminent degree.

used for religious purposes, disiacal

mountain

observations, '

it

Asiat. Res. vol.

p. 173.

174.

;

and,

it

was, I have

little

when employed by

doubt, a lunar or Para-

the Druids

for astronomical

was so employed by them as the legitimate successors and iii.

p. 144. vol, v. p. 251. vol.

i,

p. 284, 285, 28t).

Celtic Research,

*="*'"•

"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATHY.

44 JtOOK

III,

who was

representatives of the great father, character.

mixed application to

Its

were from the

first

deemed a

ever

highly scientific

and astronomy,

religion

whicli

two

inseparably blended together in the mythological system

of the pagans, perfectly agrees with the similar application of the

artificial

montiform temples of the ancients, and thus again connects Idris with the

The tower

Egyptian Thoth.

of Babel, the pyramids of Egypt, and the

pagodas of Hindostan, were

built

all

and commemorate the

to imitate

mountain, Avhere Paradise once flourished and where the Ark afterwards rested

;

Erahmens

for the

that form

is

rightly

to be esteemed a

believe, that they

have

all

and

that every edifice of

explicitly tell us,

copy of mount Meru

:

and there

is

been equally used as observatories.'

reason to

It

was the

early study of astronomy, that depicted on the sphere the history of the ship

Argo and orb,

the deluge, that elevated the great father and his sons to the solar

and that adopted the boat-like crescent of the INIoon as the most apt

symbol of the Ark. tain is

no

pyramid

other,

than the

scientific Idris scientific

while Thoth again

;

natural

the

The

is

the

on the top of

favourite

his

Thoth on the summit same

as Atlas or Hesperus on the top of

In

observatory of Mauritania.

fact,

I see

no reason why we

should dispute the universal tradition, which ascribes both to

Noah

The

an intimate acquaintance with astronomy.

diluvians almost precluded the possibility of ignorance at

no very remote period

assiduity 4.

and success both

Idris therefore,

festations of

of

Xoah

:

Babylonia and

or Edris, or Enoch,

Menu, melts

in

Enoch and

to

long lives of the ante:

after the flood, that science in

moun-

of the imitative

and we know,

that,

was cultivated with

Egypt.

being esteemed one of the mani-

insensibly into the character both of

and, on the other hand, for a similar reason,

we

Adam

find the

and

memo-

rable translation of the antediluvian saint, ascribed to that ancient personage

who was supposed to appear at the commencement of every renovated world. From the summit of the lofty hill in Ceylon, which bears the name oi Adains peak, Buddha is said by his votaries to have been miraculously snatched away to heaven yet one Buddha is most assuredly Noah or Menu-Satyavrata; :

and another,

his earliest predecessor,

'

Vide

infra

book

is

no

v.

c. 7.

less

assuredly

§ II.

1.

Adam

or JNIenu-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY. This legend

Swayambiiuva.

palpably the same as that of the rapture of

is

Hesperus from the top of mount Atlas IMohanimedans

Ceylonic

style the

who thence ascended

the person

character both of Singalese

the

hill

nor

is

without reason, that the

it

peak of Adam, and believe that Just as mount Atlas

is

deluge and with the Paradisiacal garden

flic

the Ceylonic hill the sacred abode of Buddha, in his

is

Adam

and of Noah.

and the great father

:

:

\vas the protoplast.

immediately connected both with of the Hesperides; so

45

is

It

the Ararat or

is

Meru

of the

been translated from

reported to have

its

summit, only because Enoch was believed to have been one of his intermediate antediluvian manifestations.'

The religion of Euddha or Sacya or Xaca has spread itself far northward among the Calmucks, as well as southward among the Singalese: and 5.

same legend of

the

than by the thej/

worship

Muni.

his translation has

prince in India;

hut,

taken him up to heaven yet he

:

his manifestations,

sovei'eign

on account of his unparalleled sanctity,

God had

Thus

alive.''

miriiculously

declared to have lived,

is

at the time of the deluge

dweller upon the xvaters

;

he

;

who communicated her name preserved

nu

is

an ark; and he

own

Precisely the

account for

it

story

precisely in the

styled

have

Narayana or who is called

said to have espoused

summit of Meru and whose

own daughter

Ila,

appellation that of Aluni or

same

is

a person,

is

to

father

the

the 11a,

was

himself that very father, both because I\Ie-

is

described as espousing his

porates with his 6.

to the

Buddha believed

is

during the period of one of

he

identified with

is

sovereign prince in the belly of the fsh; he

in

less

Van Strahlenberg, Xaca or Xaca-

says

idols,

four thousand years ago he was only a

say, that

been translated

other

a peculiar manner one, which they call

in

They

been preserved by the former, no

Among

people.

latter,

is

and because Xaca incor-

Menu.

'

told of the Babylonian Xisuthrus;

same manner.

When

and

I

the vessel, in which he

had been preserved from the fury of the deluge, grounded,

in

consequence of

the recess of the waters, on the side of a lofty mountain in Armenia, he quitted

it

with his wife and his children

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

*

Van

'

Abiat, Res. vol. vi. p. 479. vol.

vii.

p. 50.

;

and, constructing an altar, immediately

Purcli. Pilgr.

Sliahlcnberg's Siberia, p. 409. ii.

p. 376.

b. v,

c. 18,

p.

550.

THE ORIGIN OV PAGAN IDOLATRY.

46 COOK

III.

worshipped the universal mother Earth, and offered After these

gods.

who came

those

rites

had been duly performed, Xisuthrus, and

immortal

(it is

mentations on the

name of

Him however

Xisuthrus.

iiis

the gods, and informing

them that on account of

voice in the

I

'

air,

may

they saw no

rela-

more

:

admonishing them to venerate

but they distinctly heard

miraculously taken up to heaven.

called with

return,

added)

The many

with him out of the ship, suddenly disappeared.

mainder of the crew, finding that they did not

lated from the

sacrifices to the

his piety

he had been thus

remark, that Xisuthrus

summit of an Armenian mountain,

as

is

trans-

Buddha and Hesperus

respectively ascend from the tops of the Ceylonese and Mauritanian peaks.

The stories have all originated from the same source, and relate to the same compound personage. Mount Atlas, Cader Idris, the peak of Adam, and of a pyramidal form,

the various sacred buildings that

Armenian Ararat, which

are equally copies of

feigned to have witnessed the translation of

is

Xisuthrus. 7.

The preceding

observations

personage

called,

is

perhaps throw some light on a re-

whom, as mentioned has been some difference of opinion.

markable antediluvian character; traditions of the pagans, there

may

respecting

with a slight variation, Amiacus, Cannacus, or

in

the

This

Nan-

nacus.

According

who

to Zenobius,

relates his history fi-om

Hermogenes, Can-

naces was a king of the Phrygians before the time of Deucalion seeing the deluge, collected supplications

:

men

;

who, fore-

together into the temples to offer up tearful

whence arose the proverb, mentioned by Herod, of weeping

like Cannaces.''

A

similar narrative

is

given by Suidas.

h^jWas a person of great antiquity, prior

to the time

Nannacus, says

of Deucalion.

He is

said to have been a king, who, foreseeing the approaching deluge, collected

every body together,

for

and

led

them, accompanied with

them

many

pression about Aannacus, which

The same

legend

is

related

additional circumstances. •

to

a temple

tears. is

There

is

likewise a proverbial ex-

applied to people of great antiquity.^

by Stephanus Byzantinus,

though with some

They say, that there was formerly a king named

Syncell. Chronog. p. 30. Euscb. Chron. p. 8.

Suid. Lex, vox Navraxc;.

where he offered up prayers

;

*

Zenob. in epit. proverb.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Annacus, the extent of zvhose

who were

people,

oracle all

how

was above three hundi'ed years.

The

and acquainta?ice, had inquired of an The answer was, that, whtn Jtmacus died,

of his neighbourhood

long he was to

live.

mankind would be destroyed.

lamentations

life

47

The Phrygians on

this account

made great

whence arose the proverb of weeping for Annacus,

:

used

When the Jiood of for persons or circumstances highly calamitous. Deucalion came, all mankind was destroyed, as the oracle had foretold. Aftencards, when the surface of the earth began to be again dry, Zeus ordered Prometheus and Minerva

men :

and,

when they were

make images of

finished,

breathe into each and I'ender them

Concerning

to

form of

he called the winds, and made them

vital.

this ancient cliai'acter there has been,

mated, a difference of opinion.

clay in the

Mr. Baxter,

as I have already inti-

fi-om the circumstances of his

being placed before the flood, his being distinguished from Deucalion, and

Cannaces or Canac, argues, that he must be the Enoch or Ghanoch of Scripture Mr. Bryant, on the contrary, supposes him to be

his being called

:

the patriarch the latter

Noah

opinion

is

in

his antediluvian state.*

am

According

the former ought to be Avholly rejected.

Metempsychosis, Cannaces probably unites racters of

I

inclined to think, that

the most nearly allied to truth, though I doubt -whether

Enoch and Noah

rior reference to the first

;

in his

to the doctrine of the

own person

tlie

two cha-

while a part of his history contains a yet ulte-

Menu or Adam.

The

formation of

and the breathing into them the breath of life, refer us to the

men from clay, commencement

of the antediluvian world, though placed, agreeably to the doctrine of a succession of similar systems, at the opening of the postdiluvian world the :

name

of Canac, his apparent distinction from Deucalion, and the general

impression which he leaves on the mind, seem not unnaturally to point him

out as the scriptural Enoch or Chanoch

:

but his character, Avhen closely ex-

amined, leads us almost inevitably to conclude, that he

Noah

to

than either to Enoch or

Adam.

He

is

is

represented, as being a

preacher of righteousness to the very time of the flood. exactly agrees with the character of "

Noah, but not with

Stcph. Byzaiit. de Urb. vox Ixokov.

* Archceolog. vol,

i.

p.

207. Bryant's Anal. vol.

ii.

p.

204.

more nearly allied This description

that of

Enoch who

"^^^: "*

4S IMOK

III.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

was translated near

The deluge

is

answer

at all

Noah:

to the character of

new

either of

its

exactly

Enoch, but

it

forms, relates to it

quitted

of the forms, he xveeps or suffers as in the case

and the second,

:

'

:

but

much

relates altogether to

of a person

The

us.

seems to

did,

who had undergone

great

his lamentations are as bitter as the hmienta-

the Phrygian Attis,

to

modified,

Now

was

this

similarly

weeping

for

and the Celtic

Ilu.

When

the

be dead or to have descended into Hades or to have vanished

from the sight of mortals, they bewailed

no

As Mr.

was commemoratively inclosed by the priests within his ark, and

was supposed

were

like his

when he was taken out of

the ark,

:

proverb, in

minutely with the doleful Orgies of the Phenician Adonis,

tallies

the Egyptian Osiris,

tions

it

Cannaces

as

for Annacus, though somewhat differently applied to one who laboured under excessive grief.'

great father

The

more properly teaches

tions

Cannaces

it.

has nothing to do with the antiquity of Cannaces,

have been used proverbially afflictions

This does not

perfectly accords with that of

mourning on account of a calamity.

the erroneous supposition of Suidas

is

of the old world.

died.

and he revived, or was born

when he

certain memorable calamities, as Stephanus first

dissolution

when he

as his coffin;

state of existence,

Bryant rightly observes, which

tlie

language of the mysteries, he died when he entered into

was considered

the Ark, which

again into a

commenced

said to have

in the

for,

centuries before

five

sufFerincfs

:

his calamities

no tears were so

and was deemed

with loud lamenta-

bitter as theirs.

to

But,

have been restored to

life

or to have returned from Hades or to have once more manifested himself,

all

which he allegorically did at the commencement of the new world

the scene

'

Ta To

then

was changed, and the deepest woe was succeeded by the most

frantic joy.'

*

;

As

the distinction between

for

Annacus and Deucalion,

it

Kavvaicsu y.AaiEix. £iri

kwoLMu kKouuv.

Noah, though preserved, was yet deemed a man of eminent sorrows. / "sill adore, says Talicsin in his poem of The spoils of the deep, I xcill adore the sovereign, the supreme ruler 3

If he extended his dominion over the shores of the world, yet in good order icas The heavy in the iiiclosure of Sidi : no one before him entered into it. Gwair prison of

of the land. the

blue chain didst thou,

and

till

the

doom

shall

just man, endure: and for the spoils of the deep woeful it

remain

in the

Bardic prayer.

is

thy song

;

Thrice the number that would have

THE OHIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY. relate to the

seems merely to after the deluge

:

two

49

whence he was considered,

as being of a double nature,

This

and as looking backward and forward into two successive worlds. sion of one

man

two persons

into

is vei-y

common

the separation of Cannaces from Deucalion

separation of Horus from Osiris relationship of son

and

father,

and

different lives of the patriarch before

;

is

in

nothing more than the similar

each of whom, though exhibited

are equally

divi-

pagan mythology: and

Noah

viewed under two

in the

difl'erent

aspects.

VIII. Cannaces

is

said to have surpassed the age of three hundred years.

This agrees better with the duration of Enoch's

life

who was

translated

Noah who had

three hundred and sixty five years old, than with that of

completed six centuries

The

at the time of the flood.

when

legend however serves

to shew, in conjunction with other similar legends, that the longevity of the

early patriarchs was well

Such

is

known throughout

the gentile world.

the purport of Hesiod's assertion, that, in the silver age, which

immediately succeeded the age of Paradisiacal innocence and immortality,

men, this

at the

end of a century from

their birth,

passage Josephus seems to allude,

mony, which the ancients,

in perfect

to the longevity of the first race.

luvians

on

were

still

when mentioning

but infants.

To

the general testi-

accordance with the Pentateuch, bore

After stating the long lives of the antedi-

the authority of Moses, he observes. All those persons, whether

Greeks or Barbarians, zvho have zvritten en the sulject of antiquity, agree

For Manetho who composed an account of the Egyp-

with me in this point. Jilled

Fryduen, reentered

into the deep

;

excepting seven, none have returned from Caer Sidi.

Davics's Mythol. of Brit. Druids, p. 515. the Sida of the Hindoos,

The

prison of

the Saida of the Canaanites,

Gwair

or the inclosure of Sidi,

the Said of the Egyptians,

the Sito

or Ceres of the Sicilians, in other words the great mother represented by the circular inclosure

of Stonehenge that Druidical copy of the circle of Ila

Gwair or llu or

the just

man

is

;

the inclosure of Sidi

Noah, the Sadik of Moses and Sanchoniatho

:

is

the

Ark

the doleful

song on account of suffered calamity answers to the lamentations for Cannaces or Adonis or Osiris:

of

and the seven, who alone return with him

mankind had perished, are

seven Rishis of Hindostan,

who

his family,

at the

the

in safety

same

from the deep where

all

the rest

as the seven Cabiri or seven Titans or

end of each world are preserved with a

Menu

capacious ark during the prevalence of an universal deluge. ' .

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

II,

G

in

»

'^'*'^^'

""

^0 BOOK

III,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr,

and Berosus who compiled a narrative of the and Mochus, and Hestieus, and Jerome the Egyptian, tians,

of Chaldea,

affairs xclio

zvere the authors

of different histories of Phenicia; all these bear testimony to my veracity. Hesiod likezvise, and Hecaieus, and Hellayiicus, and Jcusilaus, and Epho-

and Nicolaus,

rus,

Of this rant

:

relate,

that the ancients lived a thousand years. ^

we

general tradition Varro, as

learn from Lactantius,

but he attempted to account for the supposed longevity of the primitive

race of mortals, by conjecturing, attained,

that the thousand years,

were only a thousand months or lunar revolutions.

however, as

it

well argued by

is

Lactantius,

according to the conjecture of Varro, those,

age

was not igno-

will fall considerably short

Every person, who

of what

lives a century,

many have done even

in

our own days.

twelve hundred of those lunar first

men, so celebrated

first

period

;

and con-

for their longevity,

by upwards of two hundred of such years.

But many moderns have

more than a century

more exceeded

and therefore have

;

still

for,

:

then reached the greatest

years to which Varro would reduce the years of the

sequently exceeds the age of the

Such a solution

wholly inadmissible

is

who

lives full

which they

to

lived

that age of the

primitive mortals, which tradition uniformly asserts to have been so great.*

Nor is this it

will

oning

all

:

if

the computation be

made by such

years as Varro proposes,

not be easy to point out the particular period, is

The

cease.

to

Holy Writ even beyond

ages of the patriarchs are regularly specified in

the days of Jacob

used, the absurdity will be evident

ham, when

amount

his

when that mode of reck-

:

for,

;

and,

if

lunar revolutions be

in that case,

son was born by a peculiar interposition of heaven,

to something

more than

still

the old age of Abrawill

eight solar years.

According to Couplet, the Chinese have precisely the same idea of the longevity of the antediluvians. the

Some

of these they suppose to have attained

age even of eight or ten thousand years; an age far surpassing

which Scripture assigns

to them.

ration of national vanity,

that,

This however must either be an exagge-

in order that their records

may extend

to an incre-

dibly remote period ; or the true ages of the antediluvians must have been

decupled, by '

way of making them more extraordinary; or

Joseph. Ant. Jud.

lib.

i.

c. 3.

*

Lactant.

Instit. lib,

else the years in

ii.

c. 12.

51

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATEY.

supposed the thousand years to question must really have been, what Varro which last suppositions, the lunar revolutions: according to either of be,

Mosaical and Chinese accounts will coincide with a

sufficient

racy to shew whence such a tradition originated.

It

that the

stance,

is

degree of accu-

a curious circum-

the chronology of China,

Emperor Hoang-Ti, who, by

when the life of man must have been contemporary with the patriarch Reu proposed an inquiry, in a mediwas shortened to about three hundred years, it happened, that the lives of book of which he was the author, frfience compared with the lives of the then present their forefathers xverc so long

cal

generation ?'

In

term of mortal existence, the rapid abbreviation of the ancient could not but have began to take place immediately after the flood,

fact,

which

greatly alarmed the early

postdiluvians,

and have

filled

their

minds with

Hence a singularly anxious conjectures and melancholy forebodings. abbreviation commenced, accurate recollection of the precise time, when this the life of man began was preserved by the Gentiles it was supposed, that

many

:

agreeable to this opifrom the days of lapetus.^ Exactly Immediately after the deluge, and consenion is the scriptural narrative. and his children flourished, the lonquently at the precise era when Japhet

to be shortened

gevity of the

human

race was

a gradual diminution,

until

first

curtailed

:

and

the present age of

it

henceforth experienced

man became

the average

standard.

From in the

the

same source

course of every

plainly originates the doctrine of the

mundane

becomes shorter and shorter; and until

it

again reaches

commences.

The

its first

first

revolution the

that afterwards

duration,

man, they

life

when

the

say, attained

it

of the is

Burmas, that

human

species

gradually extended

same abridgment once more an almost inconceivable age

successively shorter lives as they bebut his children and grandchildren had until men came to live came less virtuous; and this decrease continued, •

*

Couplet Prafat. ad Sin. Chronol. p. 5. Horace Horat. Carm. lib. i. od. 3. The language of

deser\e to be transcribed.

Semotiquc prius tarda nccessitas Letbi corripuit gradura.

is

so reir.arkablo. that h>s vofd-

'^"*''-

"

THE

52 BOOK

III.

PAGAV IDOLATRT.

ORIGIN- OF

only ten years, the span of mortal existence during the period of the greatest

The progeny

wickedness.

of these, considering the cause of such an awful

abbreviation, dedicated themselves

came worthy of

living

more

twenty years.

to the practice of virtue,

Afterwards their posterity, increasing

performance of good works, had their

in the

and be-

they again reached the age of the

first

lives protracted,

until at length

Then commenced another

man.

diminution, which was followed by another prolongation: and this alternate

decrease and increase must take place sixty four times after the reproduction

of a world, before that world will be again destroyed.

A

somewhat

similar idea prevails

ing the continuance of the present reflected

image of every former system, there

in the lives of five years

;

men,

A

all

will

are at the shortest, every one will rain will then

terrible

sweep from

except a small number of good people,

notice of the evil and thus avoid

be changed into beasts

will

appear and establish a new order of things.

specting

worlds

fable

tliis

it is

:

off the face of the

will receive timely

at length

Buddha, or the great *

Little

father,

need be said

re-

palpably built on the theory of a succession of similar

and, because the

;

mencement of

until

who

commit un-

All the wicked, after being drowned,

it.

will

:

be a successive diminution

reduced so low as not to continue beyond

until they are

when they

and,

heard of crimes. earth

among the Buddhists of Ceylon. Durmundane system, which is the faitlifully

life

of

man began

to be shortened

the present postdiluvian world, while

i\\e

from the com-

former world

termi-

nated with an universal flood, a parallel abbreviation and a parallel end by

made to characterize every fictitious mundane system. IX. The number of generations from Adam to Noah is represented

water

is

in

Scripture as being ten, each of those patriarchs being included in the series;

so that

Noah

ber was well

stands in the ninth place of descent from

known

to the Gentiles

added

it

lar worlds,

Abraham,

festation of

it

was from

their traditional ac-

as

we have

already seen, was esteemed a mani-

Cronus or Menu.

The Hindoos '

and

This num-

to the established doctrine of a succession of simi-

quaintance with that

:

Adam.

celebrate ten antediluvian children of Brahma, and describe

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi.

p. 181,

182.

* Asiat.

Res. vol.

vii.

p.

415.

THE ORIGTV or PAGAN IDOLATRY. them as being succeeded by the seven the

These

Rishis.

same as the seven Menus, exhibited anew under a

53

last I

take to be really

different modification.

The seven Menus are said to be sprung from the ten Brahmadicas or children of Brahma while the seven Rishis are pronounced to be the immediate offspring of Brahma himself. Now the seven Rishis, with an eighth person ;

the head of their family, escape in a boat from the general destruction pro-

The

duced by an universal deluge.

Menu

seven Rishis therefore with their leader

are plainly the eight arkite mariners.

supposed manifestations of the great

Hence

to that of the deluge.

Yet

seven Rishis.

numbers

and

:

it is

father,

mutual connection appears from the identity of the

their

so perfectly arbitrary to say, that there were seven

that the

mind

Noah had

Thus

far therefore they agree.

to

Menus

companions

really seven

Menus must have been pronounced

the Rishis were seven. call to

same as the

in this respect they are 7wt the

between the creation and the deluge, while in the Ark,

But the seven Menus are seven from the epoch of the creation

be seven because

And now, when we

the prevailing belief in transmigration and reappearance,

it

will

not be unreasonable to conjecture with Mr. Wilford, that, whatever distinction

may have been made between

Rishis are ultimately the

same seven

Menus and the seven The conjecture is persons.

them, the seven individual

rendered the more probable by our finding, that the Brahmadicas are pro-

nounced sometimes that Atri,

to

who must

as being at once a

be

ten,

in

number; and

evidently be identified with Edris or Idris,

Brahmadica and a Rishi.

must necessarily conclude, ten,

and sometimes only seven,

they shadow out the

that,

when

From

this last

is

described

circumstance

we

the Brahmadicas are represented as

ten antediluvian generations;

and

that,

when

tliey

appear as only seven, they coalesce with the seven Rishis and seven JNIenus.

Much gods

:

the

same

sometimes, by the

been ten

head of

;

may be observed in the number of the Cabiric name of the Idei Dactyli, they are said to have

variation

sometimes they are described as seven ; and sometimes, when the

their family

is

joined to them, they are spoken of as eight.

The

confusion originated almost necessarily fi'om the causes which have been just specified. race, except the

Every dynasty ends with a

Menu

total destruction

ef the human

or ruler of the next period, who makes his escape in

a boat with the seven Rishis.

The same events take place : the same per-

*^"*'''

"*

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

54 BOOK

III.

though sometimes under different names,

sons,

known

reappear.

that there v ere ten generations before the flood, and

It being thus it

being argued

more had elapsed

after the flood the world would be again

destroyed; Abraham, appearing

in the ninth postdiluvian place of descent

that wlien ten

Noah had

from Shem as

appeared

in the ninth antediluvian place

from Adam, and also flourishing when the

whelmed by a mixed deluge of

cities

of descent

of the plain were over-

and water, was thence pronounced to be

fire

new Cronus or Menu or Ilus. The Hindoos, having assigned seven Menus to the period before the

the expected manifestation of a

and strongly maintaining the mutual were

in

consequence led to place seven Menus after the flood

they produced a series of fourteen Menus.

There

Menu

or

fabled

mundane

Simorgh filled

Buddha tells

Mahabad

may be

successions of that nation.

In

Caherman, that she had lived instead of the reduplicate

is

to

seven which

other times they are said to have

as the reigns

no other than

when

this last case,

Brahma

or

is

the

we have

only the simple

numhev fourteen.

number of

been nine, which

Menu-Swayambhuva

tions, or rather subdivisions, of the original

connection of the seven

which

I

number

is

still

is

the

included

more than

;

are

so at

;

same

as ten

while at

three,

These are

ten,

all

who varia-

so contrived as to

numbers of seven and three

:

and the close

Brahmadicas, the seven Menus, and the seven

have contended with Mr. Wilford,

suflSciently

from the curious manner in which the Hindoos blend them From Adam

Brahma

the arkite Rishis

are then pronounced to have been the sons of Adima.

exhibit the equally important

the bird

to see the earth seven times

other times again they are declared to have been no

Rishis, for

same

clearly

observed, that, as the ten antediluvian children of

their parent

and thus

and they are likewise closely coimected with the seven

:

sometimes reduced

when

for

with creatures and seven times a perfect void,

number seven It

;

:

great reason to believe,

is

that the fourteen periods of this double series are the very

of the fourteen Mahabads of Iran

flood,

similarity of all the successive worlds,

appears

together.

The

Noah inclusive, were ten generations: and these were succeeded by ten Shem to Abraham also inclusive. Abraham therefore was the tenth as Noah was the tenth person of the first: but Abraham was the second decad, person of the ninth in descent from Shem, as Noah was the ninth in descent from Adam. '

to

other gcnemtions, from

THE ORIGIK OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. seven great ancestors of mankind were

Brahmadicas, created

first

purpose of replenishing the earth with inhabitants

when they had

;

became Menus or mundane sovereigns

their mission, they

age,

55

when they withdrew

and

:

for the fulfilled

old

in their

to solitary places to prepare for death, they

became

Rishis or holy penitents.

There the

is

yet another modification of

same studied

huva, or

among seven of

incarnate in

evident, that

is

Adima,

which we may

fable, in

and

ten, seven,

is

said

told of Priyavrata, the grandson of

one character

is

trace

Swayamb-

three.

have divided

to

still

tlie

while three embraced the eremitical

his ten sons,

exactly similar story it is

numbers

attention to the

Brahma

tlie

An

life.

Adima

represented by each of them.

world

;

whence This

se-

cond sto-y terminates with an ogdoad of sons, in whose time the earth was

To what

again divided.

era the last division

is

to be ascribed,

may be

col-

lected from the character of Ila the reputed sister of these eight persons

who

is

sometimes thought to be the daughter of Bharata, and

who was saved

sometimes

in

an ark at the time of

Such modifications teach us how we are

to understand the va-

described as the child of Satyavrata the deluge.

is

and now three

Brahma ten sons, now nine, now seven, number ten, but subdivide it so as to produce

which now assign

rj-ing legends, :

they retain the

to

the other sacred numbers.

The Hindoos however do tions in this

not always describe the ten antediluvian genera-

compound and perplexed manner

mysticism and condescend to

matter of

literal

successive descents precisely in

:

the

when they quit fact,

manner of

the regions of

they then draw out ten

Scripture, beginning with

Adim and Iva, and terminating with a pious prince named Prithu, who plainly the

gods and

same

as

Noah

men came

ance upon earth.

to

He

or INIenu-Satyavrata.

make obeisance was a highly

to agricultural pursuits.

or the great mother

:

and

He it

to

When Prithu

him and

to celebrate his appear-

religious character,

was thought was during

is

was born, both

and addicted himself

to have espoused a form of Lacshmi his days,

that his mystical consort,

in the

shape of a cow, ascended to the summit of the Paradisiaco-diluvian

Meru

or Ararat.

cow was the

Little

need be said

in

explanation of this legend.

universal symbol of the great mother,

two characters of the Earth and the Ark.

who

She was

The

united in herself

tlie

same

tlie

as the ship

56 BOOK

III '

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Argha

Aigo

or

;

and by the Syrians she was denominated Theba, which

The cow

properly signifies an ark.

Athm, when

the ninth in descent from

Ark

therefore of Prithu the

husbandman,

stationed on the top of

Meru,

of Noah, mystically united with the Earth,

when

resting

is

the

on the summit

of Ararat.' I

am

inclined to believe, that the precise

number of

the

Hindoo Avatars

of Vishnou has been determined to be ten in reference to the same ten ante-

They

diluvian generations.

and the

be yet future

last is believed to

commence with the when we recollect how

doubtless indeed :

but,

ly the doctrine of a succession of similar worlds

menical philosophers, Ave shall not find in

The

disprove such an opinion.

this

is

deluge, strong-

maintained by the Brah-

circumstance any argument to

tenth Avatar, in fact,

is

a complete diluvian

Vishnou, arrayed with the attributes of the destroying regenera-

symbol.

an armed warrior, to sweep away the incorrigible

tor Siva, appears, as

The white horse, which accompanies him, is one of the most common hieroglyphics of the great father, as the mare is of the great mother for this mode of representation has prevailed from Japan in the east to Britain in the west.* And, though the mundane inhabitants

of

the earth.

;

dissolution,

which he

is

according to a favourite past

to accomplish,

dogma

for they believe, as I

:

every world

world

is

;

ostensibly future;

it

is

nu with seven Rishis

A

among

i.

p.

ciiap. vii.

af-

was equally preserved

Plato informs us, that a marine hero-god, to

244—255.

vol.

ii.

p.

346.

Neptune, divided the

vol. viii. p. 286,

334, 335.

Instit.

of

p. 5.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

247.

and that world

;

overwhelmed by a deluge, from which a Me-

he gives the Greek appellation of Posidofi or

Asiat. Res. vol. v, p.

to observe, that

preserved in an ark.

the ancient Atlantians.

Menu. chap.

less,

has been preceded, by a perfectly similar

recollection of the ten antediluvian generations

whom '

is

is

must no

manifested as a destroyer at the close, and

as a regenerator at the commencement, of each system ter world, in endless series,

it

of the Hindoos, be considered as long since

have had occasion so frequently

succeeded, as

that the great father

is

i.

p.

236.

Maurice's Hist, of Hirtd. vol.

Davies's Mythol, of Brit. Druids, p. 257, 258.

ii.

Sec

p.

403.

my

Ksempfer's Japan,

Dissert, on

tlje

Cabiri,

THE

ORIGIN' OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

57

among his ten sons; just as Brahma or Adima similarly diThe first inhabitants of that island earth among his children.

island Atlantis

vided the

were remarkable

for their piety

but, afterwards degenerating

:

and impurity, they were overwhelmed, toge-

guilty of all sorts of violence

ther with their country, by the waves of the ocean.

earth

which Adima divided among his

vian world to

:

and,

nerations.

The

opinion

manners ascribed

Cosmas when

it

to

is

must have been the antedilu-

who

inhabited

it

its

inhabitants, it

and by an old

by

tradition preserved

was formerly tenanted by Noah, and

that,

sank, he sailed in an ark to the continent.'

very distinct remembrance of the same ten antediluvian generations

among

Alexander Polyhistor,

man Alorus

the ancient Chaldeans ail

:

for Berosus,

Abydenus, and

agree in reckoning ten inclusive descents from the

to the pious Xisuthrus,

who was saved

with his family in

an ark when the earth was inundated by the waters of an universal '

previous

confirmed, both by the gradual deterioration of

Indico-Pleustes, that

prevailed also

first

Atlantis then, like the

submersion, must be viewed as shadowing out the ten antediluvian ge-

its

A

offspring,

the ten sons of Neptune,

if so,

and becoming

See

my

Dissert,

on the Cab.

toI.

ii.

p.

283

— 288.

cuss the fible of the island Atlantis more at large.

I shall

Vide

flood.*

have occasion hereafter to

infra

book

iii.

c. 6.§. 1. 1.

*Syncell. Cbronog. p. 30, 38, 39.

Pag. Idol

VOL.

11.

G

dis-

«hap.ii.

CHAPTER On

the antediluvian

and diluvian

III.

history as exhibited in the

Zend-Avesta.

But

perhaps the most generally consistent detail of antediluvian history,

terminating with the catastrophe of the flood and the manifestation of the

second great father of mankind, has been preserved in the Zend-Avesta of the ancient Persians. I.

I

have already had occasion to notice their dividing the period of the

creation into six different intervals, analogous to the Mosaical division of into six days

:

and

observations on

I

then intimated

tliis

my

curious legend,

intention of offering

when a

additional

suitable opportunity should oc-

now proceed to fulfil my engagement. Where the cosmogony of the Persians terminates,

cur.'

some

it

I

their narrative of an-

is properly made to commence. In we have seen, man alone was created but he

tediluvian transactions last interval, as

:

the sixth is

and

supposed to

have been mysteriously divided into two characters, distinguished from each other as

the.

man and

the man-bull.

These were the

first

of beings, and

did not spring from the union of male and female, but were formed diately by the

hand of God. '

The man was

Vide supra book

I.

called

chapi 5.

§

V.

imme-

Kaiomorts or Key-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. ITmursh-' and the

spoke

:

stituting jointly

man

the

Abondad

A b- Bond-Tat.''

or

But the man and the one being

;

For some time

bull.

man was

:

nominated /Ihriman, con'upted the world. he descended

to the earth,

At

poisoned by

Dews

the

his

an

last

venom, and died

in

After having dared to

an

Karf

ele-

hea-

visit

intro-

The man-bull was

esters.

consequence of

in

of

evil one, de-

assumed the form of a serpent, and

duced a number of wicked demons called

of

of this intelligent being,

and the man-bull resided

vated region, which the Deity had assigned to him.

ven,

beginnini»

the pure and holy soul

after the creation

there was a season of great happiness

and

lived,

were compounded together, con-

bull

so that the

The man

That man was the

the bull died, and did not speak.

generations.

all

bull,

59

It

it.

was

that

said,

of I\Iaz ndran fought against the fixed stars, and that Ahriman,

independently of his machinations against Kaiomorts, had formed the de-

But the

sign of destroying the whole world.

four days and as many til

nights, fought against

at length they defeated

celestial Izeds,

and precipitated them

into

middle of Douzakh, Ahriman went upon the earth.

whole world into confusion.

during twenty

Dews Douzakh. From

Ahriman and

all

the

;

unthe

There he threw the

For that enemy of good mingled himself with

every thing, appeared every where, and sought to do mischief both above

and below.

The man-bull was now dead, but out of his left arm proceeded a being named Goschoronn. He is said to have raised a cry louder than the shout Approaching Ormuzd the Creator, he thus addressed of a thousand men. JVhat chief have you established in the zvorld? Ahriman is employed hini. in 7-apidly destroying the earth, in hurting the trees,

juices by the agency of scalding xvater.

have spoken ? Let him now prepare that has been done.

Ormuzd

to

fVhere

is

and

The

drying up their

the man, of

engage himself

replied to him.

in

to

bull,

whom you

make good the

O

evil

Goschoronn, has

Ahriman has injected him. But that for a time, when Ahriman will not be able to

jallen sick of the malady, with zvhich

man

is

reservedfor an earth,

exercise his violence.

'

M.

*

This name

Goschoroun was now

Anquctil writes the word ,Kaio>norts is

also a

compound.

:

full

of joy: he consented to

but the appellation

is

a compound one.

chap.

m.

THE ORIGIN

60 HOOK

III.

tj^at^

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

01'

which Ormuzd demanded of him

and he

:

said,

/ xvill

take care of all

the creatures hi the world.

After this

was resolved to put Ahriman to

it

those wicked persons

now an

whom

both as a isted

star,

and

he had introduced upon the earth

supreme

universal opposition to the

cond man-bull appeared,

flight,

who bore

and as the sun

:

the

yet he

;

tor there

was

God Ormuzd. At this time a seTaschter. He is spoken of,

name of

is

also mentioned, as

To

upon earth under three forms.

to destroy all

a person w ho ex-

Taschter was couiuntted the charge

of bringing on the deluge.

Meanwhile Ahriman went on

The

wicked race of the Darvands.

O

in the following words.

his rebellion,

in

and was joined by the

chief of thern accosted the evil spirit

Ahriman,

raise yourself

I go

up with me.

to

Oimuzd and the Anischaspands. Then he, the origin of evil, Ahriman wished twice counted the Dews separately, and was not content. to quit that abject state, to which the sight of the pure man had reduced The Darvand Dje said to him. Raise yoursclj with me to enter into him. What evils will I bring upon the pure man and upon the bull this war.

Jight and bind

I shall inflict upon them, they xvill no longer I will be in the water I will be thejire of Ormuzd: I will be in every thing that

After they have suffered what he able to

in the trees:

Ormuzd

I xvill

live,

I will

corrupt their light

be in

has made.

He, wliose every action

But the daring

to review his troops.

man was

put to

On this

it

flight

;

universal deluge of w aters, that as the second man-bull Taschter

work, he forthwith set about

On

is

rebellion

evil,

then proceeded twice

was speedily crushed

to bring over the face

this

was the person appointed

it.

occasion,

thirty

The pure

was

like

a large salver.

the height of a

man

:

and,

:

to effect this great

he had, as

it

souls watched with care

were, three bodies bull.

His

;

the light

days and thirty nights, and he caused rain to

descend under each body for the space of ten days. rain

of the earth an

Taschter was seconded by Bahman, by

body of a man, the body of a horse, and the body of a shone on high during

Ahri-

;

impurity might be washed away

all

Hom-Ized, and by Beni-Barzo-Ized. •

:

and the victory remained with Ormuzd.

was thought necessary

over his safety.

:

The

Every drop of that

earth was wholly covered with water to

and, the streams penetrating to

its

very inmost re-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. cesses, all the Kharfesters perished in the

was the quantity of

and

rain:

it fell

6l

So prodigious

mighty inundation.

each of which equalled in bulk

in droj)s,

the head of an ox.

and were again confined within

length the waters began to retire,

At

proper bounds

:

sides

upon the

from

the Arg-Roud.'

earth.

God

became

Albordi was situated, bore

tlie

The

visible.

the

Here another

We

abundance.

The mode

particular region,

body

them

all

II.

of their production

is

not a

ceding citation

is

:'

it is

:

bull

it

was then formed

and a cow.

From

Mr. Bryant

Hebrew

is

disposed to admit it

to

Perron's French

is

that the present

dans V Arg-Roud

as an authentic relic of

be a mere garbled compila-

who had been a

Daniel:* Sir William Jones, on the authority to think,

it,

work of Zeradusht, who

Scriptures, the

the time of Darius Hystaspis and

the Dabistan, seems

whence the pre-

not to be dissembled, that various opinions have

Dr. Prideaux strongly maintains

tion from the

M.

moon

The

remarkable.

to the genuineness of the Zend-Avesta,

taken,

been entertained.

*

little

kinds of animals, and birds, and fishes, originated.*

With respect

antiquity

which

and from them the Universe

:

and out of that body sprang a

:

in

was framed, which was

bull

seed of the first-mentioned bull was purified in the into a living

at last the

are likewise told, that two animals of this

species were produced, a male and a female

was derived.

and

:

name of Ferakh-kand: and there Ormuzd Kharfesters, who remained, and from whom all

things were destmed to spring. all

after-

All these mountains multiplied themselves from

surface of the whole earth

all

and

to appear,

the root of Albordi, as suckers are propagated from a tree

planted the germs of

all

the creator drove back all the waters

Then he caused mount Albordi

wards the other mountains.

the author of

them on

for a violent wind, during three days, agitated

IVIeanw hile

their

;

of

flourished in

servant of the prophet

Mohsan

Zend-Avesta

but the sense seems

to

the author of

is

me -to

a compdation

require, that the

original bhould have been translated /rom, not tn. *

Zend-Avesta, vol.

iii.

p.

348—371.

vol.

i.

p. 353, 351, 354, 334, 352, 356, 359.

Bryant. '

Anal.

vol.

iii.

p.

599, 600.

* Prideaux's Connect, part

i.

b. iv. p.

219

ct infra.

apud

^^*^" "''

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

62 kooK

111.

fpQjjj tjjg

Y,ork of Zeradusht which itself

Richardson broadly

asserts,

that

partialfabrication of modern

no longer

is

in existence

marks of the

carries palpable

it

Of

times.''

:'

these opinions,

it is

and Mr. total or

obvious, that

those of Bryant and Richardson form the two extremes.

Equally various have been the sentiments concerning

Hyde

Prideaux and

are wholly different

characters have so

:

and Richardson

resemblance to each other,

little

reputed author.

name Zoroaster and

the Greeks Zoroaster: Bryant maintains, that the

name Zeradusht

its

the existence of only one Zeradusht, called by

allow

that the

two

Dr. Hyde

aiid

tells us,

that, unless

the

other oriefitalists had resolved at all events to reco7icile the identity of their

we should have much

persons,

difficulty to discover

Amidst these discordant views of termine, what degree of credit

the subject,

it

a single similar feature.

requires

some caution

to de-

due to the mythological history of the

is

Zend-Avesta.

So

far

as I can judge, the moderate opinion of Sir William Jones bids

Internal evidence, to which alone

the fairest to be the truth.

mately

Richardson

:

me

appears to

resort,

for,

we must

ulti-

equally to set aside those of Prideaux and

though the outline of the Zend-Avestaic story corresponds

with the Mosaical narrative, the mode of telling

it

altogether pagan and

is

does not bear the least resemblance to the plain detail of the Jewish lawgiver

and

;

it is

so replete with those remarkable mythologic and symbolical

notions, which are

common

to the

whole gentile world, that

cannot possibly be a mere modern invention,

Richardson wishes us

to ascribe to his

if

groundzvork

its

such be the idea which Mr.

term fabrication.

This

last is

Mr.

Bryant's argument to prove the genuine antiquity of the present Zend-Avesta:

and

it

avails, I think, to

prove that the groundzvork of

it

must be authentic;

but

it

who

are best qualified to decide the point, the absolute authenticity of the

is

insufficient to

composition

which

it

especially

against

The Zend-Avesta may be

itself.

times, though hozv far terials,

prove,

modern

contains,

'

Discourse on the Persians.

*

Richardson's Dissert,

sect,

compilation of modern

I will not pretend to determine

may

:

yet the

ma-

nevertheless be most curious and valuable

Asiat, Res. vol, ii.

a

those able orientalists

ii.

p. 51.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Thus

fragments of real antiquity.

Greek

scholiasts are comparatively

63

writings of Tzetzes

the

modern

:

yet

and the other

they contain

some of

the

No one ever most precious rehcs, which we have, of old pagan mythology. suspects, that they invented the fables which they relate, though many of them now occur no where

else

:

I see not therefore,

in plain contradiction to internal evidence,

Avesta are a Sir

modero J'ab7'ication,

William Jones,

this

that the

imagine,

contents of the Zend-

term meaning invention.

do not misunderstand him, ascribes the original

if I

Zend-Avesta

to Zeradusht,

Prideaux.'

If

it

by

why we should

whom

he places a small matter earlier than Dr.

were the work of a person who was contemporary with

Darius Hystaspis, I should suspect that neither was he the inventor of

but that he had either copied from some yet older book (of which

it,

his pro-

duction might be esteemed a then modernized edition), or that (like Ovid)

he had collected together into one volume various scattered legends.

The

probability of this opinion will appear in the sequel: at present I shall con-

who roundly declares the Zend-Avesta Pentateuch made by a slave of Daniel in

sider the hypothesis of Dr. Prideaux,

to be a

mere compilation from the

the time of Darius Hystaspis. ].

This point I should conceive to be the most satisfactorily determined

(at least so far as the preceding citations are concerned, alo7ie I

am

interested)

in the fate

of which

by comparing them with the writings, whence they

are supposed to have been taken.

Now

it

ment of

appears to me, that, except the regular and systematic arrange-

the story and the

successive times, there as well

is

dogma

of the world having been created at six

not only nothing which might not have been just

borrowed from the general mythology of the old heathens as from the

Pentateuch

;

but nearly the whole narrative

is

couched

in terms,

have been taken from ancient symbolical mythology, and which sent form could not have been taken from the Pentateuch.

which must in their pre-

Zeraduslit had

no occasion to resort to the book of Genesis, in order to learn either the '

Dr. Prideaux, on the authority of Clemens Alexandrinus, represents Pythagoras as hav-

ing been his pupil, whereas Sir William Jones thinks

conversed together. Hystaspis.

They agree however

in

fixing

it

barely possible that they could have

him

to

the age of Gushtasb or Darius

CHAP.

III.

THE

64 BOOK

III.

an

man, or

first

evil

being

happiness of

in its great outline, or the Paradisiacal

history of the creation

the

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

OllIGlN OF

in consequence of yielding to the temptation of

his fall

who assumed

the form of a serpent,

ness of mankind before the flood

still

:

less did

he require to have received his

Hebrew

information respecting the deluge from the

or the universal wicked-

lawgiver.

These matters

whole world both eastern and western, though

were well known throughout tiie perhaps in no other ancient system are they

much

regularity

all

successively detailed with so

But Zeradusht

and method.

relates

them

in

a manner,

which he could not have learned from the Pentateuch, and which (supposing him to be entirely the author of the Zend-Avesta) he must have altogether

Thus Moses might have taught

learned from the old symbolical mythology.

him, that first

man

Adam was the first man

Noah

of the antediluvian world, and

the

of the postdiluvian world: but the idea of representing the one as

a sort of revival of the other and of considering the two as a

cond man-bull, while

it

first

and

se-

perfectly accords with the gentile notion of a succes-

sion of similar worlds

and with the

the transmigrating great father or

gentile practice of typifying

Adam

by a

reappearing in the person of

bull

Noah

;

such an idea could not have been borrowed from the book of Genesis. Thus also Moses might have told him, that the first woman was deceived

by a serpent, that a

that death

was the consequence of yielding

who should

Saviour was obscurely promised

to the temptation,

bruise the head of the

and that the flood was the punishment of antediluvian wickedness though Me y«c/* detailed in the Zend-Avesta coincide sufficiently with

serpent, but,

:

those related in the Pentateuch to prove their identity

which they are detailed,

is

narrative of Moses, that it

the manner, in

so peculiar, and differs so widely from the simple is

hard to conceive

From

been a mere transcript of the other. been learned, that certain

yet

;

evil beings

how

the one history could have

various gentile legends

had been cast out of heaven,

it

might have

that they were

opposers of God, and that they were closely connected with the serpent but Moses does not positively tell us any thing of the kind. In the story of Goschoroun, :

and

in the

promise of some holy

man who

should hereafter appear,

easily recognize a corrupted belief in a future Deliverer,

such a belief might originate

:

but

in the

we may

from whatever source

Pentateuch there

in detail bears the least resemblance to these legends.

is

The

nothing, that notion,

that

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

65

the evil principle was in the waters and that the deluge proceeded from him,

was prevalent both

in

Egypt and Hindostan and Greece

and the serpent Py-

nized in the fables of Typhon, Hayagriva, the Asoors,

thon

and may be recog-

;

but no such notion could have been drawn from the narrative of Moses.

:

When

Zeradusht

tells us,

that the second man-bull

was

assisted in the task of

bringing on the flood by thiee other personages, he might indeed have learn-

ed the existence of such characters from the Pentateuch

but the mythology

;

of perhaps every nation upon the face of the earth would have equally impressed him with the belief in a great diluvian triad, emanating from, and intimately blended with, a paternal

forms

us, that this

same man-bull

a man, that of a horse, and

when he

the contrary,

in-

triplicated himself into three bodies, that of

of a bull

tliat

opinion in the book of Genesis

On

monad.

:

but

believed to have been mysteriously

;

we do

we

find,

find nothing like such

that the great father

an

was

triplicated, as the ancient hierophanta

delighted to express the simple fact of his having three sons

;

we

do find, that

the bull and the horse were universally symbols of this primeval character,

by whatever name he might be venerated.

So again

Moon

seed or offspring of the man-bull within the

the purification of the

:

precisely at the time of

the flood, and the deducing the postdiluvian origin of

planet, quite agree with the universal heathen practice

representing the

Ark by

the lunette

:

but, in

whatever

things from that

all

of astronomically

Moon

light the

might

be considered by the early patriarchs, there are no traces of any such specu-

Moses.

lations in the plain historical narrative of

Equally improbable

is it,

that the Zend-Avesta should have been a fabrication from the Pentateuch, if

we

consider

deviations.

its

striking omissions, as

When

we have

hitherto

the pretended servant of Daniel sat

of forgery with the writings of the

Hebrew

done

down

palpable

its

to his labour

lawgiver before him, he would

obviously embellish his detail with the history of Cain and Abel, and would not

fail

rate,

to notice the specious miracle of the translation of

if

these matters were passed over in silence,

that in a professed account of the deluge he

the Ark. the

and

Yet such

murder of Abel

is ;

Idol.

at

:

any

impossible to believe,

totally neglect to

mention

the case witli the legend before us

:

nothing

Enoch

;

nothing, literally

nothing, of the rapture of

ostensibly, of the Ship within

Pag.

would

it is

Enoch

which the tauric patriarch and

VOL.

II.

is

said of

his family

I

cuAr.

III.

aooB

III.

66"

THt ORIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY.

were presen'ed.

This

mentioned

last is indeed

manner so purely

mystical, that none

what was meant.

The Arg-Roud

Moon, which

is

is

:

but

is

it

mentioned

in

a

but the initiated would understand

plainly

enough the ship Argha; and the

described as the parent of the Universe at the exact lime of

the deluge, will easily be recognized by the mythologist as the astronomical

symbol of the Ark if it

but suck a

:

prove ani/ thing,

mode

much

will

of noticing the Siiip of the great father,

rather prove, that the author of the Zend-

Avesta had not seen the Pentateuch, than that he had.

book be wholly the work of a Zeradusht who flourished Hystaspis, and

if

In short,

if this

in the time of

Darius

that Zeradusht had conversed with Daniel (which

is

allow-

ing the whole that Dr. Prideaux calls upon us to allow as necessary to his

much more than we

conclusion, and it

would appear

are any

way bound

even then

to allow):

me, from the mere force of internal evidence, that

to

of the legend beyond

its

little

systematic arrangement could have been borrowed

from the Pentateuch, and that the great mass of materials must have been derived from quite another source

namely the old and generally received

;

system of mythology, with which we must unavoidably conclude Zeradusht to

have been well acquainted.

Supposing then that the Zend-Avesta was the

sole

work of a

sole Zera-

dusht, as Dr. Prideaux contends, 1 should certainly conclude from internal

evidence, that try,

its

author had taken the sacred traditional fables of his coun-

and had wrought them up into a regular chronological form on the model

aflbrded

him by the Pentateuch

we admit

parallel instance, if

of the Seventy (which I think

:

or, to

that

explain

my

meaning by a somewhat

Ovid had perused the Greek

more than probable),

I

translation

should conceive that

he composed the beginning of his Metamorphoses, much in the same manNo one can properly say, ner as Zeradusht composed the Zend-Avesta. that the narrative of the Latin poet ture,

though to

propriety,

Hesiod

a mere garbled compilation from Scrip-

acquaintance with the Greek translation

his

that chronological regularity writings of

is

:

set aside

and

I

it

perhaps owes

and consistency, which we vainly look think

we

can,

unceremoniously and

with as

little

for in the

shew of sreason and

in the gross the

whole Zend-Avesta

of the Persian, even admitting his acquaintance with the exordium of Genesis.

Any

persrin,

even the most moderately conversant with old mythology,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. cannnot but

see, that,

consequence of matCT-ials

67

however Zeradusht may have systematized

Jews of the Babylonian

his intercourse with the

his

work in "*'•

captivity,

must have been boiTOwed from the ample fund of Paganism

no acquaintance with mythology

;

its

and

necessary to produce the conviction, that

is

they catinot have been furnished by the primeval history of the Pentateuch.

Such would be

was the

sole

my

conclusion, if

it

had been proved that the Zend-A Testa

who was contemporary

production of a sole Zeradusht,

Darius Hystaspis and who had conversed with the prophet Daniel: but point does not appear to that the present

me

There

:

have been proved.

is

a comparatively modern compilation from the

Zend-Avesta

but I

am

an original one, nor to believe, that there

that

it

was ascribed

author the sole Zeradusht.

to a primitive Zeradusht,

was the ground-work of a

am

I

work was not

as the sacred books of the

Menu

or

Buddha

it

it

Zend-Avesta,

I

:

am

even independently of Sir William Jones's citation from

Mohsan Persians who

informs us, that, according to the most intelligent of those professed the faith of Hushang, the

Mahabad.

first

it.

king both of Persia and of

all

This prince divided the people into four orders

sacerdotal, the military, the commercial, tions to them, unquestionably the

now

and that

totally different Zeradusht.

the Dabistan of Mohsan, which however remarkably confirms

earth was

;

opinion I lean from the mere force of internal evidence

disposed to adopt

Darius

strongly inclined

later (the parent of the present)

corrected and edited by a later and this

in the time of

was a yet prior and most remotely ancient Zend-Avesta

Brahmenists and Buddhists are to a primitive

To

reason to think,

is

strongly inclined to believe, that even this its

this

to

Zend-Avesta of a Zeradusht who probably flourished Hystaspis

with

same

and the

servile

:

the

and gave appella-

in their origin with those,

applied to the four primary classes of Hindostan.

;

the

He

is

which are

said to have

among men, a sacred that fourteen Mahabads

received from the Creator, and to have promulgated

book

in

a heavenly language

:

had appeared or would appear world.

The w hole of

this

and in

legend

it

was

believed,

human shapes is

modifications,

Buddhists.

The

is

alike

sacred book of

government of the

so palpably Hindoo,- that the system of

the ancient Persians must have been the very certain

for the

same

is

which,

under

Brahmenists

and

the code, which in one

word

maintained both

Mahabad

as that,

by

'"•

THE

68 BOOR

III.

jjjay

be denominated the Veda

Menus: and Mahabad is tliat

great father

;

PAGAN IDOLATRT.

ORIGIN' OF

the fourteen

:

liimsclf, the first

wiio

I^f ahabads

sovereign of Persia and of the earth,

thought to appear and to reign at tbc cointncnce-

is

ment of every mundane system, Mho

is

successively the xMenu-Swayambhuv.a

and the Menu-Satyavrata of Hindostan, and who supposed to be manifested anew

very evidently to be

Buddha and

is

:

appellation

in all respects the

is

plainly to be identified with

him

;

each

is

standard at

The

this

moment

of

primeval theology of the

adduced by Mohsan, was pure theism:

The

accession of

Cayumers

;

or

the gi'eat INIenu,

According then to

among

this

the Persians

William Jones does

Sir

Menu ;

a book, that

is

the

and moral duties among the Hindoos.

Persians,

was of no long duration among them

seems indeed

the great father successively

Zeradusht, which

all religious

It

Maha-Bad

account, there was an ancient sacred book received

not hesitate to identify with the Institutes of

Adam

William Jones

same mixed character as

manifested for the government of the Universe.

anterior to the time of the later

Sir

apparently Sanscrit.

compound

tlie

and Buddha

is

in plain language is

person of Noah.

in the

Mahabad

remarks, that the word

are the fourteen

if

but it

we may this

rely

simple

on the

authorities

mode

of worship

speedily gave place to polytheism.

to the throne of Persia, in the eighth or ninth

century before Christ, seems to have been accompanied by a considerable revolution both in government and religion

system of national

faith,

:

and he probably began the new

which Hushang, whose name

But the reformation was

partial

for,

:

it

bears, completed.

while the Persians rejected the com-

plex polytheism of their predecessors, they retained the laws of the sacred

book of Mahabad, and superstitiously venerated, the Sun, the Planets, and the element of Fire.

At

length, in the days of Zeradusht, the reformation

of the old religion was completed it

retained until the country

served some

own

;

and the system acquired that form, which

was subdued by the Musulmans.

of the ancient superstitious usages,

invention

:

Zeradusht pre-

and introduced others of his

but he was chiefly remarkable, as the author of a new work

which he pretended to have received from heaven, and as having established the actual adoration of one •

Supreme Being.

See below book

vi. Ct 2,

f

II. 2,

This Zeradusht, according to and Append. Tab.

v.

THE ORIGIN or PAGAX IDOLATRY. Mohsan, and he

flourished contemporaneously with said to have travelled into

is

theological

and

ethical information

Gushtasb or Darius Hystaspis;

Hindostan

for the

to

Now, seems

to

purpose of receiving

from the Brahmens

must be the person, who, with whatever reason, deaux

69

is

:

consequently, he

supposed by Dr. Pri-

have conversed with Daniel.' the preceding account of

if

me

Mohsan may be depended upon,

decidedly to confirm the opinion which I have advanced: and

I should conclude from

when

it,

view

I

it

in

connection even with the present

Zend-Avesta, that the immediate parent of that work, the pretended

book of Zeradusht, was nothing more than a corrected edition of the nal holy book of !Mahabad.

a later impostor, who, as a reformer

and a

name had been assumed

legislative prophet,

teemed a manifestation of the great transmigrating father;

same

as the jNIenu, to

whom

his holy book,

the remote

much

as the

the

same

Such a supposition

the Hindoos ascribe

i/ie

was

es-

he was the

and that

groundwork of the present Zend-Avesta, was

most ancient Veda. will

account satisfactorily for the strong resemblance

the Hindoos relative to the

same

The

period.

and the legends of

evil principle

the very same part with respect to the deluge, that the

does

tliat

Institutes ;

between the preceding extracts from the Zend-Avesta,

in

/lezv

origi-

In short, I should conclude, that ]\Iahabad

himself was the primitive Zeradusht; that his

by

it

Ahriman

acts

demon Hayagriva

one of the Hindoo traditions and the god Siva himself

in another of

The Dews, his associates, are the Dewtahs of Brahmenical theoMount Alboidi is the same as mount Mandar and mount Meru, logy. though the story may possibly have been corrected and rendered more simple them.*

from

tlie

inspired account of Ararat

:

yet the notion of

all

the

other

hills

being the offspring of Albordi nearly resembles the Hindoo idea, that every sacred mount, whether natural or ter of the original holy

bull;

mountain.

the horse, the bull, and

the

artificial,

And

is

a smaller j\Ieru and a splin-

the three forms of the second

man; appear conspicuously

man-

in the third

of the Hindoo Avatars, which evidently relates to the great catastrophe of the deluge.

'

Thus,

the

more

I consider the early history contained in the * Maurice's Hist, of Hind. vol. 1. p. 503.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

'

See the print in Maur. Hist, of Hind. vol.

ii.

p. 60.

1.

p. 581.

'^"^''-

"'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKT.

70 '"•

Zend-Avesta, the more can

less I

of

}n<^s

brini«;

Moses

The

2.

deduce

I incline to

myself to believe that

made

first

it

from old mythology, and the

a mere transcript from

it is

me

present supposition necessarily leads

and Dr. Prideaux

in

another particular

whom

of only one Zeradusht,

tlie

writ-

time of the prophet Daniel.'

in the

mean

I

;

to contradict

Dr, Hyde

their belief in the existence

they place in the reign of Gushtasb or Darius

ITystaspis.

As

for the

name

whether Mr. Bryant's opinion, thnt Zoroaster and

itself,

Zeradusht are two entirely well or tlie

ill

founded

and whether

;

his

interprets to denote the

be right or wrong

bull,

prove the remote antiquity of a character,

have called Zei-adusht and ter,

'

is

most valuable and

whom

be

derivation of the word Zoroaster from

compound term Sor-Aster, which he

or the star of the

of one or more persons,

distinct appellations

bull-star

his circumstantial evidence to

:

whom

Persians appear to

the

the Greeks certainly denominated Zoroas-

Such evidence,

decisive.'

my

in

mind, far out-

Dr. PriJeau.x says, that Abraham, Moses, Joseph, and Solomon, are spoken of in the

This circumstance will only prove,

Zend-Avesta conformably with their scriptural history. that the

knowledge of those characters had been derived from the Jews, and that

Zend-Avesta had been indebted to Scripture

:

but

it

so far the

will not prove, in direct opposition to the

circumstantial evidence which has been adduced, that the early history contained in that book

was similarly derived. fire

Dr. Prideaux likewise imagines, that the Zoroastrian veneration of

was borrowed from the appearance of God

in

the Shechinah betwe«n the

Cherubim.

This epinion might have been deemed plausible, had such veneration been confined to Persia:

but the fact

is,

the veneration of the Sun, and thence of his

pervaded more or

less the

* Agathias certainly seems to warrant the opinion, that

themselves distinct appellations, although borne Tfoy

Tjtot

names.

ZajaJi);'

iitTij ya.^

Agath. de Pers.

emblem

iv aunu

lib. ii. p. 6"2.

Zoroaster and Zeradusht

by one man.

He

This Zoroaster

nrwyujji,ia,.

:

ther such testimony will quite warrant that the person,

fire,

whom

Mr. Bryant's

supposition.

Se i

are in

Zu}foar-

Zaradcs, fur he has two

is

evidently an attempt to

and we are

.poken of bore two names, Zarades (or Zeradusht ) and Zoroaster.

Qirof

says, is

In this passage, Zarades

express in Greek characters the Persian word Zeradusht

meant

the sacred immortal

mythology of every nation.

Yet

told, I

that

the person

greatly doubt, whe-

Agathias seems only to have

the Greeks called Zoroaster, was in his

own country denominat-

ed Zarades or Zeradusht ; ami that the real name had been so transmuted, that Zoroaster and

Zarades might well pass

for

two

of the passage, both because

distinct titles.

we know how

I

am

the

more

led to

adopt

this interpretation

strangely the Greeks were wont to corrupt any

THE ORIGIN OK PAGAX ILOLATRr. weiffhs that of

any comparatively modern Persian

7t

iiistorians,

have preserved the recollection of only the later Zeradusht

Mr. Richardson, no two

because, according to

so,

perfectly dissimilar, than the Persian history

:

who seem

to

and the more be more

histories can

from about the year 600 before

the Christian era to the Macedonian conquest as written by the Persians

same

themselves, and the (so at least

we

are told), no mention

occur, whose actions at

all

vestige of the battles of

is

made of Cyrus

resemble his

Cambyses

the expedition of

cal^

history as written by the Greeks."

:

there

'

nor does any prince

not a syllable respecting

is

against the Egyptians

;

In the former

:

nor can we discover a

Marathon, Thermopylae, Salamis, Plat^a, or My-

nor of the mighty force, wliich Xerxes led out of Asia to overwhelm

;

But

the states of Greece.

Holy Scripture;' and both foreign term

the great outline of the latter

who

confirmed by

and Scripture accord with the canon of Ptole-

it

which offended the delicacy of

valued connection of ray own,

is

their ears;

and because

allowed to be one of the

is

first

I

day, that the Persians are wholly ignorant of any such appellation as Zoroaster. grant, does not absolutely prove the non-e.\istence of such a

but

it

to the

renders the matter at least so suspicious,

it

is

the year before Christ 6\0, says

This,

name among their_/brf/aM«r*

I .-

imprudent to assign any etymology

word Zoroaster, which may be merely a Greek corruption of a very

From

'

that

by«

have been assured

orientalists of the present

Mr. Richardson,

till

the

different

name.

Macedonian conquest, ue

have the history of the Persians as given vs by the Greeks, and the history of the Persians at written by themselves.

ence of facts

;

Between those

classes

of writers, we might naturally expect some

but ve should as naturally look for a few great lines, which might

similarity of story

:

yet,

from

every search which

J have had an opportunity

differ-

mark some

to make,

there

seems to be nearly as much resemblance between the annals of England and Japan, as between

European and Asiatic relations ff the same empire.

the *

I

speak with the mouth of Mr. Richanlson: but Sir William Jones not only pronounces,

without fear of contradiction, that the Greek Cyrus that the actions ascribed to this prince in the epic

the actions ascribed to Cyrus by Herodotus.

he doubts the identity of will he

no

'

See Chronol. vol.

iii.

but

tells us,

Asiat. Res. vol.

ii.

p. 45.

I,

when then,

till

who am

between these two eminent scholars; Arcades ambo

the Persian histories be what

do not believe one syllable of their contents.

ject.

;

Firdausi minutely correspond with

Quatorze and Lewis the fourteenth, thtn, and not

orientalist, pretend not to decide if

the Persian Cai-Khosrau

In short, as he strongly expresses himself,

doubt the identity of Cyrus and Cai-Khosrau.

can only say, that, I

Jjouis

is

poem of

Mr. Richardson

represents

them

Dr. Hales has some good remarks on

!

I

to be,

this

sub-

p. 47. note *.

Exclusive of the direct mention of Cyrus or Choresh, and exclusive of the predictions

«"*'' "'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATaV.

71 BOOK

iif.

which

nriy,

founded on astronomical observations

is

the divine authority of the

them merely

Hebrew

as historical records,

:

so that, even putting

writings out of the question

and viewing

we must

two ancient

surely allow,

that

by the

testimonies, the one occidental, the other oriental, and both confirmed

mathematical evidence deduced from the actual calculation of eclipses, far

When

overbalance one comparatively modern testimony.

mind the

I call to

various revolutions which Persia has undergone, particularly that which in-

troduced the religion of least reliance

Ptolemy, and nnd history of

Mohammed,

I can never be

persuaded to place the

on a history so strangely contradictory both

Greek

to the

his tailing

But Mr. Bryant's evidence

historians.'

Babylon which remarkably accord with the Greek and assigns

of Xerxes into Greece,

foretells the expedition

to Scripture,

succession from Cyrus which profane authors do.

to

him

the very

for

to tiie

Daniel

writers,

same place

in the

See Dan.xi. 2. and Bp. Newton's Dissert,

in loc. '

According

to Sir

William Jones, who speaks with

his usual

good sense on the subject,

the present Persians have no authentic history which reaches higher than the accession of the

Sassanian dynasty

:

consequently, though they

may have

Cyrus which corresponds with the narrative of Herodotus, '

preserved a tradition of the great their history

down

to the

Macedo-

nian conquest, which Mr. Richardson confronts with the Greek history of the same period,

cannot be at

all

depended upon.

The matter seems

me of considerable

to

importance, because

Mr. Richardson exhibits the Persians as producing a history which can never be reconciled either with Scripture or with the

the verity

of the

latter,

Greek historians: unless therefore ae are willing

we must deny

But

the authenticity of the former.

let

to give up

us hear the

judicious observations of Sir William on the subject, and our faith will probably not be

shaken by the discrepancy It

may seem

much

in question.

strange, that the ancient history of so distinguished an' empire should be yet so

imperfectly known

;

but very satisfactory reasons

may

be assigned for our ignorance of

it

.-

the

principal of them are the superficial knowledge of the Greeks and the Je'ws, and the loss of

That the Greek writers before Xcnophon had no

Persian archives or historical compositions.

acquaintance with Persia, and that all their accounts of too extravagant to be seriously maintained

:

it

are

whoWy fabulous,

but their connection with

it

in

is

a paradox

peace or war had

indeed been generally confined to bordering kingdoms under feudatory princes; and the first

Persian emperor, whose

life

was the great Cyrus, whom I

As

and character they seem call,

to the Persians themselves,

to

have known with tolerable accuracy,

without fear of contradiction, Cai-Khosrau.

who were contemporary with

the Greeks

and Jews, they must

have been acquainted with the history of their own times and with the traditional accounts of past ages

:

but,

in the

numerous distractions which followed the overthrow of Dara, especially

in the great revolution on the defeat

ofYezdegird by the Saracens A. D. 657

— 651,

their civil

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. existence of a primeval Zeradusht

Greek

who

writers

deduced from

is

tlie

:

upon the testimony of authors

tively

modern

for a

book of

his

Buddha

or INIahabad or

who assumed

the

wlio

;

name and

no two

says, that

censures Dr.

I think,

bouring to identify them.

two persons, who

there

fact,

most part arc

is

to

Hence

of India have unhappily been.

;

and those of the

Cay ani family

eclipses, said to be

it

happened, that nothing

except a

intercourse nit h the emperors of

is

time of Cyrus

this ;

:

Rome and Byzantium,

Asiat. Res. vol.

ii.

p.

45

or the

Of the :

rustic tradi-

supposed to

Medes and Persians, as

Parthian kings, descended

but the Sasanis had so long an

that the period of their dominion

neither Jews nor Greeks seem to have

known much of

Persia before the

Are we then

to give

up

^/ieir

accounts, which undesignedly correspond ;

whose genuine

preserved by themselves, reaches no higher than the timeof Yessdegird

history, I think

?

rot. '

Richardson's Dissert, sect.

Pag.

may

— 49.

with each other, in favour of the mere fables of the modern Persians it is

still

but from his reign their accounts accord, and are checked by the astronomi-

canon of Ptolemy.

so far as

few

mentioned by Ptolemy, fix the time

of Gushtasb, the prince by whom Zeradusht was protected. from Arshac or Arsaces, we know little more than the names

The sum

who

All the annals of the Pishdadi or Assyrian race must be con-

though the lunar

be ctlled an historical age.

William

of Darius Hystaspis and to have been

in the reign

exist in the PaJilavi language.

:

have no

Sir

that later Zeradusht,

and fables, Khich furnish materials for the Shahnamah and which are

and poetical

than

and he very

nothing, very wonderful, that

is

remains of genuine Persian history before the dynasty of Sasan,

sidered as dark and fabulous

unlike, :

entirely distinct, should

The Persian Zeradusht, according

have flourished

histories zoere lost, as those

more

other orientalists for painfully la-

Jones and in the judgment of the Persian writers,

heroic

same

to that

imitated the heaven-descended

cliaracters can be

Hyde and In

'

for the

mutual resemblance.

to

the

was long anterior

and that of tlie Greek Zoroaster

that of the Persian Zeradusht

seems

brought forward hv Mr.

remote predecessor.

Mr. Richardson

justly,

cannot therefore hesitate

I

conclude, that there was a primeval Zeradusht,

I

Menu

later Zeradusht,

a compara-

in

with every record, sacred

to decide in favour of the evidence

Bryant: whence

personage as

deemed genuine.

that can be

moment

who, flourishing

;

are in complete discordance

age,

and profane,

cal

authentic source -of

while the opinion, that there was only one later Zeradusht

lived in the reign of Darius Hystaspis, rests, so far as I can understand

the question,

tions

73

Idol.

ii.

VOL.

II.

K

•="*''•

»'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

74 BOOK

III.

work whence the present Zend-Avesta has been taken.

the compiler of the

The

Zoroaster of the Greek writers, on the contrary,

a different and primeval Zeradusht

the

;

To

or the transmigrating great father.

descended Zend-Avesta was ascribed dians given

him, I conceive, the genuine heaven-

and,

Mahabad

of the Greeks) was no other than

rightly identifies with

the account of the

if

Mahaba-

am

altogether spurious, I

Menu

whom

or the great Buddha, ;

and of

predecessor the

its

Zeradusht pretended to be of heavenly

Zend-Avesta which the

later

was that sacred book

a celestial language which

At any

received immediately from the Creator.

Sir

and that the real prototype and

groundwork both of the present Zend-Avesta,

in

Menu,

as the Indian

primitive mythological Zeradusht (the Zoroaster

firmly persuaded, that the

William Jones

:

same character

Mohsan be not

the Dabistan of

in

generally speaking,

is,

Mahabad

rate,

is

origin,

said to have

the internal evidence,

afforded by the contents even of the Zend-Avesta which we now possess,

me

appears to

directly to contradict the opinion of Dr. Prideaux,

history of the early ages vvas a

is

composed of

curious fragments of genuine antiquity, wrought up into a

Avesta

;

much

or by the

in the

I

am

more modern compiler of

same manner

as Ovid,

certain

more regularly

who had conversed with

chronological form, either by a later Zeradusht captivity,

its

mere plagiarism from the Pentateuch.

willing therefore to rest in the belief, that this history

Jews of the

that

the

the present Zend-

probably from his having pe-

rused the translation of the Seventy, has arranged more systematically the materials afforded him by Hesiod and other old writers. If

we may

credit the testimony of the

Greek and Latin

several Zoroasters in different parts of the East

the

same

as the later Zeradusht of

plainly far anterior,

character

in

and seem at the bottom

who under

sal father.

Armenia, another

'

711.

in

Bactria,

All these

I

Suid. Lex. Arnob. adv. gent. Justii).

lib.

i.

c. 1.

Demons. Evan. prop.

some of whom appear

;

to

be

Prideaux, while others are

to be that

compound primeval

various appellations was reverenced as the great univer-

There was a Zoroaster

even in China. '

Hyde and

authors, there were

in

Assyria, another in Media,

another

Hyde

himself)

and another (according

take to be that one transmigrating ancient person lib.

i.

p. 31.

Clem. Alex. Strom,

Syncell. Chronog. p. 167-

iv. p.

to

89. cited by Bryant.

Hyde

de

lib.

rel. vet.

i.

p.

Pers.

399p.

lib- v.

315.

p.

Huet.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. by the name of Buddha or Fold or

t\ho,

worshipped so extensively imports no more than

75

Menu or Mahabad or

and the ascribing of them to

:

Saca, was

different countries

that a hero-god decorated with the attributes of

this;

the great father was every where adored, and that the genealogy of all nations ultimately terminated in

The Armenian

Noah and Adam.

Zoroaster was the reputed son of Armenius

chus, Osiris, and Adonis, he

and

is

said to

and, like Bac-

:

have experienced a renewal of

life

have learned many things of the gods during the time that he lay

to

This

dead.

tion of the

is

plainly a diluvian fable;

Hindoo

and

is

nothing more than a modifica-

legend, that, during the period between

two successive

worlds, the great father reposes in a deathlike sleep on the surface of an uni-

Armenia was the country where the Ark

versal inundation.

death and revival of Zoroaster father

his death,

:

entered into the

Adam

as

Ark

it.

Sometimes the egress was esteemed a new

Hence this Zoroaster

have been born on one of the Gordi&an mountains; that

from

He

it.

is

is

with

fire.

birth,

reported to

to say, precisely

where the Ark grounded, and where

also feigned to

is

Noah was

born

have had an intercourse with the Deity on a

mountain of Armenia, and to have been preserved unhurt though Tliis

and the

;

Menu of the antediluvian world, when he as Noah or the Menu of the postdiluvian

as well as a resurrection from the dead.

in that hilly region,

rested

the mystic death and revival of the great

or the

his revival,

;

when he quitted

world,

is

fable originated,

it

burned

agreeably to the double character of the

Cherubim before the garden of Noah, and his conversation with

great father, in part from the manifestation of the

Eden

of

God

;

and

in part

from the

sacrifice

revealed in the Shechinah, immediately on his quitting the Ark.

took place in the same mountainous country of Armenia ter

is

feigned to liave

Deity; there the

Ark

Adam

rested,

:

for,

Each

where Zoroas-

been born and to have held high converse with the

vias first created, there

Paradise once flourished, there

and there Noah was born a second time from the

womb

of

the mystic great mother.'

The

Bactrian Zoroaster

is

said to

have lived

have been a contemporary of Semiramis. '

Abulfeda apud Hyde,

p, 312.

in the time of

Ninus, and to

This likewise brings us to the

Dion. Chrysostom. Oiat. Borysth.

ji.

44S. apud Bryant,

CHAP.

III.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATUY.

76 «ooK

III.

(liiuyjajj ag(,

fabulous Seiiiiramis was supposed to be the daughter of

fpj. jijg

.

Dcrceto or Atargalis or the Syrian goddess, and

have been changed into

to

a dove; as her reputed parent, who was no other than the Ark, assumed the shape ofafisii to escape from

tlie

ragcof Typhon or

tlie

diiuvian ocean.

The son of Derceto, and therefore the imaginary brother of Scmiraniis, was

He

called Icthi/s or the Fish. for Icthys

is

Greek

a mere

was no doubt the same as Dagon or

Dagon ; and Dagon

translation of

under which the Philistines or Palli of old venerated the great their brethren the

do

Among

'

the latter,

Dc'o'w?/

or the sovereign prince in the belly of the fish

have been born

to

in the

that region, which,

is still

As for it

is

contemporary is

the period, in which the

it

without reason

the precise country of

mount Mcru,

Buddha or Menu or Dagon. Zoroaster of the Greek writers flourished,

same character

the very

Such are the charac-

nor Mas

:

as

Xanthus

cannot possibly be reconciled with the reign of Darius Hystaspis,

the

Lydian makes him

authority of an

six

hundred years prior

anonymous

writer,

him

places

less than five thousand years before the

Suidas, on' the

to that prince.

five centuries before the siege

Hermodorus, Hermippus, and Plutarch, concur

of Troy.

thought

comprehending Bokhara and Cashgar, may be distinguish-

for the land of his pretended nativity

and he himself

is

very same high region with the Bactrian Zoroaster

whom Zoroaster is made

with

as

father,

an appellation of

and Buddha

:

ed by the general appellation of the Indian Caucasus. ters,

:

title,

Chasas or Indo-Scythas of Bokhara and Cashgar and Ava

at the present day.

Buddha

Noah

the

is

same

era.

in fixing

him no

Eudoxus supposes him Pliny ascribes

to have lived six thousand years before the death of Plato.

him an antiquity many thousand years higher than that of Moses and represents him, from Hermippus, as being the pupil of Azonac, who makes a to

;

conspicuous figure in the Chaldean oracles, and the great father.

is

nativity

;

He

moreover

\,ol.

ii.

(lea

Syra. «cct. 14. Artemid. Oniroc.

Glyc. Annal. p. 184. Ovid. Metatn.

Dcipnos.

Zoroaster himself

on the day of

his

a fable, which exactly corresponds widi the Samothracian tradition

Luc. de

c. 10.

like

that he laughed

tells us,

Lastly, Plato supposes

of the laughter of the new-born Jupiter, •

who

lib. viii.

p. 110.

p. 346.

Dissert,

lib.

lib. iv.

on Cabiri.

vol.

i.

c. 9.

him

Euscb. Pia?p. Evan.

vcr. 44. Atbcnag. Legat. p. 33. i.

p.

to be

85—87.

Syraes's

Embass.

lib.

i.

Athen. to

Ava.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

77

Ormuzd, the highest god of the Persians who in the Zend-Avesta undoul)tedlv appears as the Supreme Being, but uho (I believe) was really the son of

''"^'''

;

no other than the great father clothed with the attributes of Deity.

These varying accounts, while they concur

proving that a primitive

in

Zoroaster ought to be placed in a most remote age, plainly shew, that such a character as that which

Darius Hystaspis;

for,

f^^Cj/

describe could not have lived in the reign of

a shigle Zcradusht (as Hyde

there had been only

if

and Prideaux contend) and he a contemporary of Darius, it is incredible that the western writers should have made such enormous chronological blunders respecting

him

;

they must have known, that both he and his religion were

comparatively modern.

In

fact,

who

the primeval Zoroaster,

suaded) was the same as Buddha or ]\Ienu, lived

an age or

in

(I

am

per-

speak more

(to

properly) in ages, to which the traditions indeed of the Gentiles extended,

though not their regular chronological history.

He

Menu, was

in the first instance

Adam

reappearing

he was a com-

lived, for

pound character, in the Paradisiacal and diluvian ages in

:

Buddha or person of Noah;

and, like

the

though, agreeably to the notion of every eminent patriarch or reformer being

an intermediate manifestation of the great father, he

Ham

identified both with

may

also be in

and with Cush, the ancestors of

some

sort

the Gothic or

all

Thus Cassian very reasonably thinks, that he was Ham; Scuthic and Annius of Viterbo makes his false Berosus assert the same while GreIndeed some such opinion "ory of Tours supposes him to have been Cush. * tribes.

:

must necessarily and

tlie

result

manner,

in

from his being ascribed

which

I

have stated

it,

that prevailed so extensively throughout the

to so very

remote a period

:

best accords with the doctrines

pagan world

;

Zoroaster was,

in

one word, the Buddha or J\Ienu of the Chusas of Iran. It

is

a curious circumstance, that the ancient Irish should also have had a

Zcradusht, and that both they and the Persians (who in this instance seem '

Diog. Laer.

Plut.
(If?

Chion.

Dissert,

p. 32.

proccm. p. p.

lib.

i.

369.

-T.

Suid. I.cx. Plin. Nat. Hist.

Plat, in Alcib. lib.

Syncell. Chronog. p. l6'7.

on Cabiri. vol.

* Cassian.

Franc,

in

Isid. et Osir.

CoUat.

ii.

c.

p. 153



1

i.

p. 1C2.

apud Bryant.

xxx.

c. 1.

p. 16, 4,7.

Eu-

lib.

Ptol.Heph. Nov. Hist.

lib. vii.

58.

21. apud VcUanccy. Beros. Ant,

apud Bryant.

lib. vii. c. l6".

Mos. Choren.

lib.

li.

fol.

25.

Greg. Turon. Rer.

'"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

78 SOUK

III.

to iiave

confounded together the primitive and the

liave designated

close resemblance between the religion of

was observed by Borlase

isles

stitions

of the

Zeradusht) should

later

mother by the name of Doghdu or Daghda*

his

Persia and that of the

and the complete

;

The British

identity of the old super-

Druids, the Magi, and the Brahmens, has been since sa-

tisfactorily established

by Vallancey, Wilford, Maurice, and Davies

:

so that

may be accounted for without much difficulty. Doghdu or Daghda or Dag-Deva signifies thejish-goddess. This fabulous personage, the allegorical consort of Dagon Buddha in one point of view and his parent in another, is certainly the or the appearance of this mythological character in Ireland

whence Buddha, whom

Ark

:

who

bears the masculine

title

contend to be the same as Zoroaster, and

I

of

Dagon

or

Among

sovereign prince of the belly of the Jish. as the fish-goddess Derceto or

Dagun,

is

sometimes styled the

the Syrians she appears

who was esteemed the universal who was the reputed parent of Icthys or Dagon, who was thence said

Atargatis

;

receptacle or hiding-place of the hero-gods,

the dove Semiramis and the fish-god

and who

to be contemporary with the primeval Zoroaster,

vratery goddess

Deargand Durga of the

is

evidently the

ancient Irish and Hindoos.

In the

old Celtic mythology of Ireland, the children of this Zeradusht were called

Mithr sian

Midhr ; an appellation palpably the same as the title of Mithras, who was reported to have triplicated himself. The or

therefore of Zeradusht

was Mithras

Zeradusht viewed separately from

which equally occurs ancient nation,

means

in the

triplicated his

offspring

as Mithras in unity

;

children

the Per-

:

and

was

this self-triplication,

mythology of Hindostan and indeed of every other

only, that the greatfather, whether

the parent of three sons, with

whom

Adam or Noah,

was

each similar successive world invariably

conunenced. '

Vallancoy's Vindic. of anc.

Hyde

198. *

dc

rel. vet.

Collect, de reb. Hibern.

of Ireland.

hist,

vd.

iv.

p. 1<)7,

Pers. p. 312.

Gen. Vallancey says, that the

Irish

have preserved and ascribe

to their

Zeradusht the

very prophecy respecting the advent of the Messiah, which Abulpharagius attributes to the Persian Zeradusht.

monks

in the

contained in

As

it is difficult

to conceive

middle ages, we seem obliged

to

how

this

could have been a forgery of the

conclude, either that the prophecy was really

some more ancient Zend-Avesta, or

that an emigration to

Ireland took placo

THE But though the

OllIOIX OF

PAGAN IDOLATRr. Magianism of Persia

classical writers justly ascribe the

a very ancient Zoroaster, long anterior

79

to the time of

Darius Hystaspi?

to for

;

Eudoxus does, and tells us Magi of Persia were prior even to the Egyp-

Aristotle places Zoroaster as long before Plato as

(very tians

truly, :

'

I believe) that the

they were not ignorant of the existence of a later Zoroaster,

Hyde, Prideaux, and

certainly the Zeradusht of

who seems Thus

who

is

William Jones, and

Sir

to have flourished during the reigns of Darius

and

son Xerxes.

his

Pliny ascribes a Zoroaster to the age of the latter of these princes; and

therefore of course distinguishes

himself places

many thousand

him from

that primeval Zoroaster,

years before the days of

who was

Alexandrinus mentions a Persian Zoroaster,

Moses visited

and thus Agathias speaks of a Zoroaster, who lived taspes,

though he confesses himself unable

in

to ascertain

All these seem plainly to be that Zeradusht,

:

thus

whom he Clemens

by Pythagoras;

Hys-

the time of

who

this

who reformed

person was.

*

the ^lagianism

of Hushang as he had reformed that of his predecessors, and

who was

pro-

bably the compiler and editor of the work whence the present Zend-Avesta

has been taken. tained in

of

it

it,

when

But,

I consider the texture of the early history con-

more persuade myself

I can no

or that he stole

it

either that he

was the inventor

from the Pentateuch, than I can believe that the

beginning of the Metamorphoses was the sole and original production of

Ovid or

was the author of the

that Tzetzes

fables contained in the scholia

on

Lycophron. III. I

may now proceed

which has produced dence afforded by thology

it

this

I

to offer

long discussion, and which from the mternal evi-

suppose to be a genuine

new modelled and corrected by

Such observations therefore teuch

;

a few observations on the curious legend,

in

order that

it

will

may

be

relic

of ancient eastern

the later Zeradusht

made

and

my-

his successors.

with a special eye to the Penta-

thus clearly appear, that the materials of the

subsequent to the time of Darius Hystaspis.

Viiid. in Collect, de rcb. Hib. vol. iv.

p. 196,

200, 5201. i Huet. Demons. Evan. prop. ^ ii.

iv.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. xxx. c. 1.

p. 62.

apud bryant.

p. 88,

89.

Diog. Laer. in procem.

Clem. Akx. Strom,

lib. i. p.

35?.

p. 6.

Agath. de Pers.

lib.

chap.ih.

THE ORIGIK OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

80 BOOK

m. Zend-Avestaic mythology could not have been borrowed from the sacred volume during the period of the Bahjlonian captivity. 1.

The Dabistan

of

Mohsan was

tion of the Iranian RIagi

Brahmens

substantially the

we

and, accordingly,

:

leads us to conclude, that the early supersti-

find

same

as that of the Indian

a very close resemblance between the

theology of the Zend-Avesta and that of the Puranas.

resemblance have already been incidentally noticed in the inquiry, will continue to present

From

numerous

celestial spirits

tliis

and others, as weadvance

themselves to our view.

we

the sacred records of Hindostan

the world,

;

Several points of

learn, that,

at the beginning of

were formed capable of perfection, but

with the powers of imperfect ion, both depending on their voluntary choice; that a considerable part of the angelic bands rebelled ; that they were cast,

Onderah or the abyss of intense and that there they continued for an inwicnse period in penal torHere the Mahasoor of the Brahmens is evidently the Ahriman of

together xvith ]\Iahasoor their leader, into

darkness ments.

;

and the Onderah and the Dewtahs of the former are no

the Zend-Avesta

:

less evidently the

Douzakh and

too close to be accidental

:

the

yet,

from the Pentateuch.

latter.

The resemblance

tenet, he certainly could not

M'e may indeed, from the

have no account of the manner, ;

nor

is

is

have received

INIosaical history of the

but

we

his original

pu-

covertly gather the existence of a malignant and evil spirit

fall,

rity

of the

from whatever source the compiler of the

Zend-Avesta might borrow such a it

Dews

in

which he deflected from

:

the least mention made, either of his daring associates, or of

any place of torment to which they were consigned. 2.

In the Zend-Avesta, the

first

man-bull Key-Umursh

and the second man-bull Taschter, who appears can only be Noah.

Of

vival of the former.

For the

is

clearly

Adam

at the time of the deluge,

was deemed a transmigratory reKey-Umursh, which in the Sanscrit de-

these, the latter title

notes the great lord of the World, k, throughout the legends of Persia, indifferently applied both to

Noah and

to

Adam.

Hence

it

Mill follow, that

Taschter was viewed as a reappearance of the primeval Key-Umursh.'

The whole

of this perfectly accords with the general tenor of old

'

Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 530. vol.

ii.

p. 6\,

mytho-

THE ORIGIN' OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. logy

;

in

festation

which the second great father was esteemed a transmigratory maniof the first, and in which the symbol of a bull or a man- bull was

But we

invariably used to represent that ancient personage.

of any such speculations or practices in the Pentateuch

Adam

of

81

and Noah

is

the

:

find

no traces

naked history

there soberly and literally detailed, without the least

hint being given us either of the doctrine of the Metempsychosis or of the use

of any tauric symbol being employed to shadow out those two patriarchs.

Hence again the compiler of to Moses for his materials. 3.

While the Zend-Avesta

seem not a it

the Zend-Avesta could not have been indebted

little

however

is

extraordinary, that no direct mention should be

Ark

either of the

gives a very full account of the flood,

or of the preservation of the second man-bull.

doubtless the case

the ship of the deluge

is

:

yet, notwithstanding this

by no means passed over

obscurely and symbolically,

When mount

if

not ostensibly and

Arg-Roud.

Arg-Roud must is

emerge from the

to

flood,

evidently the scriptural Ararat; because each

is

similarly re-

The Arg-Roud

there-

Now

M.

Perron expresses is

name

its xt)

exactly accords.

Arg-Roud,

is

The word Arg-Rad,

Magus

or Druid.

Argha of the Magus: and by the understand the primeval Zeradusht, or Noah in Archimage."

This part of

tiie

been directly borrowed from

Avesta must have received '

Pag.

Idol.

it

it.

the

his fabled character

legend therefore,

coincides indeed minutely with the narrative of

Argha or Argo,

name Arg-Rad is Magus we are obviously

Hence

equivalent to the

first

Moses

;

Mhen

from some other source

Vallancey's Vind. Collect, dc reb. Uib. vol. ir.

:

of

analysed,

but could not l>ave

Consequently, the editor of the

VOL.

or

a Persic compound; of which the

the familiar appellation of the sacred ship

while the second denotes a

the

noticed

on the top of Albordi can only be the Ark on the top of Ararat.

first syllable

to

it is

necessarily have been something on the top of Albordi.

with such a conclusion (as

;

literally.

presented as rising out of the waters of the deluge. fore

apparent deficiency,

in silence

If then the waters retired from the

Arg-Roud, when the summit of Albordi began

But Albordi

Such

Albordi appears above the boundless inundation, the waters

are said to retire firom the

the

it may made in

Zend-r

and that other source

iv^ p.

198.

L.

chap.

m.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

82 BOOK

III,

can only have been the old theological system of the

same

as the general theological system of

his country,

Paganism

in

which was

every part of the

world.

The same remark

which the Ark

ner, in

apply with yet greater force to the symbolical man-

will

covertly pointed out by that writer in the accre-

is

We

dited phraseology of the ancient IVIysteries.

are told, that the seed or

offspring of the second man-bull was, during the prevalence of the

and that from

purified in the Jiloon;

proceeded.

Now

dusht,

is

The Moon,

fundamentally the same.

form of a boat during

its first

and

Noetic family within

nance, which 4.

Avesta,

is

resembles

or by Zerait

does the

:

and the confinement of

viewed

in the light

of a pe-

of the temporary prisoners.

eft'ected the purification

The name, which

as

extiibiting

Ark

Moon was

this floating

all

Moses

was universally adopted by

last quarters,

the Gentiles as the astronomical type of the tlie

nothing that at

is

yet the history, whether told by

:

flood,

every thing postdiluvian afterwards

Pentateuch there

in the

this extraordinary fable

it

the mountain

of the

Arg-Roud bears

in the

Zend-

Here again we have a proof, that at least the materials, work has been compiled, were ancient and original pagan

Albordi.

out of which that

documents.

The peak

which bears not the

of the

least

Ark

is

by Moses styled Ararat

the Zend-Avestaic appellation of the sacred

Pentateuch.

Yet

has been received

:

it

is

Hence

resemblance to Albordi. hill

is

real

names, bestowed upon the Armenian

is

a word,

clear,

that

has not been taken from the

sufficiently easy to discover the

and that source

it

;

source,

whence

it

The old mythological where the Ark was believed to

Paganism.

hill

have grounded, were Baris, Luban, and Lubar.

Of

these, the last

seems

compound of the other two and, if it be somewhat more fully expressed Labardov Albard, we shall have the precise appellation of the holy Persic mount Albordi. The import of the word, as I have elsewhere had occasion to observe, is the Ship of the Moon but the Moon, of which the diluvian peak Albordi was one of the many sacred mountains or high places, is that very symbolical Moon, within which the offspring of the second man*

to be a

:

:

bull

is

which 5.

feigned to have been purified at the time of the deluge, and from all

things were subsequently produced.

We learn

from the Dabistan, that in the old Iranian theology the uni-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. was

versal father

called

Mohsan

thus taught by

Maha-Bad

or the great

Buddha

:

83 and what we are

perfectly accords with the legend contained

in

the

Zend-Avesta.

The sacred bull, which was animated by the soul Key-Umursh just as the Egyptian Apis was supposed soul of Osiris,

compound for

Boud

Tat or

said to have been called

is

of the

man-bull

be animated by the

to

Aboudad.

first

Tliis I take to

be the

Ab-Boud-Tat, which s\gni^GS father Buddha-Tat:

appellation

many various modes of writing Buddha ; and name of this deity equally familiar to the Hindoos,

but one of the

is

or Teut

I'ttut

a

is

the Phenicians, the Egyptians, the Celts, and the Goths.

The

early worship therefore of Iran,

the worship of the

Buddha

human form

or

according to the Zend-Avesta, was

Tat under the form of a

bull

compounded with

But neither such names, nor

of the great universal father.

such notions, nor such an application of the tauric symbol, could have been

borrowed from the Pentateuch.

At

6.

the

the second

time

man-bull Taschter,

The Zend-Avesta

JBg

three

horse

Noah:

combined bodies

;

The

JNIenu-Swayam-

the character of the tauric Menu-Saty-

that of a

man, that of a

bull,

and that of a

in bringing

inferior associates ^vho were on the catastrophe of the deluge.

three associates of Taschter are manifestly the three sons of

but, to acquire the

demon-gods, the

knowledge of such a

was borrowed from

of pagan theology

this universal

which bears not the

the inspired penman. three companions

:

so,

tlie

compiler of the

Moses. Three

jirin-

of a yet older demon-god, were venerated :

and,

that

the fable

before us

veneration of a triad and not from the dilu-

vian history contained in the Pentateuch, it

triad,

to consult tlie writings of

ofi'spring

in almost every system

part of

tauric

the legend partially agrees, and partially disagrees, with the Penta-

Zend-Avesta had no occasion cipal

the

of

describes this transmigrating personage, as hav-

employed with himself

Here teuch.

in

in tlie character

and represents him, as attended by three

:

jointly

as

precisely

bhuva of Hindostan reappears avrata.

Aboudad reappears

of the deluge,

least

may

safely be inferred

resemblance to

As Taschter is when the same

tlie

hterally said to

from that

simple narrative of

have been attended by

idea was, expressed symbolically, he

feigned to have been a monster uniting three bodies in

a.

single form.

is

Now

chap.

m.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

.84 »ooK

III.

jj^pj^

g composition produces the exact figure of the Centaur, the equine man-

bull

of classical superstition

turn

bull.'

but, according

:

he was Noah.* ence

to

;

a horse

;

being had the head,

and the

tail

and

clo-

to be Chiron, the son of Sa-

Lycophron, he was Saturn himself

Between these two opinions however there

for Saturn

:

this liieroglyphical

man the body of By some he was thought

shoulders, and arms, of a

ven feet of a

for

:

that

;

no

is

and Chiron, though described as father and

is

to say,

real differ-

son,

are in

reality

one and the same personage viewed under somewhat

different aspects.

On the

sphere, the Centaur appears issuing from the ship

Argo and bearing

a victim towards an

altar

while the dove, the raven, and the great sea-ser-

:

pent, are in his immediate vicinity.

£uthic

Such a group, when we

recollect the

or Baby Ionic origin of the constellations as depicted on the celestial

globe, certainly represents, to adopt the phraseology of the Zend-Avesta, the

equine man-bull Taschter issuing from the Arg-Roud as

rested

it

on

tlie

summit of Albordi. There

7.

is

one more particular

in the early history of tlie

which deserves our attention, as alike connecting as shewing that the materials of which

it is

Zend-Avesta

composed could not have been

borrowed from Scripture: Taschter, though he existed upon spoken of both as the Sun and (1.) In the

celestial

human

those deities, whose

all

is

history

capacity the great father, were yet in their

Of

character venerated as being the Sun.

accordingly, Taschter

earth, is yet

as a Star.

theology of the Gentiles,

proves them to be in their

;

with old mythology, and

it

represented as partaking

:

he

this is

at

twofold nature,

once

Noah and

the orb of day. (2.)

But he

is

moreover said to be a Star

:

and

his light

is

spoken of as

shining on high during thirty days and thirty nights, while the waters of the

This notion of a Star appearing at the epoch of the

deluge were increasing. flood •

is

The

not confined to the early history of the Zend-Avesta. licence of painters

is

apt to lose sight of the tauric part of the Centaur, though

so clearly insinuated in the very

man

united to a fiery horse

of Hygin. Poet. Astron. * Lycopb. Caesao.

:

name

of the symbol, and to delineate nothing

but the true form

lib. iii.

wi.

Sanchoniatho

is

accurately exhibited in the print illustrative

o 37.

1200— 1203t

it it

more than a

Ktrfovfts, rjywy i Kfowj.

Taeti. in loc.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT. that, while Astart^ or the great arkite

tells US,

bended

that

an old tradition of a comet having appeared during the reign of Typhon, to say, during the prevalence of the diluvian ocean, the effects of

is

which were extremely tremendous

:

Hyginus informs

the son of Apollo, had set the whole world on

of his father

riot

Jupiter, to

;

quench the

fire

flames,

we

the ancient mythological writers

learn,

stars in the constellation of the Pleiades

when Phaethon,

us, that,

by mismanaging the chacaused a general inunda-

from which Pyrrha and Deucalion alone escaped

tion,

an ark

in

and from

were originally seven

that there

to

have been saved from a deluge

Arcadia and Samothrace, suddenly quitted her station

in

:

but that one of them, Electra the

;

mother of Dardanus, who was reported both

she found a Star

;

from the sky, which she afterwards consecrated at Tyre: Pliny men-

falling

tions

womb compre-

mother, whose

was rambling about the world

the hero-gods,

all

85

and wandering about with dishevelled hair became a comet.

in the

heavens,

Now

'

there

is

nothing set forth in the narrative of Moses to warrant the opinion, that some

unusual Star became visible at the time of the deluge

we

valent,

fore

in the gentile

see,

world

;

but

it

was very pre-

from primitive gentile tradition there-

:

must Zeradusht have borrowed the Star of Taschter.*

I think

it

probable, that this diluvian Star of Taschter, Astart^, Typhon,

and Dardanus, was the Star of Moloch or Remphan mentioned by the prophet Amos and the protomartyr Stephen.' The compound word Remphan or '

Sanchon. apud Euseb. Praep. Evan.

Fab, 152, 61.

Taetz.

ill

Lycoph.

ver. 29.

It

became a comet on account of her

c. 10.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib.

ver. 138.

Dionys. Halic. Ant.

lib.

192. Serv. in Virg. Georg. lib.

may

i.

i.

grief for the loss of her son

His

aphanism of Osiris

the inclosure of

that

The Hindoos,

allegorical loss or death.

once seven in number: the seven arkite Rishis. *

My

for they

Amos

v. 26.

AcU

and

like the

lib.

i.

c.

to

his

death

Noah

Dardanus

mean

within

the

;

and, according to

same

as

the

fabled

the Ark, which was his

Greeks, suppose the Pleiades to have been

be the sidereal representatives of the wives of

ventures, in his fine

43.

poem of Exodus,

being one of the causes of the deluge.

and the circumstance was probably a

on the subject. vii.

Mr. Hoyle,

of a comet, as

perfectly allowable in poetry, is silent

loss

make them

old friend and schoolfellow,

tie Pentateuch

25. Hyg.

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 85.

make Moses himself speak

'

say,

is to

c.

be observed, that, according to Hyginus, Electra

Servius, on account of his death. ;

ii.

Rom.

See Hoyle's Exodus, book

real vi.

This

matter of fact

ver.

627—6*5.

:

to is

but

*^''*''

"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

86 COOK

III.

Ram-Phan may

either signify the lofty

Rama

of the Indo-Scythic

Phanes, or may possibly be the name

united with that of Phanes or Pan.

This deity

judged by Selden and Beyer, either to be the same as Saturn, or to

is rightly

be immediately connected with him under the appellation of Chiun.

Pan

doubtless, I think, that great

or

ed the most ancient of the gods, and

famous ogdoad of navicular nusus,

whom

:

whom

they placed at the head of their

and Pan

Moloch, with

also as

is

same

the

whom

he

is

Phanes or Dio-

as ti

as cited

seems, in

like

fact,

by Paul Fagius,

his

face

He is

iad.

associated

again identifies himself with the Centaur Cronus or Taschter.

Rabbi Simeon

He is

'

the Egyptians reckon-

the Orphic poet makes one of his primeval

same

tainly the

deities

whom

Mendes,

:

cer-

and Moloch According to

was that of a

calf.

'

He

Taschter and the Minotaur, to have been a figure com-

pounded of a man and a

bull

;

for,

whether a

human

face and body was at-

human body, the we may pronounce him hieroglyphic is in each case radically the same The Star of Castor and therefore to be the man-bull of the Canaanites. They were styled Pollux is nearly allied to that of Taschter and Remphan. tached to the body of a bull or the head of a bull to a :

Dioicori, which

is

a

title

of the Cabiri

great gods of Samothrace

and, as the whole history of the

:

and Phenicia

refers

them

to the deluge,

so the

Star of the Dioscori was esteemed peculiarly auspicious to mariners.

The

in the midst of a tempest

which

origin of the notion

is

sufficiently

overwhelmed a Mhole world, the

no

baleful lustre

It

may

obvious

:

real or simulated Star of

Noah

shone with

on the favoured ship which preserved himself and his family.

not be improper to notice, at the close of these remarks, the period,

which the author of the Zend-Avesta ascribes to the increase of the waters

and

to the malignant influence of the Star of Taschter.

Moses simply

in-

forms us, that rain was upon the face of the earth forty days and forty nights.

Now,

if

the fabulous history of the

cript of the Pentateuch, I see

Zend-Avesta were a mere

servile trans-

no reason, why the compiler should not have

expressed himself precisely in the same manner as his supposed prototype.

But such is not the case '

Seld. de diis Syr. synt.

* Scld.

de

diis

Syr. synt.

:

while he curiously preserves the

14.

ii.

c.

i.

c. 6.

Beyer. Addit. in loc. ^

Gen.

vii.

12.

sum

total of forty

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. days, he

his

tells

been

:

a totally different

as

shew

to

that

During

source.

it

must have and

thirty days

the sidereal light of Taschter shone on high over a perishing

thirty nights,

world

manner

story in such a

derived from

87

and, during the space of ten additional days, he caused incessant

rain to descend

from under each of

the complete forty days

his three bodies.

mode

but the

:

Here we have indeed

of specifying them can never have

been borrowed from the Jewish lawgiver.

The

8.

enable us to judge, whether terials (I

which has been produced, may now perhaps

internal evidence,

we must

not necessarily conclude, that the ma-

argue only for the materials), out of which the early history of

the Zend-Avesta has been compiled, are genuine relics of ancient mythology.

The commencement of grand outline

the book of Genesis

while every part of

:

old mythologists in

all

it

it

resembles in nothing but

common

teems with the notions

Such notions the

parts of the world.

later

could not have borrowed from the plain narrative of Moses

:

its

to the

Zeradusht

and their

re-

markable coincidence with the theological speculations of Paganism forbids the incredible supposition, that they were the novel productions of his

Whatever

juyentive brain.

its

transferred

Zend-Avesta from the Hebrew Scriptures, the materials,

into the present

out of which

may have been

particulars therefore

own

early history has been framed,

must unavoidably be esteemed

fragments of primeval symbolizing tradition. If this opinion be well founded, and I see no reason to doubt scarcely observe, tediluvian

what a strong

we have

I need

to the veracity of the an-

and diluvian history of Moses.

IV. After

may be

these remarks on the Zend-Avesta, I

two prayers of the Parsees the sacred Bull.

and shew with solely

attestation

it,

:

the one addressed to the

They exhibit

;

the other, to

in strong colours the nature of their worship;

sufficient clearness, that the

and exclusively the

allowed to adduce

Moon

planet, but that

Moon it

which they adored was not

was the planet considered

as the

astronomical symbol of that vessel in which were preserved the rudiments of

a future world. 1.

The

I

adore

first

prayer

is

an invocation of the Moon.

Ormuzd; I adore

the

preserves the seed of the Bull:

Amschaspands ;

I adore,

I adore

looking on high;

the

Moon, which

I adore,

looking

THE ORIOIK OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

88 »ooK

111.

May

hcloxv.

of the Bull

I

As

Moon

the

days she increases

above

who

all,

who art

I regard

When :

Moon

looking on high

her

;

Moon, which

the

;

I adore, :

to

thou Mooii,

and great ;

who preservest

I make

increases,

adore her

our especial duty to adore her.

it is

looking

during ffteen

JVhen she

we ought

she decreases,

O

:

but,

Moon,

the seed of the Bull;

to thee izeschne.

I honour that Moon, which is elevated Moon : J honour the light of the Moon,

on high:

high the light of the

Moon

the light of the

with the full

I ntake izeschne to the

when

;

xvanest

of gold: she

colour

she,

to

elevated.

is

Moon

and

I adore,

:

I adore

during ffteen days she decreases.

holy, pure,

that

I regard on •which

;

zvhen she increases,

increasest

thou,

I make

increases, so she likewise decreases

to adore her

we ought

the only one of her kind;

Amschaspands ;

the

preserves the seed of the Bull below.

the seed

neaesch.

Ormuzd ; I adore

adore

who preseroeth

she,

proceeded animals of various descriptions.

and

izeschne

me :

be favourable to

who hath been created

she,

;

from whom

Moon

the

full

Moon,

diffuses heat, she causes trees to grow

upon the earth with the new

multiplies the verdure

Moon come

all productions.

new Moon,

to the

holy, pure,

of the

and great : I make izeschne make izeschne to the Moon,,

holy, pure,

and 'great

:

I

which caused every thing to be born, holy, pure, and great. I invoke the Moon, which preserves the seed of the Bull: I adore, looking on high 2.

;

I adore,

The second

looking

prayer

is

belozo.^

addressed to the sacred Bull

:

but

its

form

is

man-

datory.

Address your prayer

to the excellent

pure Bull: address your prayer

your prayer

to the rain,

to

the source

Bull, become pure, celestial, holy ;

Bull: address your prayer to the

those principles of all good: address

of plenty

:

addixss your prayer to the

who has never

been engendered,

who

is

holy.

When DJe ravages who

is

the world,

when

the impure

Aschmogh weakens man

devoted to him, the water spreads itself on high •

Pfrron's Zend-Avesta, vol.

iii.

;

p. 17. apiid Bryant.

it

descends in

THE ORlOrX OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. abundance; that water

of

earth

:

still

a thousand, into ten thousand sho-uers

dissolves into

I tell you, O pure

rain.

Zoroaster, Let envy,

the water smites envy, which

death, which

upon the earth.

is

89

is

Let the

let

upon the earth

Dew

be upon the

death,

smites

still it

;

Dje multiply himself : if

it

be at sun-rise that he desolates the world, still the rain places every thinff in

order again when the day the world,

:

pure

;

if

it

be in the night that

Dje

the rain reestablishes every thing to Oshen.

still

abundance

is

then the water renews

renew themselves, health renews

the earth renexvs itself;

itself,

itself ;

who gives

he,

desolates

It falls in the trees

health, reneus him-

self

JPlien the water spreads itself in the river Voorokesch'e,

and mixes the grains with the earth and the earth

The by *

xvater, xvhich raises itself, is the mea7is

Ormuzd spring up and are multiplied.

it

raises itself,

xcith the

grains.

of abundance : the grains given

The Sun,

like

a vigorous courser,

darts with vuijesty from the summit of the terrible Albordi, and gives light

From

to the world.

Ormuzd, he

that mountain which he possesses, a mountain given by

rules over the world: this

the grains given in abundance

you have

do?ie the evil,

is

the xvay to the tzco destinies, above

and above the water.

By

water

I purify a

JVhen the water spreads itself,

it

be before

or before you have read the exxellent zvord,

every thing to spring up for you in abundance water.

JVhether

;

I,

I cause

who then wash you

I have given

thousand things, xvhich

itself in the river Voorokesche,

part of

xcith

to you. it

raises

which falling in rain mixes the grains with the earth and the earth

The water, xchich raises itself, is the means of abundance. Every thing increases, every thing multiplies itself, upon the earth given by Ormuzd. The Moon, the depository of the seed of the Bull, darts with majesty from the summit of the terrible Albordi, and gives light to the

with the grains.

From

tworld.

that mountain xvhich

Ormuzd,

she rules over the world

:

she possesses, a mountain given by

this is the

way

to the

two

destinies,

above thegrains given in abundance and upon the water.

JVhen the water spreads itself,

itself in the liver Voorokesche, part

of

it

raises

which falling in rain mixes the grains xvith the earth and the earth

with the grains.

The xvater, which

raises itself, is the

means of abundance.

The cruel Dje, master of the magic art, raises himself imperiously;

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

ir.

M

he

'"'•^*"-

'"•

THE OUIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

90 BOOK in.

i^risfics

away

But the rain drives away Aschere, Eghranm, drives aicay envy, drives

to exercise his violence.

Eghoiiere, drives uxvay

away

It drives

death.

the serpent,

V. These

it

:

drives axvay

is

prayers, wild as ihey appear, are evidently constructed on that

who used them,

manifest, that the persons,

acknowledged

Hence

received that history as the

This circumstance therefore

basis of their popular theology.

that the materials at least of the history are genuine

aftbrds another proof, relics

in

'

early history of the Zend-Avesta, which I have recently discussed. it

awaif

and impurity, which Ahriman has produced

the wickedness, corruption,

the bodies of 7nen.

drives aioay falsehood

drives

of pagan antiquity.

We

which distinguish

find the notions,

enter-

it,

ing into the forms of public worship: Avhichwe can scarcely suppose would

have been the case, had the whole from beginning to end been a novel figment of the later Zeradusht, differing altogether from the mythological speculations But, that the history does not differ from such specu-

of his predecessors. lations,

may

be safely inferred from the striking resemblance which

it

bears

The

to the peculiar notions prevalent throughout the whole pagan world.

very ideas, which characterize the theologies of Egypt, Hindostan, Phenicia,

Asia Minor, Greece,

Zend-Avesta and 1.

The Moon,

Italy,

and

in the prayers

Britain,

may

formed upon

be clearly recognized

in the

early history.

its

that preserves and purifies the seed or ofi^spring of the

second man-bull, while the waters of the deluge cleanse the earth from the abominations introduced by the serpent Ahriman as the great universal mother, as the

fruitful

;

holy birth-place of every postdiluvian production cisely

corresponds with the

as the mother of the

Moon

Moon,

the

parent of :

that

all

that

is

invoked

animals, as the

Moon, which

pre-

celebrated by the Hindoos and Egyptians,

World, and as the receptacle of him who was preserved

that Moon, I say, must an Ark during the period of a general flood plainly possess a character, superadded to its proper literal character of one in

:

If the second man-bull,

of the areat lights of heaven.

who

time of the deluge, and

be the patriarch

Noah '

:

the

is

who

flourished at the

described as having three inferior companions,

Moon, which preserved

his offspring while the

Zend-Avesta, vol.ii. p. 424. apud Brj'ant.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAJf IDOLATRY.

§\

waters covered the earth, and which subsequently became the parent both

of the animal and vegetable creation, must inevitably be the Ark

which the

;

old mythologists, in every part of the world, venerated under the astronomical

symbol of the navicular crescent.

As

the

Ark

thus typified by the

is

Moon

Noah

so likewise

;

or the second

man-bull, in exact accordance with the theological systems of other nations,

Sun

celebrated in the Zend-Avesta as being the

is

astronomically

is

the bright orb of day,

for that very person,

:

when

yet,

is

dinate persons and himself assuming three forms

who

assisted by three subor-

upon

earth, declared to

have been the delegated human agent that produced the deluge.

With

these Sabian speculations, which extended themselves from Babel to

every quarter of the earth, the two prayers agree

— In

the former of them,

we

now under

consideration perfectly

are explicitly taught, that the

which was the object of Persic veneration, was both of a terrestrial

heaven on high

to

In the

/ adore I adore

nature.

latter of

;

celestial

Moon,

and of a

the

Moon,

says the devout votary, looking up

the

Moon,

looking

down

Moon

them, both the Sun and the

to the earth

below—

are represented as pro-

ceeding from the summit of mount Albordi, and as thence ruling the whole

But

world.

this

can only be true of Noah, and of the

giver of health or

;

of the Ark, in which

who

with

new and more holy

Ormuzd and

of

was preserved and

first

Magus

Zeradusht.

was himself, no

to be

born again

For mount Albordi, the

less

gift

Sun

land which appeared above the retiring deluge, all sides

And

from the Arg-Roud or from the Argha

the primitive Zeradusht, as

than the second man-bull Taschter,

considered as a reappearance of

Aboudad.

was believed

it

state of existence.

the waters retreated on

of the

the

purified during

the favourite seat of universal dominion to the mystic

and Moon, was the

when

of Noah, the

nature renewed himself after the

all

his offspring

the prevalence of the waters, and from which into a

:

(according to the parallel mythology of Hindostan)

great regenerative physician,

deluge

Ark

Adam

or the

first

tlie

we have

seen,

patriaich Noal^

man-bull

Key-Umursh

Hence, we may observe, the prayer of the aspirant is addressed,

not only to the pure Bull, but likewise to the pure Zoroaster. '

M.

Perron uses the

word Zoroastre, which

1

have accordingly translated Zoroaster

but, whether he substitutes the classical appellation for

the oriental Zeradusht, or whether

c"**"-"'*

THE ORIGIN CV PAGAN IDOLATRY.

92 HOOK

III.

which

]3y tjjg use of such a key,

is

tlie

Zend-AvestEk

and by other concurring mythological systems, the two prayers are

itself

though partly obscured by a sore of mystic jargon.

sufficiently intelligible,

The whole

context of them, particularly

legendary history

itself

connection with the

in

a diluvian reference, mixed however,

with an allusion to the

like the history,

when viewed

w hich furnishes the best explanation of their mean-

decidedly proves them to have

ing,

equally aftbrded by

fall

of

man and

to the gross wicked-

ness which H as the procuring cause of the flood.

The Amschaspands, who

are invoked along with

were thought to be seven primitive to the general

celestial spirits.

of Hindostan,

as the seven inferior Rishis

head of

'

the

Moon,

Their number, joined

context of the prayers and of the history, points out very

unequivpcally what persons are intended by them.

same

Ormuzd and

their family in

an ark

;

tlie

same

They are palpably who were saved with

the

the

as the seven ancient personages,

who alone returned with the British just man Hu from the dale of the grievous waters, when he navigated an ocean without shore in the mystic ship which was a form of the great mother Ceridwen; the same as the seven Heliads,

whose father Helias or the Sun once crossed the sea

who was

in a

represented by the Egyptians sailing in a boat

seven Titans,

who were

the children of the older Titan,

;

golden cup, and the

same

as the

Cronus or Saturn or

same as the seven Corybantes, who were the offspring of Corybas by the nymph Theba or the Ark and the same as the seven Phenician Cabiri, who were the sons of Sydyk or the just man, who were thought to

Noah

*

;

the

;

have

built the first ship,

tune at Berytus. spirits

They

of the Japanese

:

also as those Karfesters,

and w ho consecrated the are the

same

relics

Nep-

of the ocean to

likew ise as the seven primeval celestial

and, to return to the Zend-Avesta, they are the

who

same

are described as escaping from the deluge

and

commencing the parents of a new race on the summit of mount Albordi. For, as Cronus and the seven Titans were exempted from the general de-

as

tbc very I

name Zoroaster here occurs in

the original, 1 have no means of positively ascertaining.

suspect however the former to be the case, as

unknown '

*

I

am assured

that the

name Zoroaster

is

wholly

to the Persians.

Lcs sept premieres esprifs celestes.

The Orphic poet addresses Cronus by

the appellation of a^xifte Tjrax.

Hyran.

xii.

THE OniGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT. struction

which

befell all the other Titans

:'

so,

in the

93

Zend-Avesta, amidst

the general destruction of the impious Karfesters by the waters of the deluge,

some of

same race were nevertheless preserved on the top of mount

the

Albordi to be the principles of the renovated world.

Accordingly, while the

Orphic poet,

race of mortals, places

in allusion to tlie

submersion of the

first

the Titans as a body beneath the earth in the deep recesses of Tartarus

yet speaks of thera as the ancestors and

of

of birds,

fishes,

tiie

Like the preserved Karfesters, they

were the germina whence the new world proceeded trace the Noetic

ogdoad

centaur Taschter at their head;

Cronus

is

than that of the (1.)

While

is

the equine man-bull of

the equine man-bull of classical mythology. the second prayer

which throughout

is

is

more

literally diluvian

highly symbolical.

the aspirant celebrates the cleansing and fructifying powers of

rain in general; his song.

first,

hippocen-

Amschaspands with the hippo-

as Taschter

for,

The -imagery however of

2.

and we may equally

:

in the seven Titans with their parent the

taur Cronus at their head, and in the seven

Persia, so

originates every ge-

he,

;

^

he

primordial fountains both of men^

and of beasts from you, says

neration throughout the Universe.

;

it is

easy to see, what particular rain

is

the real burden of

Supplications are to be addressed to the pure Bull and to rain, as

the principles of

all

good.

bring destruction upon

Though

man

the evil one

may ravage

so unhappily devoted to

diluvian tempest of desolation

is

abated,

when

the day

As we may

rain replaces everything in right order.

him is

the world, yet,

:

is

the

again serene; the

learn by

comparing the

prayer with the history, water, in exact accordance with the notions both of Hindostan and Britain,

when

and

mylholocrjcal

not only the instrument of ruin,

but likewise the agent employed for the purification and regeneration of a corrupted world.

The same

greater clearness and

idea

more pointed

is

afterwards expressed in the prayer with

application.

goes forth to the work of destruction rents

;

puts to flight the great serpent

The

evil principle furiously

but the rain chases away

:

;

and washes out those

hood, vice, and impurity, with which the bodies of

all his

stains of false-

men had been

by the machinations of Ahriman. •^

See

my

Dissert,

on the Cabiri. chap.i.x.

*

adhe-

Orpb. Hymn, xxxti.

infested

''"*'' '"'

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

94 BOOK m.

which Ahriman assumed

(2.) This serpent is said to be the form,

man-bull

to poison the first

from

:

its

influence likewise the deluge

order

iii

is

repre-

sented as [)rocceding.

Here then we are unequivocally and unreservedly informed, what

I

have

already intimated to be the case, that the Gentiles symbolized the flood by a vast serpent, because they believed ple.

The

'

it

from the

to have originated

evil princi-

serpent Ahriman, existing in the M'ater (to use the remarkable

phraseology of the Zend-Avesta), and thence producing the deluge, the same two-fold mythological character

Greek Python, the Indian Vasookee, and Midgard.

Plutarch rightly

fication of the

of the flood,

ocean is

clearly

the huge Gothic water-snake of

that the dragon

tells us,

is

Egyptian Typhon, the

as the

Typhon was

a personi-

and, that he represented the ocean at the precise time

;

evident from tis being the agent,

who compelled

Osiris to

enter into the ark and Horus or the renovated Osiris to take refuge in the

But he did not

sacred floating island.

he was distinguished evil principle.

like

also,

Hence

typify the ocean simply and c.vclusiveli/

Ahriman, by the characteristic marks of the

the Egyptians

and the Persians equally viewed the sea

with abhorrence, and were peculiarly unwilling to trust themselves on

waters

;

though

was highly venerated by both as a powerful

it

divinity,

its

and

though by the mystic theocrasia which is so prominent a feature of ancient Pacranism it was often esteemed one of the material forms of the great father. (3.)

As we proceed

in

our inquiry, additional light

character of the serpent.

will

Ormtizd the just judge said

be thrown on the to

Neriosengh

After having made this pure place, the beauty of which uisplayed itself afar, I was marching in the greatness of my majesty. Then the serpent perceived me : then that serpent, that Ahriman, full of death, produced abundantly ao-ainst me,

Yet

all

* by thousands and by myriads, universal envy and opposition.

his efforts

should eventually prove ineffectual.

desolate the world by bringing yet the rain

upon

it

the waters of a mighty inundation,

would reestablish every thing

in its right order against the

of Oschen. •

Vide supra book

*

Vendidad Sadi

ii.

chap. 7- #

I.

1.

iu Zend-Avesta, vol.

2. ii.

p.

Though he might

429. apud Bryant.

days

tUe origin of PAOATf IDOLATRY,

Wc

have here,

mistake not, a very curious, though not singular, in-

if I

Noah and

stance of the manner, in which the characters of

Messiah were sometimes confounded together

in

one of the most eminent types of Christ

so eminent

phraseology and machinery the

Greek Scriptures

may

(if I

in

so speak)

indeed,

both of the

Noah

is

that the

Hebrew and of

It

was

this

resemblance between the type

which produced that otherwise unaccountable coincidence

antitype,

many

:

the predicted

the gentile world.

measure constructed upon a continued

in a great

is

allusion to his eventful history.

and the

95

points of the character of our Saviour with that of the great father

of the Gentiles

a coincidence, which has been alleged for the worst of

:

purposes by certain modern infidel writers, and which cannot be wholly solved by the theory that s})urious gospels

eastern pagans.

in

particulars were pilfered

from the genuine or

and fraudulently employed to decorate the chief god of the

That much indeed has been done

moment be doubted which

many

:

many

that

but,

due season proved

to

way, cannot for a

in this

characteristics of

the great

served to distinguish the great father long before the advent of I think,

can,

be as

little

doubted.

which caused the very abuse closed, the resemblance

It

was

in question.

in

:

When

votaries

but unwilling to

Christianity,

was

the ministry of Christ

was soon observed by the curious

for the

tiie INIessiah^

fact this partial resemblance,

resernblance produced most of the early heresies, m east was infected

father,

be characteristics of the Messiah, actually

itli

orientalists.

This

which the speculative

of the great father, embracing indeed

relinquish

long-fostered superstition,

their

soon contended, that .Jesus was but one of the numerous manifestations of

him

;

who

ever appeared,

as a preacher of righteousness, as

an iron age, and as the introducer of a new age of gold.

were prepossessed with ciou!5,

fancy

;

this wild,

father:

but

retbruicr of

Wlien once they

thougli (according to t/ieir notions) spe-

The whole

the rest followed of course.

j^pplled to the great

tlie

it

was so

a])plied,

history of Christ

was

only because a certain

degree of resemblance had already been found to subsist between them.

Thus,

in the instance

evidently the

now

before us, the Ncriosengh of the Zend-Avesta

Hindoo Nara-Sing or

lion-avatar of \'ishnou:

from the context of the passage, must be against his days the waters of the deluge

Noah

;

because

we

is

and Oschen, are told, that

would reestablish every thing

in

ruAP. in.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

96 BOUK

III,

Egypt, Hindostan, and Greeccr

order.

Yet, since

Noah is

equally described as being pursued by the serpent or the evil prin-

ciple bringing

the inythology of

in

on the flood

;

and since the original promise foretold, that the

serpent should bruise the heel of him Avonian

we

:

find,

who should eminently be

with that strange degree of evidence which can scarcely be

controverted, that in the person of Oschen,

Magi fiom a very

father, the

man from

of

begha

said

is

been foretold by Zeradusht

to have

pear a malignant demon,

in the latter

In

his affairs

were is

injuries,

To him

table in their nature.

his

But Oshander-

in the

Zend-Avesta as a in-

time there was likewise to aphis plans

and trouble

Afterwards Osider-begha,

his

em-

who seems

and reestablish such customs as are immu-

kings were to be obedient and to advance

the cause of true religion

;

to prevail

;

was

to flourish

and discord and trouble were

easy to see, that

this

predicted Oschen

should be greatly restrained,

immediately upon the death of the

is

or Oshander-begha

when

promised by

first

man-bull

that every part of the two-fold character of

der-begha accurately corresponds

man Noah

thology, combating

and

finally

The

difference

being past, while

future.

this

But, after

is

it is

to

Goschoroun

equally easy to

Oshander-begha and Osicharacter of the just

represented in ancient

consists only in the struggle

the difference

the

first

mycon-

Typhon, or Python, or Ahriman, or

of Oshander-begha

all,

and

is

power of Ahri-

subduing, though not without being

strained to flee himself, the serpent Caliya.

:

the

Ormuzd

with the two-fold

antediluvian and postdiluvian, as he

peace and tranquil-

;

to cease.'

person, whose manifestation on earth, at a time

see,

deliverer

Oshander-begha under another appellation, was to revive the practice

of justice, put an end to

man

or the great

days to bless the world by the

who should oppose

pire for the space of twenty years.

It

Noah

some mighty

early period expected

troduction of holiness and religion.

lity

primarily

palpably the same as Oshander-begha.

is

just man, who should appear

to be

who is

the tyranny of the serpent and from the bondage of corruption.

Oschen

(4.)

the seed of the

is

is

of the great father

spoken of by Zeradusht as yet

rather apparent than real.

It

was

the grand doctrine of ancient Paganism, a doctrine which eminently pre-

'

See the original of this prediction in

Hyde de rel.

vet, Pers. c.

xxxi.

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. that "hat

vailed in the east,

the great father or the just

97

had once occurred was to occur again

man had

;

that, as

been revealed at the commencement of

the present world in conflict with the serpent which brought on the deluge,

him

so he would again be revealed similarly in conflict with

of another

age; that,

again be victorious

he had heretofore been victorious, so he would

as

he had already been an universal sovereign and

that, as

;

had introduced a golden age of over

and

at the beginning

religious holiness, so he

would again rule

the kings of the earth, and usher in a remarkable period

all

of justice

Al! this would have been taught by Zeradusht, merely in accord-

piety.

ance with the leading tenet of that ancient Babylonian superstition which spread

from

itself

Shinar

over the face of the whole earth, and without

any necessary reference to the expected

Messiah of Jews and Christians.

And

that this supposed prophecy at least had

first

sight

it

no such

reference, though at

might appear to have, may be very plainly collected from the

who

character of Oschen;

is

certainly

Noah, because

the waters of the de-

Hence, when

luge were to reestablish every thing in order against his days.

Zeradusht predicted a future Oschen, who should again successfully contend with the evil principle,

he

manifestation of a future

But,

if

we advance

in fact

Menu

merely asserted a future deluge and the

new

at the beginning of a

yet further, and

observe

how

this

world.

personage

addi-

is

tionally decorated in a more explicit prophecy also ascribed to Zeradusht,

we

probably be obliged to conclude,

shall

whatever

in

that,

light

might have been originally viewed, the character of the Messiah was at to

some time

him,

in

According

Abulpharagius, Zeradusht, the preceptor of the Magi, taught the Perconcerning the manifestation of Christ

sians

gifts to

in

or other, superadded to that of the great father.

Oschen

and ordered them

;

the latter days a pure virgin would conceive

child

was born, a

minished before

follow

star

Vau,

lustre.

offering

vhithersoever

your gfls

to

and

that, as

soon as the

my it

sons,

As

exclaimed the

seer,

will perceive its rising

soon therefore as you shall behold the star,

shall lead

you

;

and adore that mysterious

He

him with profound humility.

is

'

Pag.

Abulphar. apud Hyde de

rcl. vet.

VOL.

Pcrs.

II.

c.

child,

the Almighty

JVord, which created the heavens.^

Idol.

that

would appear, blazing even at noon-day with undi-

any other nation. it

;

to bring

He declared,

him, in token of their reverence and submission.

xxxi.

N

<=*'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

99 BOOK

III.

Now,

although from very remote times the great father was occasionally

believed

have been born from a

to

was often viewed

birth he

virgin,

although in reference to that

as existing in a state of infancy,

and although he

was frequently distinguished by a remarkable star possibly on account of though all these the appearance of a comet at the epoch of the deluge :

particulars are certainly to be found in the

father

;

when we consider them as

yet,

prophecy ascribed to Zeradusht, that the author of

The

it

it is

multifarious history of the great

thei/

stand connected together in the

almost impossible not to

feel

persuaded,

must have seen the predictions of Balaam and

only question therefore

Isaiah.

whether the plagiarism was effected before

is,

or after the nativity of Christ.

am

(5.) I

strongly inclined myself to believe, that

My

the Christian era. It

is

was

it

effected before

reasons are these.

well known, that an universal expectation of some mighty deliverer

prevailed throughout the east previous to the time fested in the flesh

:

and

it

certain,

is

when our Lord was mani-

that such a deliverer

was actually ex-

pected by the Magi, and that some unusual star was believed by them to be his

appointed harbinger, because we find them journeying

Now

as soon as they beheld the star.

traordinary transaction

in

is,

my

in

quest of him

the sacicd account of this very ex-

mind, a strong proof, that the later Ze-

radusht really delivered to the Magi some such prophecy, as that ascribed to

him by Abulpharagius

inspired

we seem

but

;

not,

:

to

have

disciples the predictions of

being his own.

The Magi, Judea

:

it

proved to

us,

that he

Balaam and Isaiah under

I trace the

proof

noticed by St.

this at

of course, that I suppose him to have been

in the following

Matthew,

communicated

the

to his

pretence of their

manner.

lived in a country directly east of

once shuts out Arabia, and directs our attention to Chald^a

They

Magi

name

no

and

Persia.

less

than their geographical locality, compels us to look to the same region

for

them

are especially styled

:

trated into

from Jud^a

ries.

therefore,

because, although there were numerous colonies of the INIaghas

;

to the east and south-east of Persia, and although

shall find

their

Europe by a north-westerly (the route

direction,

prescribed by St.

some of them had peneyet, if we travel due east

Matthew),

I

doubt whether we

any of them before we reach Babylonia and the Persian

If then they were Persians (and the

same conclusion

territo-

will follow,

if

THE

OIIIGIN OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

99

CHAP. they were natives of some other country), they must have been traditionally

taught by their predecessors, as taught by the later Zeradusht

if this

for,

:

said to have been

those predecessors are

were not the

case,

We

impossible to account for the grounds of their conduct. told, that,

knew

would be born king of the Jews

deliverer

the

tlicir

worshipping him and of offering to could have been done by them "oious to the

if

;

in

his

But nothing uf

presents.'

they had not

known is

said by Abulpharagius to

stolen prophecy, to their forefathers.

the king of the

Jews

;

that

it

announced

the

For, zvithout

star,

they never

a great deliverer

birth of

and, though they might have indulged in

tronomical speculations respecting

it,

they never would

wonderful infant

travelling into Palestine in search of a

this sort

the particulars, j&re-

antecedent knowledge, though they might have seen the

have imagined

and that

;

native land for the express pur[)ose of

him

advent of Christ, «hich Zeradusht

have revealed,

could

are explicitly

appearance the birth of the long-expected deliverer

its

they undertook a journey from

this

utterly

while they were yet in the east, they beheld an unusual star; that

they argued from that they

is

it

many

as-

have dreamt of :

all

this,

without

some antecedent knowledge, they would no more have done, than a modern astronomer would take a voyage to America on a similar errand, because

The whole

he had recently observed some remarkable comet. therefore of St.

Matthew supposes and

narrative

requires this antecedent knowledge

:

and, as he gives us not the slightest intimation that their acquaintance with the purport of the star was recently and specially derived from a divine com-

munication,

He

we have no warrant

for solving the

simply represents them as declaring, that they had seen the star in the

east,

and

that they well

knew what such a phenomenon

knowledge therefore they possessed before the it

question in that manner.

might be acquired by them,

which the sors.

later

They

Zeradusht

is

it

is

at

:

:

All this

and, however

any rate precisely that knowledge

said to have

communicated

acted, in short, in the identical

have acted, supposing Zeradusht to have question

signified.

birth of Cln-ist

really

manner

made

to tiieir predeces-

in

which they would

the communication in

and, as their actions imply previous knowledge acquired in some

manner, and as that precise knowledge '

is

See Matth.

said ii.

to

have been conveyed

to

III.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGANT IDOLATRY.

100 nooK

III.

them by Zeradusht which he himself might

have acquired from the

easily

Hebrew

Scriptures during the Babylonian captivity, I really see no sufficient

grounds

for

litigating the general authenticity of the prediction

him by Abulpharagius.

In

this

singular part of the declaration

Matthew

of the

am

the

ascribed to

more confirmed by a very

Magi themselves,

as recorded

by

St.

they not only know, that the star announced the birth of a deli-

:

verer in general, but that

it

How

king in particular. it

opinion I

some wonderful Jewish

signified the nativity of

did they learn this last circumstance; with which,

appears, they were already well acquainted before the manifestation of

Christ

The answer

?

radusht's prediction ed, if

:

perfectly easy, if

is

and the

we suppose (what

fact

is

we admit

precisely

in that case

the authenticity of Ze-

what might have been expect-

we must suppose)

that he

fabricated

Holy Writ. From come out of Jacob that the vir-

his self-appropriated vaticination out of the prophecies of

them he would gin-born fant his

was

learn, that the star

Immanuel was to

was

to

;

to be the sovereign of

be the Mighty

God and

Judah

;

that the expected in-

the Prince of peace

and

;

although

that,

government should ever be upon the increase, he should specially

sit

upon

Hence, I think, we may clearly perceive, Magi came to know that the star-annouriced deliverer was to be a Jewish prince, and how Zeradusht was enabled to communicate that

the throne of his father David.'

how

the eastern

knowledge to them long before the advent of Christ.

But there

yet another reason for believing, that the plagiarism of Ze-

is

radusht was effected previous to the birth of our Lord, and that the prediction ascribed to

quent to the

it.

Magi of

their rites

him by Abulpharagius

The connection between

the

not a forgery manufactured subse-

Druids of the British

isles

and

Persia was inferred by Borlase from the palpable identity of

and

tenets,

even before the progress

wards of the Goths had been is

is

of the Celts and after-

first

satisfactorily traced

from the East.

Now

it

a remarkable circumstance, that in the old Irish history a parallel prophe-

cy should be ascribed to a person called Zeradusht

:

and

markable, that the prediction should be said to have been

is

equally re-

first

delivered by

it

a Daru or Druid of Bokhara, which was the supposed abode of the Persian '

Compare Numb.

xxiv. 17, 18,

JJ).

Iskiahrii, 14. viii. 8.

ix.

6,7.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. how

I see not,

Zeradusht.'

101

minute coincidence can be

this

satisfactorily ac-

counted for on the supposition that the Irish legend was the mere forgery of

some monk of tion

had been

the middle ages the

guilty, in

because, even

:

nation, of the pious fraud of putting the

the

mouth of Zeradusht, he could not

prophecy was ascribed actually a

forgery.

Many

own

imagi-

prophecy of a future deliverer into

possibly have known, that that to a

very

Zeradusht who was

This circumstance, so

able to judge of evidence, removes the suspicion

paced

a person of that descrip-

by Abulpharagius

in the east

or Druid of Bokhara.

Daru

if

instance and entirely from his

first

far

am

I

of at least a thorough-

of the Popish saints are undoubtedly nothing more

than the gods of the Gentiles, whose

fabulous history has been strangely

transmuted into a pseudo-christian legend

:

but, if a

romancincr

monk

of

the dark ages had merely found an ancient personage, revered by the pagan Irish as a prophet under the

posed

name of Zeradusht, and

if

he had been

personage a prophecy respecting the Messiah

to ascribe to this

could not have moulded the prophecy and the history attached to

Supposing him

present form.

know

under the

the Zeradusht of

he

into their

was mentioned by the Greek and La-

of Zoroaster, he never could have imagined, that

title

Irish history

had any thing

in

common

with

this

Zo-

because he could scarcely have known that by the Persians Zoroas-

roaster^ ter

tlie

;

have possessed a sufficiency of learning to

to

that an ancient Persian legislator

tin writers

it

dis-

was

how he

called Zeradusht.

But, without such knowledge, which I see not

could well acquire,

it

firm, that the Zeradusht

of Bokhara. affirmation,

For the

Or,

if

who

it,

identical prophecy,

Zeradusht of Bokhara, ;

delivered the prophecy was a Druid or

af-

Ma^us

he had unaccountably and at hazard made such an

how happens

same person

never would have entered into his head to

is

that

it

should actually turn out to be the truth

which by the old Irish

given by Abulpharagius in the east to

a circumstance, of which a

monk

?

in the west is ascribed to

in the

the very

middle ages

could

scarcely have been aware.

The '

necessary result from this coincidence

SeeVallancey's Vindic of anc.

—201.

hibt.

is

both curious and important.

of Ireland. Collect, de reb.

Hibern. vol.

iv. p.

196

*'°*''*

"**

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

102

There must have been an emigration from Persia

by the usual

to Ireland,

north-westerly route, subsequent to the original production of the prophecy

But

of Zeradusht. to the time,

Jews of

when

the later

the captivity

stolen from the

prophecy could not have been manufactured prior

that

Zeradusht conversed with Daniel or with some

because

;

Hebrew

it

exhibits internal evidence of having been

Neither could

Scriptures.

tured subsequent to the birth of Christ

:

because the actions of the Magi,

as recorded by St. Matthew, prove, that they

knowledge which country.

Hence

it

conveys when they

the emigration from

have been manufac-

it

must have possessed the very

first

own

beheld the star in their

Persia to Ireland must have taken

place between the time of Darius Hystaspis, in whose reign the later Zera-

with reason believed to have flourished, and the birth of Christ,

dusht

is

which

called the expecting

Magi out

of Persia or Chald^a.

But,

took

if it

place before the birth of Christ, then the prophecy ascribed to Zeradusht

must

also

have been composed before the same era

been discovered

in Ireland,

christian emigrants

(6.)

I think m'B

it

because, since

:

it

has

can only have been brought there by the pre-

from Persia.

may

not obscurely collect,

that the sentiments of Zera-

dusht himself, respecting \h^ future deliverer, were entertained of him, by

many

much

the

same as those

of the early eastern heretics, after he had been

manifested.

Oschen, we have seen, was equally a

whom

of the just

man Noah,

Now,

ism, already

who was

again to contend with

tlie evil

principle in the last

since Zeradusht, agreeably to the prevailing

maintained,

would hereafter appear

dogma of Pagan-

Oschen or Key-Umursh or

that

at the beginning of a

new world

the great father

as he had heretofore

appeared at the beginning of the present and the antediluvian worlds since he further knew, that that

name

for

the world was renovated by the waters of the deluge, and of the ex-

pected just man, ages.

title

of Taschter or

Aboudad

same

or

;

and,

great father, whether designated by the

Mahubad

or Buddha, was eminently distin-

guished by a star and was sometimes thought to have been born of a virgin since these would be the doctrines

mon

and speculations of Zeradusht,

in

:

com-

with the other philosophizing theologists of the east, previous to his hav-

ing seen the prophecies of

Balaam and

Isaiah,

it

is

easy to anticipate the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

103

He would

theory which he would be apt to adopt after he had seen them.

immediately conclude, that the predicted Messiah, whenever he should be

would be nothing more than one of those reappearances of the great

revealed,

which

father,

own mythological system taught him at stated And such, which we may collect to have been the

his

vals to expect.

of Zeradusht from

Oschen

to the just

circumstance of

tiie

man whether past

applying the same

his

They

held,

title

of

or future,

was the precise idea

who

so early disturbed the

of those mischievous philosophizing heretics

peace of the church.

inter-

notion

as

successors have

their

done

after

them, that Christ was a descent of the virgin-born Buddha or Salivahana

and they garbled the already existing legend of the great troducing into

it

father,

by

in-

from the history of Jesus, and

various particulars

by

applying them to the character of their transmigrating hero-god.

Whether

the

Magi, vrho travelled from the east to worship the infant

Messiah, became converts to unadulterated Cliristianity and renounced the theory which vvas probably handed

They

informed.

returned to their

down to them from Zeradusht, we are not own country, and we hear nothing more of

But, whether they did or did not acquire more just sentiments by

them.

conversing with

Mary and

Joseph, the report, which they must have brought

back with them, would have a strong tendency

sow

to

in the

minds of

brethren, already impressed with the belief that the great father

their

was about

to

be manifested for the purpose of reforming a corrupt world, those seeds,

M hich afterwards produced so abundant a crop of Gnosticism and Manicheism. (7.)

The mighty

river

Voorokesch^, which

cuously in the second prayer, though

it

is

mentioned very conspi-

does not appear

in

the history,

take to be the principal sacred Paradisiacal river of the Persian

was

It

gists.

to them,

to the Celts, the

Babylonians

and

still

river, is

is,

:

it

to

of Avhich

certainly

what the Nile was

is

mytholo-

Danube

Tanais to the Tauric Scythians, and the Euphrates to

was

to them, in

short,

all

the others were but

the Euphrates; because

clearly the

Lubar

:

it

The

original chief sacred

locally-appropriated transcripts,

really

and,

arkite mountain,

tlie

what the Ganges has long been,

the Indo-Scythae and Hindoos.

diluvian region of Ararat or

Avesta

to the Egyptians, the

I

flows from the

Paradisiaco-

since the Albordi of the

whether the

Zend-

Persians supposed

it

**'*^- '"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAOAN IDOLATRY.

104 BOOK in.

literally to coincide with the

Armenian Ararat or with the more eastern Meru

of Hindoo theology, the prototype of the Voorokeschfe must be the Eu-

though

phrates,

stream.

may

it

literally

been identified with some other

have

This sacred river, from the circumstance of

'

flowing fiom the

its

mountainous country where the Aric rested, was esteemed a symbol of the oceanic deluge

whence conversely

:

ancients to consider the sea as an

poet

Homer

tians

were wont

Ark

of Osiris

to designate

in

enormous

familiar notion

Thus

river.

floated,

by the very same

title

and the Nile, which supported on

'

which

it is

we may

with the

the mythological

:

*

thus the

Egyp-

on which the

the ocean,

thus also the Eridanus of the sphere, which by

:

to be the Nile, was, as

hood

became a

speaks continually of the streams of the ocean

Noah

of

it

waters the ark

its

some was thought

from the peculiar neighbour-

easily collect

placed, no other than the sea or the deluge

:

*

and thus,

to pass from profane to sacred, Jeremiah, when predicting the future state

of Babylon in consequence of the manner calls the

rain,

Euphrates the

which

away the

is

evil

sea.

'

in

which

it

was taken by Cyrus,

Accordingly, from Voorokeschfe arises that

appointed not only to fructify the earth, but likewise to drive

demons

that produce the deluge

and

to purify the

world from

corruption.

VI. Thus

I have argued, in favour of the genuine antiquity of at least

the materials out of which the Zend-Avesta has been composed, from the of the ideas, prevalent both in the history and in

total dissimilitude

prayers, to the simple nairative of Moses, on the one hand

perfect similitude to

the old mythological notions of

and from

;

tlie

the their

universal pagan

world, on the other hand.

The

points,

which

I wished to establish,

were these

:

that the early history,

contained in the present Zend-Avesta could neither be a mere transcript

from the book of Genesis, nor a *

The Oxus

wooden ^ '

arlt,

or Gihon for instance, on which

Darab

Hence our Milton has borrowed

ilxtavoio foawY.

Diod. Bibl. Hist.

is

modern

lib. 1.

his

ocean stream.

p. 12.

Eridanus.

Compare Jerem.

li.

times,

feigned to have been set afloat in a

on the Nile.

like Osiris

* Eratos. Catast. '

total or partial fabrication of

42. with Bp. Newton's Dissert, x. vol.

i.

p. 298,

309.

THK ORIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY. may be

whatever

the age of the compilation in which

the groundwork of this history, like the collected by Tzetzes and Ovid,

The Zend-Avesta

quity.

tively recent

production

all

appears

and traditions

but that

;

(for instance)

an authentic fragment of veiy remote

may

therefore, in its present form,

anti-

be a compara-

but internal evidence proves the genuineness of

:

the materials out of which

argument, and

is

fables

it

105

it

has been compiled.

This

is

my

sufficient for

that I wish to insist upon.

Now, from the examination subjected, I will venture to

to

which the history and the prayers have been

avow my

they can neither have been"

belief, that

the original arbitrary invention of a late writer, nor yet a garbled transcript

from the Pentateuch

though an acquaintance with the sacred volume

;

have produced a chronological regularity of arrangement. the Zend-Avesta, the early history contained in

The minute accordance

of

its

mythology

it is'

%vith the

may

Whoever compiled

no modern figment. ancient mythologies of

other nations, more especially in those particulars where the accordance has

very

little

that, let

the semblance of being industriously laboured or designed, shews,

who may

be

its

author, he must either have written from old materials,

or have been most profoundly skilled in the arcana of the pagan Mysteries.

The

theology, particularly in the doctrine of the reappearance of the great

father, in the exhibiting of

ing of

him

him under the symbol of a man-bull,

as being astronomically the Sun,

nion of the Ark and the IMoon

;

and

in the

in the describ-

mystic intercommu-

the theology, in all tliese pointS;

is

undoubt-

edly the same as the theology of Greece, Egypt, Hindostan, Palestine, and Britain; and, though (as I liave just stated) the author may have been enabled to reduce his story into

a regular chronological form through his becoming

acquainted with the writings of INIoses during or after the Babylonian captivity yet his

Nor

mode of is

telling that story

this all

:

is

not scriptural, but strictly pagan.

as the theological opinions, which pervade both the legend

and the prayers, are precisely those opinions, which have prevailed from the remotest ages throughout the whole gentile world; so they correspond with

and interpret the sculptured rock temples of Mithras, which are istence,

and which at

this very

still

in

ex-

hour bear testimony to the genuine antiquity

of those materials out of which the Zend-Avesta has been composed.

Thevenot has given a curious delineation of the carved front of one of these O VOL. Ti. Pag. Idol.

*^''*'''

"'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

106 BOOK

III.

sacred caverns; the imagery of which closely corresponds with the mythology

On the propitious sign of the rainbow is seated a winged

of the Zend-Avesta.

whom

Eros or Cupid,

On

the gods. rising

towards

the votary,

his

left

On

it.

the ancient hierophants rightly

his

right,

kneels an adoring Magus.

of a steer.

The head on

'

viewed, as the

gi'eat father

rative or regenerative

riding on

the bull of

world

;

altar

And, behind

and the whole groupe

that he

composed of

is

supported by

the duplicated

head

the pillar certainly represents the tauric Mithras

always was viewed, in the light of the chief gene-

power

;

for

Poiphyry

tells us,

Venus, who was the same

that bull, he %vas the lord

like

that,

:

the capitals of which are each

pillars,

the oldest of

seen a phallus or conical pillar surmounted by a bull's head.

is

Beneath these are eighteen naked men

two

deemed

hand appears the Sun, with the flame of an

that Mithras was depicted

as Isis, Astart^, or Mylitta

of generation and the creator of the

was immediately connected with the mystic

birth

and egress

Moon, symbolized by a cow and that he was styled Buclopus or the stealtr of oxen, which name that writer seems to consider as This tauric equivalent to one who by stealth attends to generation.'' of souls from the

Mithras

is

;

declared to be the Sun:' and there was a notion, that he

tripli-

cated himself or produced a triple offspring; whence the Greeks denominated

him

But the man-bull Taschter

Triplasius.

while, in his

human

one

is

also

said to

be the Sun

character of the producer of the deluge, he

have been assisted by three therefore

is

inferior attendants.

The

is

solari-tauric

said to

Mithras

evidently the solar man-bull Taschter; and the triplication of the

relates solely to the three attendants of the other.

Such and so varied are the

testimonies,

which may be brought

to the ge-

nuine antiquity of the mythological system, taught in the early history of the Zend-Avesta.

'

See the print in Bryant's Anal. yol.

"

Porph.de

^

Mi^as

ant.

nymph,

p. 260,

i iJAisf ffctfa Us^a-oiis.

ii.

p.

426.

26l, 262, 265.

Hesych. Lex.

CHAPTER

Pagan

We

IV.

accounts of an universal deluge.

have observed, that pagan accounts of the creation generally contain

some strong

allusions to the deluge

:

a similar manner

in

we

shall find,

pagan accounts of the deluge are frequently marked by references history of the

creation.

The cause

of this apparent confusion

is

that

to the in

both

instances the same.

Agreeably to the established doctrine of a succession of similar worlds, the creation of the antediluvian system

was not esteemed a proper creation

or a production of something out of nothing; but was considered only as a

new

organization of matter subsequent to a flood, which had destroyed a

former world, and on the surface of which the great father floated repose during the period that intervened between that world and

And, analogously

when a

to such

an

idea, the

in

profound

successor.

its

reappearance of the face of the earth,

the deluge retired into the central abyss, was viewed as the creation of

new mundane system out of

father with his seven

the fragments of a prior system

companions having again

floated

;

the great

upon the face of the

deep, during the appointed intermediate period, either on the lotos, or the

sacred

leaf,

or the navicular sea-serpent, or the mystic ship.

Hence, as the

proper creation was believed to have been preceded by a flood, which de-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

lOS BOOK

III.

stroyed a former world; and as our present sj-stem flood, it is

and was

some

in

was

really preceded by a

a new production out of preexisting materials

sort

obvious, that, according to the philosophy of Paganism, there was

between the

essential difference

real creation of the

Such being the

after the deluge.

accounts of the flood would be

due allowances

for

intermingled together,

we

shall

more ancient nations have preserved almost

literal

deluge, which correspond in a very wonderful as detailed I.

still

and heathen

in fact nothing

we make many of the

If however

naturally anticipated.

circumstance,

this

is

no

renovation

its

case, that heathen cosmogonies

much

more than what might have been

world and

:

find,

that

accounts of an universal

manner with

the history of

it

we have

it

by Moses.

I shall

begin with that of the Chaldfeans or Babylonians, as

handed down

to us,

from the now

lost

history of Berosus, by Eusebius,

Syncellus, Abydenus, and Josephus.

Xisuthrus, or (as his

Noah, the ninth In

system.

in

name

is

sometimes written) Seisithrus, was,

descent from the first-created

his time

man

of the former

happened the great deluge, the

histori/

like

mundane

of'

which

is

given in this manner.

The god Cronus appeared

to

him

in

a

vision ;

and gave him

notice,

that,

on thejifteenth day of the tnonth Desius, there zeould be a fiood, by xvhich He therefore enjoined him to commit to all mankind would he destroyed. writing a history of the beginning, procedure, and final conclusion, things,

down

term

to the present

;

and to bury

of

all

these accounts securely in the

of the Sun at Sippara or Sisparnis. He then ordered him to build a vessel ; to take xvith him into it his friends and relations ; and to trust himcity

self fearlessly to the deep.

The command was

implicitly obeyed.

having carried on board every thing necessary

to support

life,

Xisuthrus, took in like-

wise all kinds of animals, that either fy through the air or rove on the sur-

face of the earth.

He

then asked the deity, whither he

To

mankind.

Thus he obeyed

built,

thifig,

was five

:

stadia in length,

and

The

the divine admo?iition.

and

go

;

and was

his friends.

vessel,

zvhich he

Into this he put every

tzvo in breadth.

which he had got ready; and conveyed into

his children,

to

upon zvhich he offered up a prayer for the good of

answered,

the gods

was

it

last

of

all his wife,

After the flood had covered the earth, and

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATBr. xohen at length

it

began

to abate,

109

Xisuthrus sent out some birds from the

vessel; which, Jinding neither food 7ior place to rest their feet,

After an interval of some days, he sent them forth a second

him again. time

and they now came back with

:

time he made trial zvith them

hence he

formed a judgment,

He

above the waters. looking out, that

it

immediately quitted

he offered sacrifices

noxo therefore opened the

vessel

;

to the gods.

They who remained

third

and found, upon

Upon

of a mountain.

to the side

and

:

he

this,

attended by his wife, his children, and his

both Xisuthrus, and those

peared.

A

but they then returned to him no more

that the surface of the earth had appeared

was driven it,

;

their feet tinged with mud.

First he paid his adoration to the earth

ed,

returned to

pilot.

'

having built an altar,

then,

IVhen these things had been duly petfarmwho came out of the vessel with him, disap-

ftiding that their late companions

within,

did

now quitted the ship with many lamentations, and called inceson the name of Xisuthrus. Him however they saw no more but

not return, santly

:

they distinguished his voice in the air,

pay due regard his piety, he

children,

to the gods.

was translated to

and

his pilot,

and could hear him admonish them

likexeise

live

with the gods; and that his wife, and his

informed them, that on account of

had obtained the same

To

hoyiour.

this he

that he xvould have them make the best of their xvay to Babylonia, at Sipparafor the writings which were to be

The place, where

were

to all mankind.

Armenia.

The remainder,

sacrifices to the

gods; and, taking a

circuit,

to be seen in his time

in

xcith xvhich it

'

and search

Berosus remarks, that the remains of the upon one of the Corey r^an or Cordyean

Jouj'tieyed towai^ds Babylonia.

mountains

added,

made known

these things happetied, xvas in

having heard his words, offered

vessel

to

He

Armenia ; and that people were wont

had been outwardly

Mr. Bryant remarks,

that this

is

coated,

scarceli/

and

to scrape off the

to use

a true account.

it

bitumen

by xcay of an alexi-

Berosus would hardly suppose

a pilot (xv^i^Yijrrjs ), where a vessel was totally shut up, and confessedly driven at the will of the winds

I can

and waves.

easily imagine,

that a Grecian interpreter would run into the

mistake, when he was adu^iting the history to his

kgcnd of

Ark was transmuted

into the

He

same person

Sfcnis to be the

RIcnelaus,

and whose

star

own

taste.

the Argo, Tiphys

as Canobus,

on the sphere

is

whom

Thus, when the history of the

was made

the Greeks

its pilot.

Hyg. Fab. 14.

fancied to bt the pilot of

placed in the rudder of the Argo.

*^"^''' •''•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

110 BOOK

III.

pharmic and amulet.

In

this

manner,

they returned

having found the writings at Sippara, they began

Thus was Babylon inhabited again.

temples.

The Greek account

II.

Syrian,

is

no

less

as

it

to build cities

;

and,

and to

erect

'

of the deluge, which

explicit,

Babylon

to

may

stands preserved

also be esteemed the

by Lucian, than that of

the Babylonians. IViis

for

generation and the present race of men, says he, were not the first

all those

second race ;

of that former generation perished. But these are of a which increasedfrom a single person, named Deucalion, to its Concerning those men they relate the following

present multitude.

Being of a lawlessness.

:

violent

and ferocious temper, they were guilty of every

They neither regarded the

obligatioti

tale.

sort

of of oaths, nor the rights

of hospitality, nor the prayers of the suppliant : wherefore a great cala-

The earth suddenly poured forth a vast body of water ; heavy torrents of rain descended ; the rivers overflowed their banks ; and the sea arose above its ordinary level: until the whole world was inundated,

mity

befell them.

and

all that zvere in

Deucalion alone was

it

In the midst of the general

perished.

destruction,

left to another generation, on account of his extraor-

Now

dinary wisdom and piety.

He

his preservation zvas thus effected.

caused his sons and their wives to enter into a large ark, which he had provided ; and afterwards xvent into swine,

and

ho7'ses,

and

lions,

and

But, while he was embarking,

himself.

it

sei'pents,

and

all other

animals that

live

These he took in with upon the face of the earth, came to him in pairs. him: and they injured him not ; but, on the contrary, the greatest harmony subsisted betxveen sailed together

them through the

irifiuence

in one ark, so long as the

of the

deity.

Thus they

all

Such

the

waters prevailed.

is

narrative of the Greeks : but the Syrians of HierapoUs add to it a wonderful account of the zvhole deluge being swallowed up by a vast chasm in Deucalion, they say, xvhen all these matters had taktn place, their country. erected altars, this

'

c. 3.

and

built a temple to

chasm ; and, at that Syncell. Chronog. p. 30. ^ 6.

time, it

Juno over the chasm.

I

myself saw

was but a small aperture beneath the

Abyd. apud Euseb.

Chrori. p. S.

Joseph. Ant. Jud.

lib.

i.

THE ORIGIK OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. temple

whether

:

it

was once larger, and afterwards decreased

I shall not pretend

size,

Of

Ill

to

say

what

;

I at

least

saw

xvas but

present

to its

a small orifice.

the truth hozvever of this account they adduce the following proof.

Twice

in each

year water

from the sea to the temple : and not and Arabia, nay even many persons from

brought

is

only the priests, but all Syria

beyond the Euphrates,

take the trouble of going

they all binng a certain quantity of water.

down

to the sea

whence

;

This, as they convey

it,

they

frst pour out upon the floor of the temple. From the floor it finds its way to the chasm : and the chasm, small as it nozv is, swalloxvs up without difficulty a vast quantity of water.

ancient tradition, that

it

was

Respecting the ceremony they have an

once of his calamity and his deliverance.

'

In the preceding narrative Lucian does not introduce the emission of

J.

amply supplied by Plutarch.

the dove;

but the defect

his treatise

on the sagacity of animals, informs

is

us,

that

returned it

to him,

That

;

writer,

in

maintained

xcas

it

by mythologisfs, that Deucalion sent a dove out of the ark

saw

memory at

instituted by Deucalion himself, in

when

zvhich,

it

shewed that the storm was not yet abated; but, when he

no more, he concluded that the sky was become serene again.

How

'

strong indeed traditions of this nature were in Syria, remarkably appears

from a medal struck at Apamea,

in the

immediate neighbourhood of Hiera-

polis, during the reign of Philip the elder.

Upon

the reverse of

sented a kind of square chest floating upon the waters.

man and main bird,

a

woman

within.

Above

it

flutters

a dove, bearing an olive branch

probably designed for a raven,

The

it is

repre-

of the chest a

are advancing upon dry land, while two other persons re-

Ihc pannels of the chest appears the 2.

Out

appulse of Deucalion

is

is

perched upon

word Noe

in

:

and another In one of

its roof.

Greek

characters.

variously related agreeably to the

of local appropriation, wliich fixed ^he mountain of the

Ark

in so

humour

many

dif-

ferent regions.

'

Lucian do dea Syra.

'^

Plutarch, de solert. animal, p. 96S.

'

See the print in Bryant's Anal. vol.

ii.

p.

230.

At

the end of this great

expressly on the subject in answer to Mr, Harrington, Mr. troverted the opinion of

Mr. Bryant,

Combe, and

others,

work

is

a tract

who had

con-

chap.

iv.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

112 BOOK

III.

The

Syrians brought him to shore in the neighbourhood of Hierapolis;

probably upon

range of

tliat

which, Uke the mountainous tract in the

hills,

name

eastern part of Armenia, bore the

of Taui'us or Tabris, as being the

supposed resting place of the ship Baris: Hyginus represents mount Etna in Sicily as being the scene of his debarkation:'

on mount Athos to Parnassus.

and limited

:

Servius makes him land

and Apollodorus and Ovid concur in assigning that honour

'

Apollodorus however describes the deluge as being partial

'

Greece

to

;

but in

account detailed by Lucian. after placing in

it

Deucalion builds a large ark of wood; and,

every thing necessary

The deluge

with his wife Pyrrha. part of Greece;

the main particulars he agrees with the

all

insomuch that

sus; and Deucalion, quitting

he embarks himself along

perish except a few,

The it,

life,

then commences, and covers the greatest

all

tops of the highest mountains.

for

who escape to the mount Parnas-

ark in due time rests on

builds an altar to Jupiter the deliverer.

Ovid, on the contrary, speaks of the deluge as being universal

Yet he accurately adheres

ing Deucalion, like 3.

The name

common

in

Noah,

man

as a

to

it

in

is

called

conversation,

extraction entitled

him

Crishna, though

it

Cala-Yavana

;

to the epithet of in

:

and

Caucasi.

it

to

him

iq

"

or

Deo

Greece; in the

for

but

it

;

for

Lucian expressly

The Hindoos however do :

calls

to the

is

dialect

what

Deo-

name from

Deucalion a Scy-

Chasas of

all

the three

not ascribe to him any escape from a

but they have a confused legend of his perishing by a flood

Hyg. Fab. 152, 153.

Apollod. Bibl.

and

appears to

Deucalion

common

* Serv. in Virg. Eclog. vi. vcr. 41. ^

:

Syrians and the Hellenes certainly received the

was doubtless equally well known

deluge of water

to the Hindoos.

India on account of his presuming to oppose

was duly applied

the Chasas or Indo-Scythee

thian

known

His acknowledged divine

Dcva

a Hindoo would write Deva-Cala-Yavana, or

The

exhibit-

;

but, in the vulgar dialects,

Cali/un and Caljun.

have been vvithheld from him

Calyun.

another particular

of eminent piety and justice.

of Deucalion seems to have been well

In the Puranas, he

but he de-

by making Deucalion and Pyrrha escape only in

parts from the true history,

a small bark.

:

lib. 1.

c. 7.

§ 2.

Ovid Metam.

lib. 1.

ver.

317.

THE ORIGIN of

fire.

its

many

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

OI'

113

This has arisen from the notion, that the world, in the course of chap.

was

revolutions,

sometimes by an inundation of the

to be destroyed

one element, and sometimes by an inundation of the other. catastrophes

is

Pralayn.

in the Sanscrit called

Either of these

'

Hindoos do not speak of the preservation of

III. But, though the

their

Deucalion from the waters of the deluge, they have some most remarkable

and

traditions of that great event both direct

of the wild imagery of mythologic

much 1.

The

blended however with

indirect,

fiction.

who

following narrative respecting Menu-Satyavrata,

the seventh manifestation of the great father from literally translated

is

esteemed

Menu-Swayambhuva, was

by Sir William Jones from the Bhagavat; and

tutes the subject of the

first

Purana, entitled that of the IMatsya or

it

consti-

fish.

Desiring the p7'eservation of herds and of Brahmens, of genii and of virtuous men, of the Vedas of laxv and of precious things, the lord of the

many

universe assumes

a variety of beings

;

At

subject to change.

bodily shapes

yet he

is

the close

though he pervades,

but,

:

like the air,

himself unvaried, since he has no quality

of the

last Culpa,

there

was a general

des-

Brahma ; whence his creatures in different Brahma being inclined to slumber, ocean.

truction occasioned by the sleep of

worlds were drowned in a vast

desiring repose after a lapse of ages, the strong demon

near him, and

stole the

Vedas which had

fowedfrom his

Hayagriva came lips.

JPlien Heri,

the preserver of the universe, discovered this deed of the prince of Danavas,

A

he took the shape of a minute fish called Saphari.

holy king,

tyavrata, then reigned, a servant of the spirit which

and so devout that water was

Sun ;

and, in the present Calpa,

Menu, by he zvas

the

is

invested by

name of Sraddadeva or

making a

He

his only sustenance.

the

of his hand, he perceived a small fsh moving

in

was

Narayan

god of

libation in the river Critamala,

obsequies.

the child in

of the

the office of

One

and held water it.

named Sa-

moved on the waves,

day, as

in the

palm

The king of Dr'avira

immediately dropped the fsh into the river together with the water which he

had taken Jrom volent monarch :

it,

when

How

canst thou,

'

Pag.

Idol.

the Saphari thus pathetically addressed the bene-

O

who shewest

king,

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi.

VOL.

p.

affection to the op-

496.

II.

P

iv.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

114 HOOK

III.

pressed, leave

me

I am

in this river water, tvhere

monsters of the stream, who Jill me with dread ?

too

weak

to resist the

He, not knowing who had

assumed the fdrtn of ajish, applied his mind to the preservation of the Saphari, hath from good natitre and from regard to his own soul; and, having heard

its

very suppliant address, he kindly placed

But

small vase full of water. that

I am not pleased with

illustrious prince

:

rnansion,

it

in less

jar

thence, placed

it

where

I may

narrow

cistern

;

O

then removed

having ample space around

O

body,

its

thus again addressed the

it

dzvcll in comfort.

king,

it

but

;

pleases

it

little

vase

;

The king, removgrew three cubits

me not

to stay vainly

granted me an asylum, give me a

since thou hast

He

spacious habitation.

bulk was so increased,

its

living miserably in this

water of a cistern

in the

thanffty minutes, and said :

in this

and

;

under his protection in a

it

a single night

could not he contained in the

it

make me a large ing

in

and placed

it, it

became a

it in

a pool; zvhere,

fish of considerable size.

for me, who must szvim at large in the routers : exert thyself for my safety, and remove me to a deep lake. Thus addressed, the pious monarch threw the suppliant into a lake ; and, when it grew of equal hulk xvith that piece of water, he cast the vastfsh This abode,

king,

is

JVhen the fish

into the sea.

spoke to Satyavrata

Here

:

strength, will devour ocean.

me ;

zvas throzvn into the waves,

thou shouldst not,

Never

IFho

before have

O valiant man,

icho

thus again

leave

me in

this

had addressed him with gentle

me

art thou, that bcguilest

I seen

lie

and other monsters of great

the horned sharks,

Thus repeatedly deluded by thefsh

words, the king said : .ihape ?

not convenient

i?z

that assumed

or heard of so prodigious an inhabitant

of the zvaters ; xvho, like thee, hast filed up in a single day a lake of a hundred leagues in circumference. Surely thou art Bhaghvat, zeho appearest before

me ;

the great Heri, whose dwelling

in compassion to thy servants bearest the

Salutation and praise to thee, vation,

of destruction!

us thy adorers

O first

Thou art

who piously

:

form of

the natives of the deep.

male; the lord of creation, of preser-

the highest object,

seek thee.

give existence to various beings

was on the waves, and who now

yet

that shape has been assumed by thee.

O

supreme

ruler,

of

All thy delusive descents in this world

I am

anxious to knozo

Let me

not,

for what

O lotos-eyed,

cause

approach

in vain the feet of a deity, whose perfect benevolence has been extended to

all

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

115

hast shewn, to our amazenmit, the appearance of other bodies, not

when thou

The lord of the Universe, loving the pious man who thus implored him, and intending to presence him from the sea of destruction caused by the depravity of the age, thus told him in reality existing but successively exhibited.

how he was

In seven days from the

to act.

pi'esent time,

stand be/ore

of

seeds

Then

thee.

thou tamer oj

an ocean of death ;

enemies, the three worlds will be plunged in

midst of the destroying waters, a large

O

vessel,

but, in the

me for thy

sent by

use,

shall

shall thou take all medicinal herbs, all the variety

and, accompanied by seven saints, encircled by pairs of all brute

;

and continue

animals, thou shalt enter the spacious ark,

in

it,

secure from

the flood, on one immense ocean, without light, except the radiance of thy

JVhen the ship shall

holy companions.

thou shalt fasten

xvith

it

a large sea-serpent on

thee, drav'ing the vessel with thee

O

ocean,

Thou

chief of men,

shalt then

By my favour

know my

king,

answered, and thy mind abundantly

time,

its shores,

the directions

meditate on Cesava,

grant us prosperity.

who

zvill

had been ;

Madhu.

into

The

of Heri.

commanded by Heri, the

and He,

it

a fish.

of a

The

was soon per-

still

ineditating

and entered it with

ami

the medicinal creepers

saints thus addressed

The god, being invoked by

him

:

O and

the monarch, appeared again

fish, :

blazing like gold, extending

on which the king, as he

tied the ship xvith

and, happy in his preservation,

When

;

clouds.

it

of leagues, with one stupendous horn before

form of

surely deliver us from this danger,

distinctly on the vast ocean in the form

serpent

the

the vessel advancing ;

conformed

million

face towards the north, sat me-

augmented by shoxversfrom immense

Brahmens, hating carried

a

li is

deluged the zvhole earth

the chiefs of

king,

and

which the ruler of our senses had

god who had borne

command of Bhagavat, saw to

disappeared;

having scattered towards the east the pointed

and turning

blades of the grass darbha,

overwhelming

retnain on the

of Brahma shall be completely ended. true greatness, rightly named the supreme godhead.

ditating on the feet of the

on the

I will

be near

until a night

all thy questions shall be

The pious

ceived to be

;

and thy attendants.

Satyavrata humbly waited for the

sea,

my horn for I will

Heri, having thus directed the tiionarch,

instructed.

appointed.

an impetuous wind,

be agitated by

a cable made of a vast

stood praising the destroyer of

monarch had fnished

his

hymn, the primeval male

*'"*'*' ''

THE OllTGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

116 "'•

Bhagavat,

ivho watched for his safety on the great expanse of water, spoke

aloud

aun

to his

pronouncing a sacred Parana, which con-

divine essence,

tained the rules of the Sanchya philosophy

heard the principle of the

the preserving power.

Then Heri,

destructive deluge which

was

in the present Culpa, by the

monarch was

:

Maya

to

sitting in the vessel with

rising together with

abated, slew the

Menu, surnamed Vaivaswata religious

was an infinite mystery

the eternal being, proclaimed by

soul,

Brahma from

the

demon Hayagriva, and recovered

Satyavrata, instructed in

the sacred books.

was appointed

it

of Satyavrata ; who,

be concealed within the breast the saints,

but

:

and human knowledge,

all divine

favour of Vishnou,

the seventh

but the appearance of a horned fsh to the

or delusion ; and

this important allegorical narrative,

who

he,

will be delivered

shall devoutly hear

from

the bondage of

sin.*

Laboriously to particularize the points,

in

which

curious tradition

this

agrees with the Mosaical narrative, would be alike useless and impertinent it

must be obvious

to

every one, that the history contained

in

each

is

funda-

mentally the same, though severally told in a somewhat different manner.

The account

given by

Moses

in the first Indian Purana,

degree,

yet

is

is plain,

though

mingled with

literal,

literal

and unambiguous: that given

and unequivocal

hieroglyphical

allegory.

enough, that towards the close of the legend this

whole

is

I

.)

The

fish

it

:

consequently,

was therefore a

:

the

its

introduction into the

the votary as a naked matter of fact, but to be received agreea-

l)y

delineation of this

tfean

remarkable

fantastic delusion, not to be un-

bly to the well-known rules of hieroglyphical interpretation.

a man

is

being altogether delusion.

was a sacred symbol

story being figurative,

derstood

It

expressly avowed

termed an allegorical narrative, and the appearance of the horned

fish is peculiarly specified as

(

is

to a considerable

issuing out of the

Dugon

:

In the Hindoo

Avatar, Vishnou does not appear simply as a

mouth of a

fish.

'

fish,

Such was the form of the

but as Philis-

such also was the form of the Babylonian Cannes or Odacon

and such, allowing

for the diflference of sex,

was nearly the form of the

230—234.



Asiat. Res. vol.

*

See the print in Maurice's Hist, of Hind. vol.

i.

p.

i.

p.

507.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. who was

Syrian goddess,

The male

gatis.

fish,

same

as the marine

deity represented

Noah

tlie

:

Sometimes the masculine

consort the Ark. the

the

and sometimes proceeding out

ot

Venus

The

tion probably constituted the genuine hieroglyphic

Noah

Yet

corruption if

the former ought

for,

:

:

his allegorical

appeared attached to

latter

mode

and

was used

it

of delineato depict

from the Ark, which was .symbolized not unaptly by a huge

issuing

sea-fish.

or Derceto or Atar-

female deity,

divinity

it.

117

not to be too hastily rejected as a mere

agreeably to the constant system of the old mvthologists,

the great mother were

typified

by a mermaid, the great father would of

At any rate, each figure was certainly used and, how we are to understand the hieroglyphic by the symbolizing pagans of a man issuing out of the mouth of a fish, may be collected very unequivocally from the name bestowed upon a supposed ancient king, whose tomb The Buddhists say, that he is Buddhar is shewn at Naulakhi in Cabul. Narayana or Buddha dwelling in the waters and the Hindoos, w-ho live in that country, call him Machodar-Nath or the sovereign prince in the belly Buddha however is the same person as Menu and the region, of thejish. tomb is shewn, is the precise tract of land, to which the Hindoos his where course be typified by a merman. :

:

:

and the Chasas unite therefore,

who

is

in ascribing the

literally said to

appulse of the Ark.

have been preserved

emphatically described as the dweller in the waters, as being the sovereign prince in the belly of the

fish.

in

That very

an ark and who

figuratively

is

Hence it

is

is

spoken of

sufficiently

Ark mean

obvious, that the belly of the fish and the interior of the

Menu

the

same

thing.' (2.)

These remarks

will serve to explain

the oreat father, which seems at

first to

a peculiarity in the character of

involve a contradiction.

In the preceding legend, Vishnou appears distinct from Menu, and personates the

Supreme Being:

yet,

single,

he

is

certainly

self; as one of a triad of gods springing from a fourth

son of

Noah

assure us, he

Noah

still

or

himis

a

and, in his astronomical character, as the Hindoos themselves

;

is

the Sun.*

For Vishnou, as

is

evident from the legend,

the sovereign prince in the belly of the fish; which nevertheless '

Menu

older deity, he

Asiat. Res. vol,

vi.

p.

479, 480.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

iii,

is

is

the precise

p. 144. vol. v. p.

254.

*^'*''

*•

THE ORIGIN

118 nooK

m. character, that belongs

to

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Menu-Satyavrata, the ancient prince who

to have been buried at Naulakhi

prince in the belly of the

OI'

fish,

is

:

Buddha, who

and

Hindostan and which may be readily traced

was

nations,

of mortals.

also the sovereign

is

at once an allowed incarnation of

and the very same person as the diluvian Menu. This intermixture, which is openly acknowledged

When

such were raised

ration of their posterity,

to

Vishnou

the mythology of

in

in the similar systems of other

no more than the natural consequence of the

in fact

feigned

is

deification

the rank of gods by the blind, vene-

consistency required, that the actions and attributes

whence some have

of the Supreme Being should be ascribed to them;

God;

groundlessly imagined, that the pagans really worshipped the true but, if

we

look

more

we

closely into the matter,

soon perceive, that

shall

own plainly enough were. The confusion in

other actions and a certain distinct character of their point out, what these pretended

question cerned. nas, an

is

noticed by

IVIr.

deities

properly

Wilford, so far as the Hindoo mythology

Satyavrata, considered as Vaivaswata,

incarnation

who

of that identical Vishnou,

con-

is

according to the Pura-

is,

in the

form of a

fish

preserves him fi-om the calamity of the deluge

;

thought to be mysteriously distinct from him

and, in a similar manner, the

Trimurti

is

supposed to be incarnate

as well as in the person of every

Menu

himself,

persons of the Trimurti

is

who

that

Vishnou

Sun

:

is

successively appears at

This distinction indeed

astronomically the

he

Menu,

in the triple offspring of every

commencement of each new world.' perfectly in point, because we are assured the

:

as Satyavrata,

while,

is

not

as well as the other

yet, since the attributes

of the Supreme Being are ascribed to him, while he ultimately resolves himself into the great father

who

with seven companions

during the prevalence of an universal deluge;

is

preserved in an Ark

we may

easily perceive

character the Gentiles worshipped in the place of the

thence learn the

no better than

strict

true

propriety of St. Paul's declaration that they were really

atheists.*

It

is

worthy of observation,

that,

account of the deluge, Cronus sustains the very same part Xisuthrus, that Vishnou does in reference to Satyavrata '

Asiat. Rqs. vol.

vi.

what

God, and may

p.

479»

:

' AS«o» iv tui x«»-/a^.

in the in

Chaldee

reference to

yet fundamentally

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Cronus was Xisuthrus himself;

whom

he was the parent of three sons among

for

he divided the whole world, and every part of his history proves hira

Adam

to be the great father or (3.)

119

The deluge

reappearing in Noah.

duration of the flood

from the

what

said to have continued during

is

Brahma, and the sleep of that god for he

:

awakes

is

made

at the

end of

it

and, rising with Vishnou

;

demon Hayagriva, and

retiring waters, slays the

called a night of

is

exactly commensurate with the

recovers the sacred

books.

This sleep of Brahma,

who

with Vishnou and Menu, Mysteries.

It

means the

is

acknowledged ultimately to identify himself

is

the

same

as the sleep or death celebrated in the

allegorical sleep or death of the great father within

the Ark, during the period which intervened between two worlds length

and

:

its

represented as being equal to a single night (a night indeed of

is

Brahma); because

in the eastern

phraseology a day stood for a year, and the

duration of Noah's gloomy confinement Mas limited to that space of time. It

also the

is

same

Ananta; which

is

as Vishnou's fabled sleep of a millenary

coiled

up

in the

on the serpent

form of a boat, and which thus supporting

the god floats upon the surface of the ocean

:

a year, and a mille-

for a day,

nary, Mere used as convertible terms. (4.)

quies

;

We

are told, that Menu-Satyavrata

that

is

what we are Ark,

we

to

find,

the

very remarkable; because

is

it

clearly serves to point out

avowedly the chief divinity of the infernal regions at the time of

Hades of

the deluge.

the Cientiles was the

death, or sleep, or descent,

womb

Hence, as

the ocean within

iiis

or disappearance, of

of some person, and his aftervN

They

On

principal deity tlie

Vide intra book

v.

still

the same.

c.G. §

III. 2. ^'1I.

surface of

account the

first

inclosure within an ark which was deemed

occasionally varied, but the object was

of the

and he

have already

I

this

described

the death his coflin

;

The phraseology was

ards they celebrated his revival and egress.



its

Noah on

reputed gi-avc or coffin the Ark.

ancient Mysteries were invariably funereal.

:

of the great mother: and

equally related to the allegorical sleep or death of

and

The hero-god

understand by the mythological Hades. is

was so constituted siiewn, the

he was made the presiding deity of the pagan Inferum.

to say,

This declaration

was constituted the god of obse-

'

Tims

the identical

*'"*''•

"*

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

Ii20

who

person,

up

in a state

an ark and

in

of death or death-Uke sleep was said to have been shut

upon the waters, was likewise feigned

set afloat

vanished or to have descended into the infernal regions: and he,

supposed to have been wonderfully restored to

to have

who was

and to have quitted the

life

ark within which he had been confined, was also thought to have reappeared

The

or to have returned from the reahns of Hades.

Hades and

into the

Ark

evidently

entrance therefore into

means the same thing

and

:

he,

who was

preserved at the time of the general deluge, was constituted the god of obsequies on account of his fabled descent into Inferum. this state

the night.

Nus

Thus

egg

is

the night of

the birth of

is

Brahma

Brahma from

;

floating of

Brahma during

The

night of

the birth of Bacchus from

the floating egg

of Bacchus in an ark on the surface of the ocean

is

;

equivalent to the mystic

the prevalence of the deluge in the cup of the

have been

indifferently said to

have been shut up

Menu-Satyavrata

who

;

is

tlie

and the exposure

In a similar manner, the Egyptian god of obsequies,

aquatic lotos.

to

in reference to

and of the Mysteries of

the mournful solemnization of his funeral.'

Bacchus or Bromius floating

was

Orphic poet speaks of the Orgies of Bacchus or Dio-

the

as being certain ineffable oracles of the night,

Osiris as being

and

It

of gloom and death, that the Mysteries were always celebrated in

in

slain

by the

an ark,

is

sea, to

who

is

have descended into Hades,

evidently the

same character

as that

literally

declared to have been saved in an ark at

who

allegorically feigned to have been consti-

the time of the deluge, and

is

tuted the god of obsequies or the regent of Hades.

As for the demon Hayagriva, he must doubtless be identified with Typhon of Egypt, the Python of Greece, and the Ahriman of Persia

(5.)

the that

:

is

and as

he

to say, finally

the evil piinciple, considered as producing the deluge

is

overcome by the great father when the waters

retired into the

central abyss. 2.

Such

is

the history, which seems to be veiled under the

Indian Avatars

When Adima him

:

and very nearly or

allied to

it is

first

of the

the second.

Menu-Swayambhuva was newly born, Brahma ordered with creatures of' his own species. Menu, submissively

to stock the xvorld

Orph. Argon,

ver. 28, 33.

THE OHIGiy OF PAGAN IDOLATRr.

121

iiitreatcd a place convenientfor the purpose

of residing aytdmidtiplijing his hind, time the zvhole as at that surface of tlie earth was covered xvitli water: for tlie (lemon Hiiinacheren had rolled it up into a shapeless mass, and had carried

it

down

and penance,

his posture

of contemplation

means of raising up the earth ; and pouredforth the almighty, in profound humility of soul. O

to obtain the

the folio-wing prayer to

Bhagavat!

Brahma resumed

to the abyss.

me from

since thou broughtest

non-entity into existence

particular purpose, accomplish that purpose by thy benevolence! situation, by the

being shaped like

grew

of an elephant of the largest magnitude, Brahma was astonished on beholding this figure ;

to the size

in the air.

end discovered by

the force of internal penetration, that

but the power of the omnipotent, lie

visible.

and he said

from my

now felt

to

that

;

and without doubt

They were engaged

in

suddenly uttered a sound all

is all,

and that

A

his sons ;'

it is

could be nothing

all

w fvm him and in him

;

wonderful animal has emanated it

has in one hour increased to

a portion of the almighty power.

when

this conversation, like the loudest

it

had assumed a body and become

zvhicli

at first of the smallest size,

this enormous bulk,

and shook

god

Mareechee and

essence

this

power of god, there issuedfrom the essence of Brahina a a boar, white and exceedingly sinalL This being, in the

space of one hour,

and remained

for a

In

that Vara, or boarform,

and

thunder,

the quarters of the universe

:

but

the echo reverberated

still,

under

this dreadful

awe of heaven, a certain xvonderful divine co?fidence secretly animated the hearts of Brahma, Mareechee, and the other genii ; who immediately began praises

The Fara figure, hearing the power of the their mouths, again made a loud noise, and became

and thanksgivings.

Vedas and Mantras from a dreadful spectacle.

Shaking the fullfiowing mane which hung down

neck on both sides, and erecting the

played his two most exceedingly coloured eyes and erecting his

and plunged headforemost

zvhite tusks ; tail,

tcrr'ficd,

began '

Pag.

Idol.

to

then,

his

his body, he proudly dis-

rolling

around

his a ine-

he descended from the region of the air,

The whole

into the zoater.

convulsed by the motion, and began

of the sea, being

humid hairs of

to rise in

zvaves

;

bodxj

zthile the

of water xcas

guardian

spirit

tremble for his domain and to cry out for

.Altenrl.iiit genii.

vol..

n.

Q

*^*'' "*

THE OftlGIK OF tAGAN iDOLATRr.

122 noox in.

At

mercy.

this the

and Rishis again commenced

devotees

their praises in

honour of Bhagavaf, who by one glance of his eye illumined the whole world

As

&f water.

power of the omnipotent had assumed

the

the body

of Vara,

on that account he coidescended to use the particular instinct of that animal and began to smell about, that he might discover the place where the earth was

At

submerged.

having divided the water and ai'riving at the

length,

he saw the earth lying a mighty and barren stratum. the

demon Hirinacheren,

and raised

it

bottonit^

Then he slew

took up the ponderous globe freed from the water,

One would say,

high on his tusk.

that

hi a moment,

blossoming on the tip of his tusk,

it

was a beautiful

xvith

lotos

one leap coming to

the surface, by the all-directiijg poxver .of the otnnipotent creator, he spread it,

like

a carpet, on the face of the water, and then vanishedfrom, the sight

of Brahnia.

Brahma, contemplating

the whole earth,

performed due reve-

rence to Bhagavat; and, rejoicing exceedingly, began the means of peopling

Menu and

the renovated world.

Brahma's order

to increase

Satarupa then,

and multiply

having again received

their kind,

began t9 people the

world, by means of the bond of marriage, in the kingdom of

They had two

Vreete.^ third

named Daksha who was

daughters, Akootee,

Roochee

slain

by

liis

brother at a sacrifice

Dcivehoote, and Presootee.

Deivehoote, to

;

Brahma- Verte-

Preeve-Veete and Outanabada, exclusive of a

sons,

Cur dam ; and

;

and three

Akoote was married to

Presootee, to

Daksha:* and by

them and their posterity, in succeeding ages, the whole world was peopled.^ (1.) is

Mr. Halhed

said to be

the deluge is,

Avatar

witli

them

Sir

that both opinions are right

:

the creation

relates to

more generally considered by Hindoo and

:

thinks, that this

it

but

it

historians as allusive to

William Jones inclines to agree.* for

;

The

fact

has a reference at once to the deluge

and to the creation.

Adam: and he is described as preceding Novv: Menu-Satyavrata, who as certainly is Noah.

Menu-Swayambhuva by several generations

is

certainly

the present Avatar has for '

Pyag, now caUed- Allahabad.

*

That

*

Purana apud Maur.

*

Waur.

is

hero

its

to say, to their three brothers

Hist, of

Hist, of

Hind,

vol,

i.

Hind,

\X\e

under

vol,

p. 57.5,

former Menu

i,

different

p.

409



j

as such therefore it

names.

-ill.

and Asiat. Res.

vol,

i.

p. 154.

THE OHIGIX OP PAGAN IDOLATRY, relate to the creation: yet

must

of which the latter

Menu

Agreeably to

the deluge.

is

placed successively to the

it is

the hero

as such therefore

;

this singular

p7'evious to that of the Jirst

two properly

bits the

or

Adam,

The

which has already been assigned

in the

•was

:

Avatar,

relate also to

or

now

and

tlie

Noah

given

is

before us exhiflood curiously

reason of such a niixture

that,

is

lower sense of renovation, the world

supposed to have been equally created

Noah

must

Menu

the legend

distinct accounts of the creation

and intimately blended together.

it

fish

arrangement, by which, in the enu-

meration of the Avatars, the history of the seventh

Menu

125

days both of

in the

Adam

and

and the mundane systems, over which each of those patriarchs seve-

;

rally presided,

and

delucre,

to

were alike believed to have been preceded by an universal have commenced by a precisely similar process and with

Thus Swayambhuva and Satarupa,

precisely similar events.

Iva, are clearly the

Adam and Eve

of Scripture

or

Adima and

and the emerging of the

:

earth from the water, when considered with reference to them, must mean

Yet,

the rising of the solid dry land out of the confused chaotic mucilage. since

we

find the very Avatar,

which

placed chrono-

treats of these matters,

logically subsequent to the first Avatar,

which almost

tory of the deluge in the time of the seventh

Menu

of the earth from the inundation which covered

it

literally details the his-

Noah

or

the emerging

;

must, in this case, be the

emerging of the dry land from the waters of the Noetic flood first

Avatar describe the deluge

itself,

:

for,

the

if

the second, which describes an emerg-

when

ing of the earth from a superfused inundation, must,

thus considered,

exhibit to us a circumstance which immediately succeeded the deluge. (2.)

With

this conclusion

agree, both as

it

has already been detailed, and as

sented in paintings.

on the

walls of

a large portion of the legend will be found to

The

some of

history of the present

the old Pagodas,

His

feet trample

tended

many

Avatar

Vishnou

man, having four arms and the head of a boar. sea-shell, the sacred

it is still

book of the antediluvian

is

still

ordinarily repre-

appears depicted

there described as a

His hands hold a sword, a

writings,

and the mystic

on the gigantic demon-prince Hirinacheren, who

a rood in the midst of the waters.

j

floats

ex-

His tusks support the cres-

cent or lunar boat: and, within the crescent thus supported, the Earth

ring.

is

the globe of

which characteristically displays buildings, mountains, and

trees.

CU\P. 11,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN' IDOLATRY.

iS4 BOOK

III.

Beneath, the

full

IMoon appears

the water, attached

in

to

a pole which

Hirinacheren holds in his hand.

The whole of this imagery

is

diluvian

and

:

applicable to the era of the

it is

creation no further, than as the proper creation

was

like the

kindred

demon hayagriva

itself

believed to have

The demon

been preceded by a flood and a yet prior world. in the JSfatsya

Avatar,

is

of the deluge considered as the work of the evil principle.

Earth therefore down to the bottom of the abyss mersion beneath the flood effects its recovery, its

is

became

the allegorical victory obtained over the deluge,

the astronomical symbol of the

which produced

when

all

Ark

and

:

it

tusks,

and

is

i.

I

the

doctrine

tlie

womb

shall

this

on the waves,

is

method of representing mythology.

in ancient

One

of

which Vishnou supports upon

common

is,

Moon was

alike

the mother of the JVorld

:

his

toEgypt

and the

that the regenerated Universe was produced

of the arkitc Ship.

now proceed

Avatur, which, ^V'illiam

was

floating

but a graphical representation of a doctrine

to Hindustan, that

from the I

the surface of the globe again

curiously exemplified in the upper part of the painting.

is

within the navicular lunette,

ineaning of

when

the various strange fables respecting the re-

gent of the night that occur so frequently

The Earth

sub-

its

In a similar manner, th eMoon, which Hirinacheren holds

visible.

these legends

His canying the

nothing more than

is

hand while both himself and the planet are

that vessel,

a personification

and the death of the monster by which Vishnou

:

waters Mere constrained to retire and

in his

Hirinacheren,

like tiie

Jones and

JNIr.

Courma

to a consideration of the

two preceding ones, seems Maurice,, plainly

to

to

relate

me, as

or Tortoise it

did to Sir

to the deluge,

though

mixed with allusions to the creation.

The Soars or good genii, being assembled

in solemn consultation upon the

sparkling summit of the great golden mountain tating the discovery of the to

Meru or

Amrita or water of immortality.

be deeply agitated by the impetuous rotation of

but, as the united U'ent before '

Sommeir, icere medi-

tite

The

sea

was

mountain Mandar:

bands of Dewtahs wer-j unable to remove this mountain, they

Vishnou zcho zvas sitting with Brahma, and addressed them in Sec the print of

this

Avatar

in

Maur.

Hist, of Hind. vol.

i.

p.

575»

THE

ORIGIN' OF

PAGAN IDOLATRV.

Exert, sovereign beings, your most superior wisdom

these words.

Mandar, and employ your utmost poxverfor our good.

the mountain

and Brahma having andzvas instructed

perform

together zoith all

its

remove

Vishnou

to

Jiwnta

appear.

arose,

work by Brahvia, and commanded by Narat/an'

in that

Then Ananta, by

it.

to

It shall be done according to your wish, he

replied,

with the lotos eye directed the king of serpents

to

125

hispozver, took up that king of mountains,

forests and every inhabitant thereof; and the Soors

accompanied him into the presence of the Ocean, whom they addressed, saying, JFe zvill stir up thy waters to obtain the Amreeta. And the lord of the •waters replied. Let me aUo have a share, seeing I am to bear the violent agitations that

zvill

be caused by the zvhirling

of the ?nountain.

The

Sooi's

and Assoors spake unto Courma-Rajah, the king of the tortoises, upon the strand of the ocean, and said ; 1 he tortoise

mountain.

So the mountain being whirl

it

about as

it zvere

My Be

replied.

I'rd it

so

:

upon the back

set

able to he the supporter

is

and

it zvas

the tortoise,

of

of

this

placed upon his back.

Eendra began

The mountain Mandar served as a churns

a machine.

and the serpent Vasookee for the rope : and thus, in J'ormer days, did Dezctahs, the Assoors, and the Danoos, begin to stir up the xcatcrs of ocean for the discovery of the Amrita.

on the side of the serpent's head,

The mighty

his mouth, }u
let it

nozv pull

forth

go: while there issuedJ'rom

andfro by the Soors and Assoors, a contiand smoke and Ziind ; zvhich ascending in thick clouds

fre

began

replete zvith lightning,

it

were already fatigued

zvith

from

and Assoors.

to

rain dozvn upon the heavenly bands

their labour,

In the mean

time,

zms

like

who

whilst a shoiccr of flowers zvas

the top of the mountain, covering the heads oj the roaring of the ocean,

agitated znth the whirling (f the mountain Aisoors,

Thty

tail.

thus violently diazcn to

stream of

shaken

and as ojten

the the

Assoo?^s zvere employed

Soors assembled about his

zohilst all the

Ananta, that sovereign Dezo, stood near Narayan. the serpent's head repeatedly,

to

Mandar

the bellozving of a mighty cloud.

all,

both Soors

whilst violently

by the

Soors and

Thousands of the va-

rious productions of the waters zvere torn to pieces by the mountain,

and

confounded zvith the briny food ; and every specifc being of the deep, and all the inhabitants of the

J

great abyss which

Tlie niQ-etr on t/ie waters,

a

is

below the earth, zvere annihi-'

title

of Vishnou,

chap.

iv.

\i6 apoK

III.

TIIL

lated

;

whilst,

from

ORIGIN OF PAGAV IDOLATRV.

the xioleut agitation of the mountain, the forest-trees

were dashed against each other and precipitated from all the birds thereon

was

p7-oduccd,

:

from

its

utmost height with

the violent cotfricativn of which a ragiyig fire

involving the whole mountain with smoke andfame as with a

dark blue cloud and the vividfash of lightning.

The

elephant are overtaken by the devouring fames,

lion

and the retreating

and every

vital being

every individual object are consumed in the general conflagration.

ragingfames, thus spreading destruction on

all sides,

and The

were at length quenched

by a shower of cloud-borne water poured down by the immortal Eendra. A7id

tioxv

a heterogeneous stream of the concocted juice of various trees and

plants ran down into the briny flood. juices,

produced from those streams,

It v as from this milk-like stream of

and

trees,

ocean,

now being

assimilated with those juices,

and a mixture of

plants,

melted gold, that the Soors obtained their immortality.

The

zvaters of the

were converted

into milk ;

andfrom that milk a kind of butter was presently produced when the heaveidy bands went again into the presence of Brahma, the grantcr of boo?is. :

end addressed him, saying

:

Except Narayan, every other Soor and Assocr

with his labour, and still the Amreeta doth not appear

isfatigued

the churning of the ocean

Endue them with

is

at a stand.

recruited strength,

rayan answered, and said : I

;

wherefore

Then Brahma said unto Narayan

for thou

will give fresh

art their support.

vigour

And Na-

to such as cooperate hi

Mandar be zvhirled about, and the bed of the work; When they heard the words of Narayan, they all steady. let

the ocean be kept

returned again to

the work, and began to stir about with great force that butter of the ocean

when

there presently arose

from

out of the troubled deep first the

:

Moon,

with a pleasing countenance, shining xvith ten thousand beams ofgentle light.

Next folloxced the waters

;

of fortune, whose

Sree, the goddess

seat is the white lily

then Soora-Devi, the goddess of wine;

called Oochisrava.

And

(fter these there

was produced from

mass the jewel Koxostoobh, that glorious sparkling gem his breast

:

then Pareejat the tree of plenty

granted every heart's

desire.

and the white

;

of

horse,

the unctuous

worn by Narayan on

and Soorabhee, the cow that

The Moon, Soora-Devi, the goddess

Sree,

and the horse as swift as thought,

instantly

marched away towards the Detvs,

keeping in the path of the sun.

Then

Dew

shape, came forth, holding in hi9

the

hand a white

Dhanwantaree,

vessel

in

human

filed with the immortal

THE ORIGIN

When

juice Aim^Ha.

I'AGAN IDOLAIRV.

OI-

the Assoors

137

hehdd these wondrous things appear, they

rained their tumultuous voices for the Amrita, and each of them clarnorously

This of right

exclaimed,

is

In the mean

mine.

phant, arose, now kept by the god of thunder

time, Iravat, a

mighty

and, as they continued to

:

churn the ocean more than enough, that deadly poison issued from burning

like

ele-

its

bed

a raging fire, "whose dreadfulfumes in a moment spread through

the world, confounding the three regions of the universe with its mortal

stench

;

until Siva, at the

word of Brahma, swallowed

thefatal

drug

to save

mankind.'

We

may, 1

think,

discover in this legend that mixture

of Paradisiacal

and diluvian ideas, which would naturally result from the circumstance of

Ark having rested in that Eden was once planted.

the

of

opens with a consultation of the hero-gods held on the summit of

It

(1.)

Meru

:

and the object of

may

mortality

must

tlieir

consultation

fable,

when

necessarily, I tliink, relate in the

Adam

and Eve.

life,

transcript of the Paradisiacal Ararat)

was, after the flood, restored (as

Eden

deluge, and

is

which was

it

Meru

new

Amrita

recol-

by the trans-

forfeited

Meru

is

but a locally appropriated

is

were) to a

is

instance to the obscurely

and as the world with

;

the recovery of the lost

:

first

Yet, as the mythological history of

completely blended with diluvianism (for

eincts of

the lost water of im-

Meru and Paradise

the identity of

promised recovery of that perpetual gression of

how

is,

be best regained.

This part of the lected,

mountainous region where the garden

identical

is

life

its

inhabitants

within the very pre-

placed at the close of the

thus studiously confounded or identified w-ilh the renovation

©f the desolated earth. (S.)

A

But Mandar both from

work

principal instrument in the

its

is

the very

same mythological

form, and from

is

hill

mount Mandar.

said to be

as

Meru.

This

is

manifest,

its locality.

Mandar appears as an inverted cone and by the divines of Thibet mount Aleru is The forms of both thought to. resemble an inverted conical pyramid.* In the Hindoo delineation of the

Courma

Avatar, mount

;

'

Wilkins's Geeta; p.

* See the print

in

—149.

146

Maur.

Hist, of Hind. vol»

i.

p. 581.

and Asiat. Res.

vol. yiii. p. 273.

<^"*p- •'•

THE ORIGIN CF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

128 nooK

III.

therefore are so perfectly alike, as to prove sufficiently,

Meru are but different names of one mountain. And this conclusion is decidedly established by The

literal

Meru, or the

the high country

a reference to geography.

Ararat of Hindostan, has been shown to be

local

the head of the holy

at

Mandar and

that

Ganges.

river

iMandar, which, precisely like Casi and Meru,

But the

literal

esteemed a favourite re-

is

treat of the ark-supported Siva

and the navicular hero-gods,

tuated at the source of the very

same

Thus we have ru and Mandar

both the import of the word JMandar, and

:

river.'

Me-

as distinct a proof as can be desired of the identity of

with

and,

it,

the use to wliich in the legend

The word

agree.

similarly si-

is

appellation, which

the

itself signifies is

hill

is

applied, will be found exactly to

a ynountain dividing the

most accurately descriptive of

waters:''

Meru

and

this

Albordi or

or

Baris or Ararat, clearly relates to the circumstance of the arkite mountain

being esteemed the

first

land that divided the waters of the subsiding de-

Hence

luge by emerging from beneath them.

ment of churning

We

mortality.

ing particular lar

is

the ocean,

shall be

rests

to be a

brought to the

Courma

of the

in the delineation

flood,

;

which

it is

top of (.•J.)

mount

As

they have

is

Now

hierogly[)hic,

The

here inti'oduced.

certainly

Noah

in the

the lotos

is

it is

lotos,

declared

father over the tiie

Ark.

easy to understand the

fish-god Vishnou, seated in

the

Ark

summit of the diluvian

when

it

grounded on the

Ararat.

for the various pretious things

all

interest-

Avatar, though that particu-

which wafted the great

the calix of this aquatic flower which rests on

mount of Paradise,

water of im-

and which therefore must certainly be

Such then being the import of the allusion, with

lost

Vishnou appears sitting upon a

itself.

symbol of the ship Argha r,etiring

the fabled instru-

very same conclusion by an

on the summit of mount Mandar.

waters of the

made

and of thus recovering the

not specified in the legend

which

it is

some reference

produced from the churned ocean,

either to the flood or to the sacred garden.

Tlie

;Moon, the cow of plenty, and the two goddesses of fortune and of wine,
shadow out the mundane Ark '

Asiat. Kts. vol.

iii.

p.

193.

:

the mystic fruit-tree, * Asiat. Res. vol.

and the white

iii.

p.

74.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

are but corruptions of the tree

vessel filled with the immortal juice Amrita,

of knowledge and the ambrosial the elephant, under which form

129

springing from the tree of

fruit

Buddha

life

while

:

believed to have been incarnate,

is

and the seven-headed horse, which has been a familiar symbol

many

in so

different parts of the globe, alike represent the great universal father as pre-

siding over the seven racter, that is to say,

members of

Adam

the water in the attitude of prayer

and near him, likewise on the water,

:

is

heal the deep (4.) is laid

We

the anathematized earth, he

is

:

wounds of convulsed

may remark

in the

versal creation

is

the

which

and, as the destined comforter

exhibited in the light of a skil-

who

is

well able to

nature.'

present fable, that, although the scene of

the ocean, although heavy torrents of rain are said to

in

As

to bear the vase,

Apollo and Esculapius of the west,

Avhile the hill INIandar

a

made

properly

contains the recovered waters of immortality

ful physician, the

ocean

the

be placed there in allusion to the rainbow.

to

restorer of the ruined world, he

and healer of

who emerges from

In the painting, he stands upon

hand the vessel of Amiita.

a bow, which seems

mythological cha-

manifested anew in the person of Noah, appears

Dev/-Dhanwantarce,

again as the physician

holding in his

The same

his family.

it

descend

impetuously whirled round, and although the uni-

is

represented as being overwhelmed in the great abyss; yet

is

terrible conflagration

is

spoken

as being the

of,

accompaniment of

this

destructive flood. It

is

curious to note,

particular,

and likewise

of the dtluge.

I

must

how

frequently the old pagan accounts agree in that

in the

appearance of some unusual star at the time

confess, that so general an accordance,

already had occasion to point out, strongly inclines

Mr. Whiston's

me

On

I

was the too

such a supposition, the prevailing notion, that

the deluge was either preceded or attended by a conflagration and that

remarkable star hung in the firmament during the period of will

be naturally and easily accounted

to assign

IV.

any satisfactory reason for

for:

Gen. Idol.

but, otherwise,

it

its

some

continuance,

will

be

diflicult

it.

Tiie diluvian traditions, w hich

Pag.

have

to the adoption of

theory, that the instrumental cause of the flood

near approach of a comet.

which

prevailed V.

among

the Celtic Druids,

29.

VOL.

II.

R

chap.

ir.

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

130 BOOK

III.

many

bear in

respects a close resemblance to those, which

The sum

prominent a part of the theological code of Hindostan. according to Mr. Davies,

The

is briefly

A

wind upon the earth.

At

was death.

this

of them,

as follows.

mankind had provoked the Great Supreme

profligacy of

pestilential

constitute so

still

pure poison descended

;

to send a

every blast

time the patriarch, distinguished for his integrity, was

shut up, together with his seven select companions, in the floating island or

Here

sacred inclosure with the strong door. Presently, a tempest of

injury.

The

great deep.

themselves on

from heaven

:

lake Llion burst

high,

its

bounds

life,

round the borders of Britain

and the water covered the earth.

and

to

:

the rain poured

The

down

But that water was intend-

wash away the contagion of

the chasms of the abyss.

asunder to the

the waves of the sea lifted

:

ed as a lustration, to purify the polluted globe, to render

newal of

were safe from

the just ones

It split the earth

fire arose.

it

meet

for the re-

former inhabitants into

its

which swept away from the surface of

flood,

the earth the expiring remains of the patriarch's contemporaries, raised his vessel or inclosure

on high from the ground, bore

the waves, and proved to

him and

it

safe

his associates the

upon the summit of

water of

and reno-

life

vation."

Such

1.

how

serve,

events of

the Druidical account of the deluge

is

plete

is

my

that

is

within

will

surround

chair in Caer Sidi.^ it.

It

is

'

Davies's Mythol. p. 226.

'

The

it is

curious to ob-

Neither disorder nor age

knoxvn to

Manawyd* and *

to

Hence

have sailed over the

sea,

is

Yet com-

the chief priests oj Ked.^

us,

inclosure of Sidi or Ceridwcn, that

once the Ark and the World.

*

and

it.

The immdation

was fabled

:

perpetually the bards, in their sacred poems, recur to the various

The

zoill

oppress him

Pi-yderi,^ that three loud

ship-goddess Ccridwen.

Stonehenge

;

the circle of which symbolized at

it the Ark of the World : and hence it under the guidance of Merlin, from Ireland to Britain.

the Druids styled

Menu-Ida, the arkite or mundane Menu.

He

is

said to have sailed through

the ocean,

inclosed within the curvatures of the ship-goddess Ked, which he formed for that special purpose.

same

Gwawd

Lludd y Mawr. apud Davies's Mythol.

as the Indian

Menu, who

a form of the ship-goddess '

Isi

p.

563

et

infra.

preserved with seven companions in

is

He

is

palpably the

an ark supposed to be

or Ida.

Witdom, 01 Mental Intellect

;

a

title

of Noah, equivalent to the Greek Nous, the San-

THE

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

OKIGIiV OF

Strains round the fire will be sung before

are round within

O

borders

its

it is

and the

it

131

whilst the currents of the sea

:

copious fountain

is

open

from

above, the liquor

sweeter than delicious wine.'

whom

thou proprietor of heaven and earth, to

buted, a holy sanctuary there is on the surface

hejoyful in the splendidfestival,

great wisdom

is attri-

May its

the ocean.

of and at the time when the sea

rises

chief

with ex-

Frequently does the surge assail the bards over their ves-

panding energy.

of tnead: and, on the day when the billozvs are excited, may this inclosure skim away, though the billows come beyond the green spot from the region of sels

A holy sanctuary

the Picts.''

with walls; the sea surrounds this

A

is

it.^

Demandest thou,

holy sanctuary there

They

A

hearsal, the

holy sanctuary there

is

will not

it is

:

and my

and wine out of

the deep crystal cup.

gitlf : there every one

there

is

with

its

is

the Soul or

'

Taliesin's Sons of Llyr,

*

The

*

A

inclosure

*

is j;i

is

Mind

of the splendid mover,

of the

gave me mead

his portion.

A

is

within the

holy sanctuary

:

p.

506.

here

it is

Here

it is

a lake, and yet the sea surrounds

evidently described as a ship.

used synonymously with the sea;

for

it.

the bard has been initiated into the Mysteries of the navicular

Ceridwen, the great father and great mother of Celtic theology.

'

The

*

The cauldron

sun, worshipped in conjunction with the great father.

of inspiration

;

an implement of such importance, that the term was used

metaphorically to describe the entire Mysteries of bardism.

For an account of

as used in the Druidical Orgies, see below, book v. c. 6. § VIII. 4. '

circle,

of the World.

Stonehenge, as before

The hierophant, by whom

Hu and

lays in

All these are similarly names of the great father,

apud Davies's Mythol,

lake symbolized the diluvian ocean.

the sanctuary

its

The xvritings of Pryanxious regard: should the waves disturb their of

Menu, and the Latin Mens, or Menes.

who was deemed

Smooth are

holy sanctuary there

kmdly presented with

its

the bonds

productioris of the vessel of Ked.^

dain^ are the first object

scrit

A

thy ox

rendered complete by the re-

lord,^ duly observant

before he entered his earthly cell in the border

let

Holy are

associate in

hymn, and the birds of the mountain.

its periodicalfestival:

protected

Britain, to what

upon the ninth wave.

is

inhabitants in preserving themselves. of pollution.

O

?iot

Before the lake of the son of Erbin

can be meetly applied?

be stationed.

on the wide lake, a city

there

Or Hu,

the helio-arkite

Noah.

this

cauldron

•="*'• '^'

THE ORIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

132

I would again,

foundation,

holy sai2ctuary there

is

if necessary, conceal them deep in the

A

cell.

upon the margin of the flood : there shall every

one be kindly presented with his

zvishes.'

Disturbed is the island df the praise of Hu, the island of the severe remunerator / even Mofia of the generous bowls xvhich animate vigour, the island whose barrier

Aeddon,^ since

it is

is

the

Mena?

Deplorable

the fate of the ark of

is

perceived, that there neither has been nor will be his equal

hour of perturbation. IFhen Aeddon came from the land of Gwydion into Seon of the strong door,' a pure poison diffused itself for four succenin the

was as yet

sivc nights, whilst the season '

*

Min. Dinbych, or aviow of

Taliesin's

Noah,

in his

tlic

character of the destroyer

;

His contemporaries

serene.

fell.

bardie sanctuary, apud Davics.

and the Cronus of the

the Siva of the Hindoos,

Greeks. •"

The

*

Or Adonis,

'

The Ark, and hence

frith

between Anglesey and Wales, so called from Menu.

andJ^Icrmes or

a

title

of

Hu;

the

Greek Aidoneus.

the insulated fanes sacred to arkitc Mysteries.

Bnddha was

the same as

which was overwhelmed by the deluge

In

region beneath the abyss.

this

;

Hu

as

it

or Noah.

was

Gwydion was Hermes

His land may have been

his traditional office to

C.

He

3.

When

he was shut vp in this sanctuary, the Great

ous vapour to destroy the wicked world.

To

this

This inclosure was

Then

5.

ments: one of the

the great magicians with their magic

effects

of which, as described

•which split the earth to the great deep, this, the waters of

But

bane the bards often allude.

4. By ger of death entered not the inelvsure of Seon. the whole atmosphere, the patriarch's wicked contemporaries were destroyed

polluted.

The patriarch

Supreme sent forth a poison-

this pestilential

still

1.

entered the inclosurc of Seon or of

the nine sacred damsels, which was guarded by the strong door or barrier. the Ark.

the old world,

conduct the dead into a

passage we have much arkite mythology.

came from the land of Hermes or the old world.

:

in the triads,

wands

:

but the earth was

set free the

purifying

ele-

was the dreadful tempest of fire,

and consumed the greatest part of

Llyn Llion ur the great abyss burst forth.

the messen-

vapour, which filled

all that

lived.

Upon

6. These powerful agents would

have destroyed the patriarch and his family in Caer Seon, had nut Hermes counselled him to impress a mystical form, or to strike a peculiar signal, upon his shield. with the integrity of the just ones, preserved them

Hence an

itnilation

7-

This device, together

from being overwhelmed by

the deluge.

8.

of these adventures became a sacred institution, which was duly observed in

the Mysteries and conducted by the presiding priest. It is easy to sec, that the

Davies

in loc.

Arabic fable of the righteous monitory prophet Houd, and of the

cold pestilential wind Sarsar which destroys a wicked race that had long been warned in vain,

has originated from the same source as the British and Hindoo legends.

troduced the circumstance from D'Herbelot and Sale into

his beautiful

.Mr.

poem

Southey has of Thalaba.

in-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

133

The woods afforded them no shelter, when the winds arose in their skirts. Then Math and Eiuiydd, masters of the inagic wand, set the elements at large : but in the living Gwydion and Amacthon there was a resource of counsel to impress the front of his shield with a prevalent form, a form irresistible.

Thus the mighty combination of

'whelmed by the sea. Disturbed

circle ?

Thefour damsels, having ended

their last

office.''

But

long did they dzvell

the proprietor,

chiej,

re-

the rightillustrious

their lamentation, have performed

the just ones toiled

of their integrity

:

community of the Cymry

JVhat shall consume a ruler of the

Britain.

iti

the

dragon

in tranquillity ; he being the

ful claimant,

rank was not over-

his chosen

the island of the praise of Hit, the island of

Buddwas^ may

the severe inspector. Before

main

is

on the sea, which had no land,

:

was, that they did not endure the

it

extremity of distress.^

Am I not called Gorlassar, the etherial ? My belt has been a rainbow enveloping my foe. Am I not a protecting prince in darkness to him, who presents my form at both ends of the hive?* Am not la plougherP Have I protected my

not

wrathful ones

sanctuary, and with the aid of

Have I not

to vanish ?

bold warfare against the sons of the giant

of my guardian power a ninth portion

A title

'

as the 1

am

of

Hu, who was venerated under

supreme lord of

Britain,

where

Nur ?*

Have

in the pi-owess

caused the

not

I

iinparted

of Arthur ?

Did

the sj'mbol of a huge serpent and acknowledged

his chief-priest

persuaded, the same word as the oriental

my friends

shed the blood of the indignant in

governed as his vicegerent.

Buddha

or

Boudt or Budd-Isa, and

Buddwas as the

is,

Greek

Boiotiis or Butes or Bootes. *

These damsels were the arkile

the allegorical death of their god

of Syria, wept for

'Ihammuz

;

priestesses,

whose

as the Jewish

The same

or Adonis.

office

it

was

women, who had rites

in the

Mysteries to bewail

apostatised to the idolatry

prevailed

in

Egypt on account of

the supposed death of Osiris. '

Taliesin's

*

A

Elegy of Aeddon of Mona.

hive was a type of the

apud Davies.

Hence both

/Vj"k.

the diluvian priestesses

and regenerated souls

were called bees: hence bees were feigned to be produced from the carcilse of a cow, which also symbolized the

was much used both '

*

An

Ark

:

and hence,

in funeral rites

as the great father

and

in the

allusion to the agricultural character of

The wicked

was esteemed an infernal god, honey

Mysteries.

Noah.

race of the antediluvian Titans or Nephelim.

^^'^^- "'•

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN mOLATRY.

134 iiooKiK.

I give to

fiQi

Did

Hcnpeii the tremendous szeord of the enchanter?

when Hearndor' moved with

perfortn the rites of purijication,

not

toil to the

I

top

of the hill? I was subjected to the yoke for my ajjliction ; but commensurate the xoorid had no existence, were it not for my progeny. was my confidence :''

Privileged on the covered mount ,^

O

Ilu

thy son, thy bardic proclaimer, thy deputy,^ cited the death-song,

O father Deon

.*

my

voice has re-

where the mound representing the world is constructed of

Let the countenance of Prydain,

work J

stone

expanded wings,* has been

ivith the

let

Hu, attend

the glancing

to me.'

The

wrath securely went

birds of

the sorcerers

dawn of

:

to

Mona

demand a sudden shower of

to

but the goddess of the silver xvheel of auspicious mien,

serenity, the greatest res trainer

tons, speedily throws

round

of sadness,

in behalf

of the Bri-

of the rainbow

his hall the stream

;

which scares away violence from the earth, and causes the bane of

mount record no falshood.

and,

till

2.

which has already been adopted

may have been reduced

Iron-door,

Noah's state of

S(5i;fei9ufi;,

a

title

affliction

it

into their

contents of the bardic writings.

mode

in the case

the main question I think

'

hei'e:

remarkable fragments of

respect to the genuineness of these

*

form-

The chair of the preserver remains

Druidical mythology, I would adopt a

To

its

it continue in Europe!^

the doom, shall

With

a sti'eam,

The books of the ruler of

er state round the circle of the world to subside.

the

the

of arguing similar to

of the Zend-Avesta.

wholly immaterial, by

present^orw

Now, from

that

;

I

whom

the Triads

rest the matter

upon the

the minute resemblance between

of the Ark.

during the flood was symbolized by a bull submitting to the yoke.

The sacred mount or tumulus, that represented Meru or Ararat. * Thus the Orphic poet celebrates Dionusus, the first-born of the with his golden wings. Hymn. v. 2. '

*

The

^

Deon seems

'

One of

floating egg, as exulting

character of the god was sustained by his representative, the archimagus or chief druid. to be

an abbreviation of the Sanscrit Deonaush and the Greek Dionus.

the circular stone temples, probably Stonehenge.

notion of the Ida-vratta, represented, as

we

are here told, the

These, agreeably

World ; and,

informed, the mundane Ark, to adopt the phraseology of Druidism, '

Marnwnad Uthyr Pcndragon. apud

'

Cadair Ceridwen. apud Davies.

Davies.

as

to the oriental

we

are elsewhere

THE ORIGIN OP PAGAN IDOLATRY.

135

the mythology of the Druids, and that of the Egyptians, the Hindoos, and

other eastern nations, no person could have forged those remains in the middle ages without being well acquainted with the religious opinions of those

nations

and

:

not easy to say,

it is

how such an

acquaintance, such an

mate acquaintance, with them could have been procured not only find a general indefinite similarity

and even the same

bols,

titles,

but we meet with the same sym-

;

of persons, exhibited under exactly similar

out the east, not to mention Greece and Italy

emblems through-

they are no less so in the

;

If the initiated were thought to receive a second

writings of the bards.

and even a third birth

in the IVIysteries

of the Greeks and the Hindoos

very same potency was ascribed to the Mysteries of the Druids.

on the summits of the

Ark and of

If the Indian

or

is

sails

If circles

preserved from the deluge in a large vessel, well ;

the Druidical

Men-

through the grievous waters inclosed within the cur-

vatures of Ked, the forepart of which

connected snakes.

the

a notion exactly similar prevailed in Britain.

;

and bound with a vast sea-serpent

Menu-Ida

;

were throughout the east esteemed at once types of

World

Menu

stored with corn,

wydd

hills

the

We

at that period.

If a bull and a dragon were two eminent

circumstances.

inii-

If the old

Greek

stored with corn and

is

bound with

writers tell us, that Dionusus, Ceres,

and Proserpine, were venerated in Britain

;

same

on examining the bardic frag-

as those of the Samothracian

ments which have come down

to us,

Cabiri

we

:

find

and that

them

their orgies

were the

setting forth the worship of

those very three deities, and describing certain IVIysteries which closely resemble those

bards,

we

of Samothrace.'

In short,

we

if

advert to the writings of the

there find a religion delineated, which

dostan no more, than the religion of papal

remarked)

differs

from that of Geneva.

Rome

We

diflfers

(as INIr. Wilford has aptly

know however,

of the middle ages, posterior to the Christian era,

munication with Hindostan. series of coincidences

called

*

accident.

?

But,

We if it

Dionys. Perieg. ver. 565, 575.

ApoU. Argon,

lib. i. ver.

yi7.

How

then are

from that of Hin-

we

that the bards

could have had no com-

to account for this -strange

cannot reasonably ascribe

it

to

what

is

usually

be not accidental, then the substance of the

Artemid. apxul Strab. Geog.

lib. iv. p.

198. Schol. in

CBAP.

IV.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

136 BOOK

III.

bardic writings must exhibit to us the genuine theology of the ancient Druids:

because the bards of the age of Taliesin could not have borrowed their materials directly

On

from Hindostan.

the w hole, I see not

how we can account

of the Britons to the Mysteries of

which

twelfth century,

is

Hu

the violent attachment

for

and Ceridwen even so

a naked historical fact

we

unless

;

late

as the

sujjpose that

those Mysteries were the Mysteries immemorially celebrated by their fathers

agreeably to the positive declarations of

were

at the very time

Greek

tiie

remarkably tenacious of old customs

:

and

it

utterly incredible, that,

when they were gradually embracing

Christianity,

should suddenly strike out a novel superstition and embrace

we

shall

they stumbled upon the very theology which

trous

Many

propensities

;

new

still

superstition,

but that

so eminently prevails in

were the attempts made to wean them from their idola-

and many are the indignant allusions to the monks,

which are scattered through the writings of the bards. tainly describe

conjunc-

be compelled to adopt the inconceivable theory, that the

Britons at that precise period not only invented a

Hindostan.

in

it

they

Yet, unless we allow the genuineness of the bardic

tion with the Gospel.

materials,

Tlje Britons

historians. is

Those

what the Britons were then attached to

strained to believe, by an accumulated rnass

:

of evidence,

writings cer-

and I that

am

con-

what they

were so vehemently attached to was the very theology, to which their fathers from time immemorial had been attached before them.'

V.

have already had occasion to notice the Persian account of the de-

I

luge, as

contained in the Zend-Avesta: and, from the peculiar

which the great father

groundwork of

it is

ever, according to literal narrative little

there symbolized, I

am

a portion of genuine ancient mythology.

Dr. Hyde, appear also

of that event,

to

mode

in

inclined to believe, that the

have been

in

The Magi howmore

possession of a

though mingled with circumstances not a

impertinent.

The

orthodo.x part of the old

universal deluge

'

is

:

Persians, he informs

though some sects among them denied

Mr. Davies very reasonably argues the point

257,258,

•259.

us,

in a

believed in an it

entirely

somewhat similar manner.

;

and

Mythol.

p.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. Others maintained, that

Mas only

it

137

not extending beyond a mountain

partial,

The flood itself they supwoman named Zala-Cumountain where Noah dMcit previous

situated in the confines of Assyria and Persia.

posed to have burst

from the oven of an old

fortli

pha, whose house Mas situated on the Ko that calamity.

It

said to have been

is

asserted by Zeradusht,

deluge Mould never have taken place, had

it

that the

not been OM-ing to the wicked-

ness and diabolical incantations of IMalcus.'

This cause

The

substantially the sauje as that assigned in the Zend-Avesta.

is

strange notion of the waters bursting forth from an oven, the prototype

of which oven

conceive however to have been a sacred Mithratic cavern,

I

was not peculiar

Koran

:

to the Persians.

A

similar legend

and some pretended, that the oven was

is

that,

introduced into the

which

liad

been used

by Eve, and which had afterwards been possessed by the successive

pa-

triarchs of the Sethite line until at length

the

seems

tale

Mas employed

water,

in the

Mohammed

Arabic of the deluge

devolved to Noah.*

it

to be blended the very prevalent

:

opinion, that

destruction of the old Morld.

W'itii

no

fire,

Thus

less

than

the literal

oven boiled over Mith the waters of and thus the JeMish Rabbins have a tradition, that those v\aters says, that the

Such

were boiling hot'

fables are nearly allied to the boiling of the British

cauldron of Ceridwen, and to the churning of

the ocean

the

in

Courma

Avatar of Hindostan. It

M'orthy of observation, that the Persians described the patriarch

is

escaped, by the very san)e

One

Greeks. the

title

as that

in the books,

is

and the Druids.

It

is

'

Hyde

dc nl. vet. Pcrs.

'

Sale's

Annot.

Salurnus i.

c.

in

is

Call or

Time: CroimSy

affinity M-ith Chrorius,

which

and Sir William Jones was assured by a learned

:*

made of an universal deluge VI. The Egyptian mythology is

tion

»

Menu

Greek appellation of Saturn, has a manifest

lower of Zeradusht, that

lib.

employed both by the Hindoos and the

of the names of the Indian

also signifies Ti)/ie

clearly the

*

built

Koran,

same

of Time.'

Brahmens upon memorials of the deluge as that of the

:

c. xi. Sale's aniiot. in loc.

c. xi.

immulata

litera,

Kfovoj quasi Xfoyof vocatur.

Macrob. Saturn,

22. p. 214.

Asiat. lUs. vol.

Pag.

Idol.

i.

p,

fol-

which the Behdins hold sacred, men-

styled the deluge

most part

c. x.

Koian.

— a Grarcis,

for the

Mho

240.

VOL.

II.

S

^"'^'- "'•

138 BOOK

III.

THE ORIGIN OK PAGAN IDOLATllT.



and many of

peculiarities

its

who seem

kings,

Cuthim or PalH

to

were probably introduced by the Shepherd-

have been no other than a branch of those Chasas or

who, under different circumstances and at different periods,

;

and

carried both their arms, their pohty,

The

the glube.

consideration

:

their religion,

into every quarter of

character of the Egyptian deities I shall reserve for future

at present

it is

my

wisb, as

much

as

may

be, to confine

my-

self to traditions specially describing the deluge.

On

point,

this

that of the

an opinion, exactly similar to

the Egyptians entertained

Brahmens and

tbe Druids

or rather, I should say, the identical

;

opinion, which I have so frequently been led to notice as the very foundation

of old pagan mythology

many

namely, that the world was destined to experience

:

vicissitudes of destruction

and renovation, partly by the agency of

The

and partly by that of water.

priest,

who conversed

v\ith

fire,

Plato on the

subject, after discussing a dissolution of the earth by fire set forth (as he

imaorined) under the story of Phaethon, next proceeded to discourse of

The

submersion by a great deluge.

the earth by water, overxvhelmed

herdsmen and shepherds ivere

it

sailed

gods, said

lie,

tiozv zcishi/ig

On

with a flood.

this occasion,

certain

on the tops of the mountains : but they,

dwelt in the cities which are situated in our country, were swept

who

into the sea by the rising It

is

tions

of

away

the rivers.^

impossible not to observe the remarkable similarity between the no-

which enter into

a feature

:

and the

account, and those which constitute so prominent

this

in the tradition

destruction

it

Fire precedes water in the task of

of the Druids.

latter is considered,

desolation, but as an agent

which

its

to purify

employed

not merely as an instrument of

to purify the earth

had contracted by the wickedness of

its

from the stains

former inhabitants.

This

coincidence serves additionally to prove, that the writings of the bards contain fragments of genuine British mythology.

I

may

here properly remark, that the world

troyed by the joint operation of

fire

is

sometimes said to be des-

and water, and

at other times

is

repre-

sented as being successively dissolved by each of those two agents separately. I think it probable, that the notion of a deluge of fire, as well as of a deluge

of water, originated in the •

first

instance from

Pfeton. Tim.

fol.

tlie

22, 23.

scorching effects of the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. 'comet; which, by

its

too near approach to the earth, seems at length, on

dislodged the waters of the

physical principle of attraction, to have

the

139

great abyss and thus to have produced the flood.

VII. In the ancient empire of China, we do not find those peculiarly distinct notices of a general deluge, tries

yet there

:

is

which may be detected

in other

coun-

sufficient to prove, that the recollection of that awful event

has lieen by no means wholly obliterated. IVIariinius

informs

that the Chinese writers

us,

make

frequent mention of

the flood, though they do not enter into the causes which produced

it.

This

deficiency led that author to doubt, whether they spoke of the Noetic flood,

some other inundation

or of

however he ventures

peculiar to the realm of China.

to assert, that there

is

So

far as this

no great dissimilitude between

the two accounts, and that in point of chronology they nearly coincide, in

round numbers) about three thousand

The

(^hinese acknowledge, that, previous to

each having taken place (to speak years before the Christian era. the time of

f'olii,

who from

various circumstances appears to be the

name of

Scripture, their annals do not deserve the It

latter

of whicii succeeded the former.

of them, the

and

first

the second to

its

From

two heavens; the

the description which they give

world before the

fall,

During the period of the

first

to allude to the state of the

seems

of

well-authenticated history.*

that the Chinese authors frequently speak of

said,

is

Noah

condition at the deluge.

heaven, a pure pkasure, and a perfect tranquillity^ reigned over all nature.

There

made

xvas neither labour,

nor pain, nor

opposition to the will

happiness.

Everything was

were perfect

in their kind.

so7-rozv,

beautiful ;

In

this

tvithout

any effort or

philosophers,

opposition, to

who adhered

Tchouangse, say,

active

that,

171

'

to

state

There was no jarring in the

grew without labour ; and

ele-

uni-

and passive virtues conspired together,

produce and perfect the Universe.

these ancient

the state

of

every thing was good : all beings

ments, no inclemency in the air ; all things

The

Nothing

happy age, heaven and earth employed

their virtues jointly to embellish nature.

versal fertility prevailed.

nor criminality.

The whole creation etyoyed a

of man.

traditions,

The

and particularly

of the Jirst heaven, man was united

Mart. Hist. Sin.

lib.

i.

p.

X'i.

<=ha.p. iv.

THE OnrciN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

140 mooK in.

inwardly icorks

Supreme Reason,

to the

The

four seasons oj the year succeeded lach other regularly

The sun and the moon, without ever biing and brighter than

cence

The Jive plant

at present.

Jered any hurt from him all nature.

clouded, furnished a light ts

:

but an universal

to

man, or which

amiy and harmony

sitf-

reigned over

Tliese descriptions manifestly allude to a state of pristine inno-

and coincide with those notions of a gulden

;

purer

kept on their course without

There was nothing, which did hnrni

inequality.

and

There 7cere no impetuous winds and exctssiie lains.

without coiijusion.

any

and there was no mixture cf

Tl(e heart rejoiced in truth,

of justice.

Jalshood.

aijd that outwardly he practised all the

On

of mankind.

funiliar to tne bulk

which have been so

a
the other hand, the account which

they give of the second heaven clearly points out the dreadful convulsion,

which the world experienced

The earth shook

heaven were broken.

The

sank lower toxcards the north. 1 he earth Jell

their motions.

bosom burst

Jor th

xcilh

to its

and

and

:

It can scarcely,

convulsion of the world, here described, it is

zccis

the planets altered their course,

nature was disturbed.

and the

Man

it.

and

despising the supreme

dispute about truth and

He

reason.

monarch

;

He

and the

Such was the source of all crimes

the

the deluge

deluge was the ;

grand harmony of

The

the deluue.

(J the

n)oial cause

^11 these

Universe.

evils

of

arose

He would needs

;

became gradually transformed into

celestial reason entirely

and hence originated

which arejustly sent by heaven as a punishment

ered in

The sun

then Jixed his looks on terrestrial objects, and loved them to

the objects, which he loved

As

having rebelled

J alshood ; and these disputes banished the eternal

excess: hence arose the passions

ries,

changed

stars,

be doubted, that the great

assigned by the Chinese in a very striking manner.

from mans

of The heavens

totally disordered.

I think, is

pillars

the waters inclosed within its

overjioxced

against heaven, the system oJ the universe 7cas eclipsed,

very foundation.

sun, the jnoon,

to pieces

violence,

The

epoch of the deluge.

at the

was a principal chronological

commencement of time

to the

both the Greeks, the Hindoos, and '

abandoned him.

those various mise-

of wickedness.'

epocli,

ami as each

fictitious

mundane system which tlie

it

ush-

Persians, agreed iu bestow-

Kanisay on the mythol. of the pagans.

THE ORIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. ing the appell vailed

among

of Time on the great father.

itioi)

/ may assure

the Chinese

1/

I\fach the

14]

same notion and

ajter fuil Inquiry

ui,

pre-

consi-

dtralion, says Sir WilHani Jones in an adihess to the Society over wliich he

so worthily presided, that the Chinese,

like

the Hindoos, believe this earth

to hirce been wholly vovered uith xvater, which, in

they describe as Jloiring abundantly, then subsiding, and separat-

thenticity,

ing the higher

Jrom

mankind ; that the

the lower age nf

division of' time,

xchich their pot tical history begins, just preceded the appearance of Fohi

from

on the mountains of Chin

Yao

zvas either

of

be not a fable),

it

works of undisputed au-

but that the great inundation

;

confned to the lowlands of his kingdom or (if

it

annalists.''

matter seems to be, that the early history of China, either

is

(if the

inytholojiical or largely

The

Noah)

truth of the

of

h]
blended u

otiier

all

mythology

ith

characters of Fohi and Yao, like tliose of the GreekO-f/ffes

for the

of

whole account

contain any allusion to the flood of

has been ignorantly misplaced by the Chinese

ancient nations,

the reian

iit



and

Deucalion, sufficiently prove them to be equally the patriarch Noah.

VIII. The same

western as well as in the eastern continent.

in the 1.

belief in the occurrence of an universal deluge prevailed

At

the time of the conquest of America,

TIascala, and Achagna,

overwhelmed by water

The IMechoacans

believed, that a priest called

all

much

natives esteemed the most. its

mouth

The same

Asiiit.

i)ird

named Aura, which

tradition

Res. vol.

After

did not re-

Last

smaller than the former ones, but which the

This soon appeared again with the branch of a

*

ing^to this writer, the

'

had also

next sent out several others, which likewise did not return.

he sent out a bird

tree in

into ^vhich he

and excellent seeds of every description.

the waters had retreated, he sent out a

of

Tezpi was preserved along

a great box of wooJ,

in

collected a variety of animals

He

Mechoaca,

consequence of the prevailing wickedness of the age.

in

with his wife and children

turn

the inhabitants of

preserved a tradition, that the world was once

still

ii.

is

given, with a slight variation, by Herrera.

Mechoacans supposed,

p.

3/6.

* histoirc generaie dcs voyages,

apud Howard.

that

a

single family

Accord-

was formerly

chap.

iv.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

142 HOOK

III.

p,ege,T,g(j in

an ark from the waters of an universal deluge, and that a num-

new world was saved

ber of animals sufficient to stock the

Dur-

with them.

ing the time that they were shut up in the ark, several ravens were sent out,

one of which brought back the branch

The

2.

Peruvians, as

manner, that

believed,

once rained so violently as to inundate

it

In consequence of

the country.

ol a tree.'

we are informed by Gomara,

who escaped

species took place, a few persons only excepted,

To

lest,

;

As soon

when

mud and

Hence they concluded,

them

dry, convinced

tors of the present race of

is

same

But

seven. its

head

was now

retired,

The number

men.

the Noetic family, exclusive of in the diluvian

that the earth

which they had

posed to have been tnus saved,

doubtless the

extinct.

they sent out two dogs, which returned to them

slime.

this they left the places into

famous

become

living

that the flood

had

After a certain interval they sent out more dogs, which,

not yet subsided.

coming back

into caves

number of

the waters abated, the whole race should

as the rain ceased,

besmeared with

human

these elevated retirements they had

previously conveyed a sufficient stock of provisions and a

animals

a similar

in

the lower parts of

an universal destruction of the

this,

situated on the tops of mount.iins.

all

:

l)abitable.

Upon

and became the progeni-

of persons,

whom

this is the precise

they sup-

number of

whence that number became so

The Peruvian

mythology of the ancients.

seven are

as the seven Cabiri, the seven Titans, the seven

Hindoo

Rishis, and the seven arkile companions of the British Arthur.*

In

this

account no mention

is

made

of the

Ark

:

but, if

we may

believe

Herrera, the deficiency was supplied by the more accurate tradition of the

mountaineers of Peru. cept six persons

They

who were

affirmed, that all perished in the deluge,

saved

in

a

ex-

From them descended the inha-

float.

bitants of that country.' 3.

The

Brazilians likewise had their account of a general flood.

that event took place,

excepted,

duced

all

mankind perished, one person and

who escaped on a

their origin.

Hcrrcr. Hist, of

Gomar. apud Purch. U'rrcr. Hist, of

From

his sister

only

this pair the Brazilians de-

Lerius informs us, that he was present at one of their

Amer.

'

*

Janipata.

When

trans,

by Stevens,

vol.

Pilg. b. ix. c. 8, 10.

Amer. Decad.

xi. b.

i.

c. 4.

iii.

p.

250.

THE OBIGIK OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

143

assemblies, when, in a solemn chorus, they chaunted a kind of requiem to the

In the course of the song, they did not

souls of their ancestors. tice the catastrophfe

some of

who escaped by

their progenitors

According

to no-

climbing high trees.'

Brazihans on the sea-coast were somewhat more

to Thevet, the

The

circumstantial in their detail.

^much

fail

of the deluge, in which the m hole world perished, except

deluge.,

says

lie,

which these savages talk

:

and of which they spoke so often to vie, was in their opinion They say, that Sommay, a Carrihee of great dignity, had two the name of the. one was Tamendonare ; the name of the other,

Ariconte.

These were of different dispositions, and therefore mortally hated

about,

universal.

children

each other. earth

:

The peacej ul Tamendonare

intent on the suljugation

relumed one day from

Tamendonare the arm of

having

sufficient

(

n

xcar,

and

of his neighbours not excepting his own brother. It

happened, as this warrior to

delighted in the cultivation of the

but Ariconte, despising agriculture, was solely bent

the battle, that he brought

and haughtily reproached him as not

his enemy,

courage to defend his xvfe and children.

Tamendonare,

hearing his brother speak thus, was much grieved at his pride, and said

to

him ; If thou wert as valiant as thou boast est, thou wouldest have brought thine enemy entire. Incensed at this reproach, Ariconte threw the arm against the door of his brothers house village

tarth.

the

:

where they were was carried up

Tamendonare seeing

ground

this, either

so violently, that out

of

it

from

to exceed the height

until the earth

was

it

Geiiipar.

clouds.

hills

Whilst they were there, in

and '

let it

and mountains,

brothers, solicitous to save

of the country, and there

icith

Tamendonare took refuge with one of his

named Pindona; Ariconte

off a piece of this,

The

It continued to flow,

zvith his

oi'der that thty

nije, in

might

were abated, Ariconte offered some of thejruit rf his tree

Break

the whole

astonishment or passion, struck

The two

themselves, ascended the highest mountains

wives in a tree

instant,

and they remained on

reached the

of the very

entirely covered.

their zvives climbed into the trees.

same

issued a vast stream of water.

stream rose so high, that in a short time

and seemed

at the

but,

into the sky,

b. ix.

named

see if the u aters

to his zrfe,

saying,

This being done, they knew

fall down.

Purch. Pil"

a tree

c. 5.

''^*'' '"'

THE OniGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATftr.

14t that

it

was not yet time They

high.

to

descend into the vallies, the waters being

that in thin deluge all

assert,

drowned, except the two brothers

sprang

tzvo different races

Besides an

eic

and

of people.

mankind and

all

very

still

animals were

from whom ajtcrwards

their wi-ces ;

'

we may

press mention of the flood, I think

discover in

the

present legend a manifest allusion to the two different antediluvian families of

Seth and Cain, whose place was supplied after the deluge by the peaceful

and the warlike descendants of Noah. 4.

So

again,

wc

when

learn from Peter Martyr, that,

the Spaniards

first

discovered Nicaragua, they attempted to persuade the prince of the country

embrace

to

who

Upon

Christianity.

this

he immediately inquired, whether those,

professed the religion of Jesus, had any knowledge of the flood; which,

according to traditional accounts received from

covered the whole earth, and had destroyed both 5.

A

his

predecessors, had once

men and

similar belief prevailed in the Terra-Firma

beasts.'

of Soutii

the tradition of the inhabitants of Castilla del Oro, that,

was

versal deluge happened, one

man

one lord

in heaven,

It

the uni-

Mith his wife and children escaped in a

canoe, and that from them the world vvas repeopled. that there was

America.

when

who

They

sent the rain, and

further believed,

who caused

the

motions of the celestial bodies; and likewise that there was in heaven a very beautiful

From

woman

with a child.

the symbolical

old continent

mode

of worship, which prevailecl throughout the

and which the Americans had by no means forgotten,*

I

am

inclined to ascribe the last particular to the arkite astronomical superstition.

The

ship of

Noah was

typified

who was supposed to have receptacle and common mother

by a female;

who was deemed the of tlie hero-gods, and who nevertheless was elevated to the sphere and idenOf this female Noah was reckoned sometimes the tified with the Moon. emerged from the

husband or

father,

sea,

and sometimes the

offspring.

he was represented as a venerable old man; '

Cosmog. Univcr.

*

Purch. Pilg.

vol. iv.

b. viii.

1.

xxi.

c. 4.

'

Herrcr. Hist, of Amer. Decad. xi. b.

More

on

in the

c. li.

*

will be said

In the former character,

i.

this point hereafter,

c. 4.

b. iv.

c.

4. f X.

latter,

as a

new-born

THE

ORIGIJf OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

145

celebrated as the offspring of the ship-goddess Aphrodite or Derceto,

is

same person

the

same

as

Buddha

therefore as the transmigrating great father:

celestial

He

or Osiris or Bacchus or Adonis'.

who in

marriage with Psyche,

and

his

is

is

the

union or

final

new

reference to her supposed

birth

depicted with the wings of a butterfly, seems to shadow out that ultimate

is

of the soul into the essence of the universal parent which

absorption

We

formed so prominent a feature of the old mystic philosophy.

must

observe, that Apuleius describes his heroine as falling from the enjoyment

of heavenly love through the impulse of a fatal curiosity, and as under-

going

toils

and troubles and hardships of every description ere she recovers

her forfeited happiness.

The whole

of this

perfectly consentaneous with the drift and awful

is

ceremonial of those Mysteries, respecting which he

treating.

is

During

the inclosure within the Ark, the great father and his offspring were thought

be

to

in a state of

death and darkness, to undergo heavy

unspeakable dangers and calamities

tain

tory progress to difficulties,

Eden

severe and appalling

and

or the isles of the blessed

iioliness

trials,

until

fasts,

all

literally to

encounter very

as w'e learn from

sorts of penal trials,

He was made

*.

opposing sword, and

to

and had thus ap-

to pass through fire

support the most austere

If his courage failed him, he

without shrinking or complaining.

rejected as unworthy,

and, in imitation of such

initiated into the Mysteries of the Persian

he had undergone

to brave the

:

No one,

was allowed to be accomplished.

proved himself holy and impassible

and water,

and to sus-

ere his mystic regeneration into light and liberty

Gregory Nazianzen, could be Mithras

made even

the aspirant was often

toils,

course of their transmigra-

in the

and cast out as profane

'.

wa&

Similar difticulties, though

operating rather upon the imagination than upon the bodily organs, were

They

objected to the candidates for initiation into the Mysteries of Eleusis.

were required to grope

their darkling

the grave, while hideous phantoms

way through

flitted

a terrific gloom as of

before their eyes, and while their

ears were stunned with the loud hayings of the infernal dogs.

'

Vide supra book

iv. c. 5. § '

Pag. IdoL

*

XXII.

Maurice's Ind. Ant.

Greg. Naz.

vol. v. p.

VOL. in.

1

This

tasli

Oral, cont Julian.

991

T

cuap. vi.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr.

14-6

eooK

V.

being accomplished with due fortitude, they suddenly emerged from the horrors of the artificial Hades, and were admitted as regenerate souls into the overpowering splendor of the sacred isles of Elysium.

To

Theseus or Orpheus or Bacchus or

the initiated, whether Hercules or

all

Ulysses, are invariably said to have descended into

commencing hierophant was wont

ducts his hero into the realms below, identical formula

which the

were closing upon the profane sition

hell

to use while the doors

much oppo-

at length arrives in

Here Anchises, personating

phant, sets forth in a solemn oration the :

so the poet con-

his narrative with the

and through many appalling spectacles, En^a^

philosophy

;

After safely passing through

'.

the Paradisiacal fields of Elysium.

trials,

As

such a process Virgil alludes in the sixth book of the Eneid.

and, in the course of

it,

sum and substance

fails

the hiero-

of the mystical

not to describe those purgatorial

through which the aspirants were required to win their way, ere they

could transmigrate or be born again into the Paradisiacal islands of the blessed

*.

Now

these were the precise trials undergone by such as were initiated

They

into the Mysteries of Mithras.

the devotees

among

Hindoos

the

moreover the end was

are the

still

also as those, to

fanatically submit.

Such

the same.

still

same

austerities

which

In each case

were invariably

practised with a view to obtain that purification of soul,

or rather that

mind

enthusiastic abstraction from every worldly object and that union of

with the great father, which was believed to constitute the spiritual part

Hence, among the Hindoos, no

of the regeneration of the Mysteries.

among the Persians, the Greeks, the Egyptians, and the Celts, who have submitted to such frantic austerities, are dignified with the

than

lation of the twice-born 2.

'

As

those,

appel-

'.

the purifying transmigration took place during the passage of the

Schol. in Apoll. Argon,

Arist. Ran. ver. 357.

Lycoph.

less

lib.

i.

ver. 916.

apud Warburton.

ver. 1328, 51.

Apollod. Bibl.

Scliol. in Equit. Arist. ver. 782.

Albric. de deor. imag. lib.

ii.

c.

5.

§

12.

c. xxii. p. 324-.

Virg. .Eneid.

Schol. in

Tzetz. in lib.

vi.

119—124, 258. *

Virg. jEneid.

'

Maur. Ind. Ant.

lib. vi.

ver.

723

— 755-

vol. v. p. 954.

Instit.

of Menu. chap.

ii.

§ 79, 108,

US— 150.

ver.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. World

regenerated souls from one

the prototype of this

as

to another,

147

imagined passage was the entrance of the Noiitic family into the Ark from

World and

the antediluvian

tiieir

egress from

into the postdiluvian,

it

and

as the Metempsychosis was from the earliest period immediately connected

with the Metamorphosis generally prevalent, that in order that

we shall not wonder to find an opinion very the human soul, after its departure from the body, :

might be penally cleansed from the various stains contracted

it

was destined successively

in the flesh,

to enter into the

forms of

all

kinds

of animals.

This doctrine of the Hindoos

down

it

:

to us of the old

is

taught likewise

'

:

and

rowed Mysteries, which were day

in the east

upon the tenet

built

which

in

this

Of

it

we can

does not immediately present

very eminent part

:

for,

was equally inculcated by

poem

Traces of

of Ovid

is

it

wholly

scarcely take up an oriental tale

itself to

we might

into those bor-

by Pythagoras*.

and, as the great

in question, so

the ancient Mysteries, as

it

was zealously ado|)ted

it

instituted :

of detail in the theology

remains which have come

in those

Chaldean philosophy*;

the Egyptian priesthood

remain to

much minuteness

set forth with

is '

our notice.

naturally expect,

it

constituted a

since the whole doctrine of transmigration

however

modified sprang from the passage of the great father out of one World into another,

it

would of course be treated of

in those

Orgies which professed

to detail the varied fortunes of the principal hero-god. Osiris was said to migrate into a bull

crocodile

Thus

;

and those of the other

also the hero of the

is

thus the British Taliesin,

divinities, into the

described as

when

the soul of

that of Typhon, into an ass and a

forms of other animals.

Metamorphoses of Apuleius, which

gether to the old Mysteries,

And

;

Thus

relates alto-

being ciianged into an ass.

detailing the process of his initiation

into the Orgies of Ceridwen, speaks of himself as assuming a variety of different figures, ere he

was

finally

born again and admitted into the order

of the epoptae. I think there

'

*

Instit

of

Herod. Hist.

is

reason to believe, that by the easy contrivance of masks

Menu. chap. lib. ii. c.

123.

xii.

*

Orac. Chal. p. 17. Opsop.

Ovid. Metam.

lib.

xv. ver.

165—175.

<="*»••

vi.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

148 •ooK V.

made

or vizors the aspirants were actually

the animals, into which they were said to be metamorphosed.

nion I have already had occasion to express, birds of

Memnon ':

and

it

forms of

to exhibit the several

when

This opi-

discussing the fabled

receives additional strength from a curious pas-

how

sage of Porphyry, which seems at once to shew,

distinguished a part

how

of the Mysteries the Metamorphosis was considered, and likewise the

was

them that Metamorphosis

of

celebration

actually

in

exhibited.

After stating that the Metempsychosis was an universal doctrine of the Persian tenet

Magi

;

he remarks, with no

set forth in the Mysteries of JNIithras.

was apparently

wishing obscurely to declare the

were wont

Hence lio7is;

who were

women,

the

lionesses

;

common

relationship of

that that

For the Magi,

men and

animals,

former by the several names of the

to distinguish the

the men,

ingenuity than truth,

less

initiated

into the Orgies, they

and the ministering

priests,

latter.

denominated

Some-

ravens.

times also they styled them eagles and hawks: and, whosoever was initiated into these leontic ]\Iysteries,

the forms of

all sorts

that person

of animals.

He

was constantly made

to

assume

adds, that Pallas, in his treatise on

the rites of Mithras, says, that this Metamorphosis was usually thought to relate to the different animals of the zodiac

origin

was

:

but he intimates, that

then, after instancing the

men

true

to be ascribed to the doctrine of the soul's transmigratory revo-

lution through the bodies of every kind of bird and beast

to

its

the

common

names of animals,

practice

among

and

reptile.

He

the Latins of applying

intimates, that the hierophants

were equally

accustomed to designate the demiurgic hero-gods themselves by

parallel

Thus they called Diana a she-xvolf; the Sun, a bull or a appellations. lion or a dragon or a hawk ; and Hecat^, a mare or a cozv or a lioness or a

hitch.

In a similar manner, they denominated Proserpine Pherephatta,

because the phatta or wild dove was sacred to her priestesses of the heathen gods ordinarily

butes of the deities

whom

mother was the same

they venerated, and as

as Proserpine

;

:

and, as the priests and

assumed the names and

Maia

they thence, as

or the great nursing

we

learn from Hero-

dotus, styled the oracular priestesses of the ship-goddess pigeons.

«

Vide supra book

iv. c. 5.

§

XXIX.

attri-

3. (6.)

For the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. reason, as Porphyry elsewhere teaches us,

same

149

the ancients called the chap.

priestesses of the infernal Ceres bees ; because they denominated their

great goddess the floating

Moon

pine the epithet of honied.

Moon

the

a

bol of the

They

bull: and, since

of the Moon, since the

a

they bestowed upon Proser-

>vhile

bee,

likewise, as he proceeds to remark, styled

new-born souls were said to be produced out

Moon was

called a bull or cozo

Theba or lunar ark of Osiris, and

which was the sym-

since the fable thence origi-

nated of the generation of bees from the body of a heifer;

new-born

all

souls or souls regenerated in the Mysteries were distinguished by the appellation of bees.

It

was on account of

this doctrine

of the transmigratory

Metamorphosis, as he further informs us, that the initiated were abstain from domestic birds

;

and

that, in the

and beans and pomegranates were

fishes

account of

this

same

to

strictly prohibited

'.

was on

It

doctrine also no_ doubt, that the Buddhists and Pytha-

goreans have inculcated abstinence from

on the same grounds, that the Syrians fishes,

wont

Eleusinian Orgies, birds and

And

was

still

religiously refused to eat doves

and

all

animal food.

it

because those animals had been the successive forms or vehicles of

their transmigrating great goddess. 3.

From

the foregoing passage of Porphyry, and from the other passages

•which have been referred to in conjunction with

how

the

and how

it,

it is

easy to collect, both

of the Metamorphosis was connected with the Mysteries,

dogma

in the celebration of

them

it

was

scenically

and therefore

literally

As the great father was born again from a floating Moon or from a wooden ark shaped like a cow and as he and his mystic consort

exhibited.

;

were feigned

to

fully migrating

have assumed the forms of

all

from one World into another

:

kinds of animals, while painso the souls of the imitative

aspirants were similarly said to be born again from the

Moon

or from the

body of a cow, and were declared to pass successively through the bodies of various animals in their progress towards Paradisiacal perfection.

Now tells uSj

"

this,

we

find,

Porph. de abstin.

lib. ii.

c.

was actually exhibited

in the Orgies, for

Porphyry

that the initiated were clothed in the forms of every sort of animals.

54, 55.

lib. iv. §

16.

Porph. de ant. nymph, p. 260, 261, 262.

Herod. Hist,

vi.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

150 His phraseology

is

remarkable": and

seems very clearly

it

to allude to the

particular mode, in which such metamorphoses were accomplished.

means of

bestial vizors

and garments aptly made out of proper

By

skins, the

aspirants successively appeared in the characters of whatever animals they to personate

were appointed

:

and

human

Beinbine table exhibits various

their tra)ismigra'

figures

with the heads of birds or

and, because the priests of Anubis disguised themselves with

:

canine masks, the Greeks, tale of there being in the like that

was denominated

Accordingly, as I have elsewhere observed, the

tory Metamor'phosis'-.

of beasts

this

who

dearly loved the marvellous, invented the

upper Egypt a whole tribe of

men who had heads

of a dog ^

VII. The ancient Mysteries then described the death and regeneration of the transmigrating great father, and with sical

it

system of an endless succession of similar worlds.

them was

of a doleful

or descent into

hell,

and

terrific

nature

:

and

phy-

set forth the received

this

The

shadowed

first

part of

out the death,

or entrance into the lunar ship, or painful purificatory

passage of the chief hero-god

;

together with the universal dissolution of

mundane frame, and the reduction of the World to its primeval chaotic The second part of them was of a joyous and lively nature and state. the

:

this exhibited the revival, or return

from

hell,

or egress from the lunar ship,

or accomplishment of the purificatory passage from World to World, or figurative regeneration, of the

same hero-god

;

together with his recovery

of Paradise when on the summit of Ararat he quitted the stationary Baris, and the production

of a new

womb

World out of

of the

now

the all-per-

vading waters which had inundated and destroyed the old World.

Such,

with the addition of the dependent doctrines of the Metempsychosis and the Metamorphosis, and with the declaration that at each great catastropbt;

'

^

'O Ti

tot,

Hence

the universal hermaphroditic parent

^ECVTlx£e vafxXocj/.0aniif, OTi^iTifierai

originated the notion, that the

themselves into birds. '

In

all

that Bp.

lib.

left

in

mundane

the solitary

jjit^tftxi,

Celtic Druids could

chango

xv. ver. 3.56.

Warburton says respecting the Metempsychosis and the Metamor-

phosis, he appears- to

Mysteries.

Ovid. Metam.

wanTosawa; ^uwt

Hyperborean or

was

me

to

be as

much mistaken

as he

is

in his general idea

of ths

;

THE ORIGIN" OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. majesty of demiurgic unity

such were the ancient Mysteries, so far as

:

compound personage

they respected the

151

of whose varied fortunes they pro-

fessed to give a scenical representation.

But besides

they held out the offer of a certain wonderful regenera-

this

attended with a vast increase of purity and knowledge, to

tion,

as, after

undergoing the preparatory

We

into them.

have

now

a point, which fectly

I

should be duly initiated

austerities,

therefore to consider the This,

the initiation of the aspirants.

have already

in

it

mode and nature of whoWy imitative;

be found, was

will

some measure

anticipated,

and whicii per-

harmonizes with the prevailing genius of pagan theology.

the great father did or suffered, that also the

do and

If the

suffer.

a passage

full

one entered

Whatever

mimic aspirant professed to

one descended into the infernal regions, and braved

of darkness and difficulty

into

so likewise did the other.

:

a sacred cave or floating ark

or bestial: so likewise was the other. his

passage from

World

to

:

said to

emerge from Hades or

so likewise was the other.

was the other.

be restored to

to

If the one

Para-

at length to land safely in

so likewise

:

human

If the one was said to be purified

World, and

dise or the isles of the blessed

If the

so likewise did the other.

If the one was reputed to transmigrate from body to bod\', w hether

by

such,

all

was

life

If the one

was

or to be born again

indifferently reputed to be

born

again from the door of a rocky cavern, from a stone cell, from the cleft of a rock, from a cow, from an ark or boat, from the INIoon, or from the of the great goddess

:

so likewise was

personated the denjiurgic father,

who

presided over

tlie

who

In every particular

the other.

short there w as a studied similarity between

them

womb

:

in

and, as the hierophant

World and World, who was esteemed

built the smaller floating

renovation of each larger

Magus or Druid and who as such was represented by every succeeding Magus or Druid; so all the initiated claimed, in virtue of their

the

first

initiation, to

become one with

the god, wliom they adored, and

whom

they

recognized as the common ancestor of mankind'.

VIII.

I

may now

substantiate

what has been

said,

by adducing such

accounts of the various modes of initiation into the Mysteries as have been

handed down

to us

from antiquity. '

Euseb. Pracp. Evan.

lib. iii.

chap.

n.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

152 BOOK V.

Here

1.

it

may be

premised, that the ordinary

was distinguished, was that of a descait

itself

by which

title,

initiation

into hell: for, as the great

father was thouglit to have gone down into Hades when he entered into floating coffin, so every aspirant

was made to undergo a

Hence some of the pretended Orphic hymns,

descent.

liis

similar imitative

that

were chaunted

at the celebration of the Mysteries, bore this identical title; which was

of the epoptce': and hence Virgil, in describing the descent of Eneas, uses the very formula by which the hierophaut excluded the profane, and expressly refers to the Orgies of the Eleusinian Ceres *. Hence also, in the Frogs of Aristophanes, when Hercules tells Bacchus that the inhabitants of Elysium were the initiated, therefore equivalent to the sacred discourse

Xanthius

I am

says, Jtul

the ass carrying Mysteries, alluding to the cir-

cumstance of the Typhonian ass being employed with

its

carry the sacred ark

to

contents; on which the scholiast justly observes, that the

of the mystae was to be sought for in the Orgies of Eleusis

'

:

and hence,

Lucian's dialogue of the Tyrant, when persons of every condition

in

Hades in life

are represented as sailing together to the infernal world, JNIycillus exclaims

Cynic,

to the

You have

been initiated into the Eleusinian Mysteries; does

not our present darkling passage closely resemble that of the aspirants ?

To

which

his

companion immediately

replies.

Most

undoubtedly'^.

(1.) Agreeably to such intimations, those ancient writers,

an

initiation, describe it as

a descent into

and

hell

who

describe

as a final escape into-

Elysium.

Thus Me death

;

find

Apuleius saying of himself,

/

approached the confines of

and, having crossed the threshold of Proserpine,

turned, borne along through all the elements. the dead of night with luminous splendor

I

celestial gods.

:

I

represents an aspirant, as

first

beheld the

I sazv

approached and adored them encountering

I at

length re-

Sun shining

in

both the infernal and the

'.

much

Thus

also Themistius

horror and uncertainty,

but afterwards as being conducted by the hierophant into a place of tranquil safety. '

Entering now into the mystic dome, he

Warburt. Div. Leg. ^

*

b.

Arist.

ii.

*

sect. 4. p. 102.

Ran. ver. 357.

Luc, Catap. p. SIS. apud Warburton.

is

filled with

Virg. iEneid.

lib. vi.

horror

ver. 258.

Schol. in loc. apud Warburton. '

Apul. Metam.

lib. xi.

apud Warburton.

:

THE ORIGIN- OT PAGAX IDOLATRY. Theba, Argha, and Baris or Baiit served

were fabled

in the Jish,

to

hence the books, which were really pre-

:

have been preserved

The town mentioned by Berosus appears neighbourhood of Babylon:' and some place

Moses

styles n

mountain of the east

eastward, and

rriore

have been the true and, likeSippara, It is probable,

of the

received

in all directions

nette which

fixes that

mountain yet

Whatever may

an arkite mountain

I believe,,

the sacred antediluvian writings.

mount Sephars,

memorials of the deluge

;

Noah

carried

wherever they

so,

mountain of that

loftiest hill as tlie

were

jubt as there

descendants of

as the

for,

:

was thought to have preserved the holy volumes.

account for the existence of other

will

«as,

it

situated in the

near mount Sephar, which

Arabia Felix.*

in

name from

its

Moon

of the

they consecrated the

tled,

hill,

it

in the ci/i/.

to have been it

though Wells

that there were several

many mountains with them

;

Bochart places

scite it

153

set-

floating

lu-

This humour

of the book, as well as the Ba-

cities

who called themselves &/>//^//7//2 or Book-men, their name as the lonim, the Arghim, the Area-

bylonian Sippara: for they,

were as much attached to

One

dim, the Thebim, the Albanim, or the Baritim.

seem

v.e

same

town of the Sepharvaim:

to recognize in the

which

as the Sippara of Berosus;

mentioned along with

cities,

second book of kings.'

Another of them we

Judah

in ancient times,

Debirwas

This then was

its

primitive

port of which

is

ceived

its

name

:

c.

'

Bochart. Phalcg.

*

Gin.

30.

lib.

i.

cities

be not the

by the author of the

Palestine, within the

find in

it

of the book?

Debir, the im-

\Vhat those books were from which

means the

city

its

it

re-

Chaldee name Kirjath-Archi.

of the archives

of the

Arkim

:

but

I

or Arkites,

am

rather

who were

c. 4. p. I'i.

Wells's Geog. of

O. Test.

part.

i.

c.

iii.

sect. 3.

§

12.

Boch. Phaleg.

lib. ii.

30. p. 144, 145, 146. '

ii.

.\.

it

but tho Israelites called

Bochart thinks, that this signifies the city it

it

are told by the writer of Joshua, that,

we may collect from

inclined to believe, that

indeed

called Kirjath-Sepher or the city

nearly similar.

appellation,

we

for

:

of these biblic

rendered probable by the names

is

of the other Babylonian

Hmits of the tribe of

if

p-

2 Kings xvii. 24.

Ptolemy

calls

it

Sippkara.

See Wells's Geog. of the Old Test. vol.

91, 92.

* Josh. XV. 25.

Pag.

See also Judg.

Idol.

i.

11, 12.

VOL.

II.

-

U

CHAP.

V.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

154 KooK

HI.

Otherwise distinguished by the

Kirjaih-Sannah or the the oriental

names of

lish 6'mw.'

I take

Sun

tion with the

it,

of the Sun:'' for

that luminary

prohable,

is

it

Sr/n,

was likewise called

It

Zan, or Zoaii, was one of

whence the Greek Zen and the Eng-

;

that the great father

and

:

city

name of Sepharim.^

was worshipped there

that

in conjunc-

the antediluvian writings were

thought to have been preserved in that town as well as in the Babylonian Sippara; for the same spirit of local appropriation, that fixed the appulse of the

Ark

to so

many

different regions,

would claim

for as

the honour of having preserved the sacred books.

Bokhara

signifies the

country of the book.

The

a part of that high mountainous

and which by the Brahmens

ru,

still

Bactrians were Scythians or Chasas tract,

is

is

cities

that the

word

said,

be the case,

If this

have no doubt that the same holy book was tion.

It

many different I

should

alluded to in the appella-

and

:

their territory

forms

which coincides with the Indian

Me-

esteemed the land both of Paradise and

of the Ark. 2.

From

these observations

we may,

I

think, venture to

conclude, that

the fable of the sacred books existed prior to the invasion of Palestine by tlie

Israelites

:

for,

they found there a

when they made themselves masters of

city,

that country,

which bore the very same appellation as the Baby-

lonian town, where the sacred writings were thought to have been deposited before the deluge; and,

since the

those writings, the presumption

wise conclude, that Berosus

is

is

one clearly received

that the other did

also.

its

name from

We may

like-

perfectly accurate in representing the fable as

known to the Babylonians from the earliest period of their history because we find, that, long previous to the days of Moses, a celebrated mountain of the east was known by the name of mount Sephar or the mountain of the :

book.

Such appellations

existence at the time

plainly refer to the fable

when they were bestowed.

*

Bochart. Plialeg.

*

Compare Josh. xv. 15. with ver. 47. Thus we read of a town called Beth-Shan, because San

^

lib.

i.

;

and therefore prove

But,

if

its

the fable be older

c. 4. p.-22.

sucb were indisputably the case.

Sun was worshipped

in its

believe, that neither Shan nor Sannah are

1 Sam. xxxi. 10. I Hebrew words any more than On ; though they haye

principal beth or temple.

or the

all

been very absurdly translated, as

if

•THE ORIGIN OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

than the time of Moses, I see not what date

we can

}55

reasonably assign to

it

except that of the apostasy at Babel.

There

3.

'

is

a curious part of the fable, as

yet remains to be accounted for

:

it is

sometimes detailed, which

and the desired explanation

be fur-

will

nished by the mythology of Egypt.

Typhon, though properly the deluge, was occasionally confounded or raw ith the god of the deluge. Hence he was sometimes pro-

ther identified

nounced the same

as Osiris,

and denominated Priapus or Peor-Jpis

hence likewise he bore another appellation, vvhich

He

was called Setk, and by that name was worshipped Egypt under the symbol of an ass.' But Seth, as a masculine title,

not belong to him. in

and

:

(strictly speakino-) did

which was variously expressed

Set,

Siton, Said, Saidi,

and Thoth, was a name of the great father was

vvhich

also variously expressed Sita,

Shittah, and Titea, this

Zeuth,

Saida, Sida,

Sidda,

From

tells us,

which properly belong

that the children of Seth

mers, and that they engraved their discoveries on two

Sidee,

title,,

Siio,

a misprision of to

have been strangely misapplied to Seth the son of Adam. have seen, Josephus

Tath,

while Setha, as a feminine

:

was a name of the great mother.

appellation, various traditions,

Soth,

the deluge,

Thus, as we

were great astronopillars in the

land of

Seriad, in order that they might escape the ravages of a deluge either of fire

and thus the Mohammedans have a notion, that some of the sacred antediluvian writings were composed by Seth. In both these legends,

or of water

:

Seth, I conceive,

is

not the son of

Thoth (as Seth was sometimes

Adam

written), to

;

Menu

but

whom

or

Xisuthrus

the sacred books

or

which

were preserved from the flood are properly ascribed. It

is

worthy of note, that Josephus further informs

us, that the pillars of

Seth were erected near mount Siderus or (as Glycas writes the word) Sidirus.

This

not a Greek name, neither has

is

ic

any thing

to

do with

iron.

Siderus or Sid-Ira was an arkite mountain, one of the high places of the great father and the great mother or of the lunar Seth and Sida

:

hence the

notion of the writings of Seth being engraved on two pillars, those primeval '

Plut.de

Isid. p.

367.

Epiph. adv. Hsr.

vol.

ii.

p. 1093.

'^"*^* ^'

156 BOOK

III.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

symbols of Thoth or Hermes, prevailed

in its

neighbourhood.

of Seth called themselves, as was usual, after the Satim, Settim, or Shittim

:

name

The

votaries

of their god,. Sethim,

and they are those children of Sheth,

for the

worshippers of the great father rightly claimed to be his descendants, the star of

Jacob was destined

to destroy or spiritually eradicate,

shoidd smite the corners of Moab.' '

Numb.

xxiv. \7,

whom

when

it

CHAPTER Pagan

accotmfs

VI.

of the deluge, as erroneously confined by local

appropriation to particular regions.

JXXany,

as

we have

seen, are the traditions of

in addition to these, the ancient

rently

more limited

cult to be

By an

description.

accounted

for,

But,

act of local appropriation not

diffi-

they have frequently confined the flood to a parti-

cular region, and have represented particular region.

an universal deluge: but,

pagans have preserved several of an appa-

when we

Noah

as a very ancient prince of that

find in various

parts of the world tales

of a local flood which at once closely resemble each other and bear a stron" general

s.iniilitude to

the flood of

Noah,

it

me more

appears to

reasonable to

conclude, that they are for the most part corrupted narratives of the

same

event, than that they really speak of local deluges posterior in point of time to the universal deluge.

Yet

it is

not impossible, that in some cases the

two may have been blended together, and that the history of the general flood may have been ingrafted upon a partial flood. It is not impossible, that the

Euxine

sea,

once a lake, may have burst

redundant waters through the

cleft

of the Bosphorus

that the Mediterranean sea may, in a similar

of cause and

effect,

have broken for

itself

have thus discharged the streams whicli

it

bounds and poured

its :

it

is

its

not impossible,,

manner, perhaps

in the

way

a passage into the ocean, and

had previously received from

the-

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

158 BOOK HI.

But, however this

Euxine.'

may

of such events have

the narratives

be,

usually been decorated with circumstances peculiar to the general deluge

which indeed was the natural and almost inevitable consequence of an ancient

method of symbolizing the Noetic

flood.

In perhaps every region of the world from Hindostan

sacred lakes, sacred tumuli, and sacred islands, were emi-

tain in the west,

The

nently venerated.

mount Ararat and often

:

lake typified the deluge

and the navicular

island,

no other than a

(I believe)

which reposed on the bosom of the

But each of

the Ark.

in the east to Bri-

wooden

large

lake,

raft

The

one

floating

covered with

was considered as a

fit

turf,

symbol of

complex nature of old my-

these, agreeably to the

thology, had a yet further reference.

the tumulus represented

:

sometimes deemed a

lake

shadowed out the

lake of Paradise, from which issued the four holy rivers.

pristine

The tumulus

hibited the mountain of Paradise, which geographically coincided with

And

land of Ararat.

The former was

the Earth.

the ancient pagans

were

the island

in idea peipetually

same ocean

;

the Microcosm,

the latter the

Megacosm, of

Earth, like the Ark, was a ship floating on the

and the mysterious vessel Argo or Argha or Theba

symbolized each

:

greater,

blended together, and were ever represented by the

The

hieroglyphics.

the

was not more a type of the Ark, than of

and these two Worlds, the smaller and the

:

ex-

indifferently

the Ark, like the Earth, was a floating world, though a

world in miniature

and the two were

;

alike typified

by the mundane egg,

the sacred circle or rotiform inclosure, the aquatic lotos, and the navicular island.

From such

luvian legends were

ideas

rushed from the

made

we may deduce to

assume.

central abyss

the form, which several of the di-

Instead of saying, that the waters

and overflowed the

shell

of the earth

;

the

hierophant taught, in the established phraseology of the Mysteries, that the lake broke

down

its

mounds, and that the island was submerged beneath

the waves.

Now

it is

obviousj that these speculations would naturally cause the his-

tory of the Noetic deluge to be attached to any flood which

'

Some such

tural

may have beeq

convulsion appears to be indicated, in the case of the Euxine, by present na-

phenomena.

See Clarke's Travels, vol.

i.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. produced by the bursting of the Euxine really

happened

;

more

especially

lake,

when we

if

159

indeed such an event ever

recollect the generally prevalent

doctrine of periodical inundations and successive similar worlds.

however

it

may

be thought, that the very converse of

the actual bursting of the

became symbols of

Perhaps

this is the truth

that

:

Euxine lake may have been the cause, why lakes

the deluge

not that the circumstance of lakes being

;

symbols of the deluge caused the history of that event to be attached to the This conjecture, though specious,

bursting of the Euxine.

We

tenable.

The

globe.

find lakes

employed

notion therefore

particular local event.

is

certainly un-

too general to have been borrowed from

a

In other words, the existence of the notion must

have been coeval with the

rise

of pagan mythology, and must have preceded

any supposed disruption of the southern bank of the Euxine it

is

to typify the flood in every quarter of the

:

consequently,

could not have originated from the bursting of that once vast lake.

In accordance then with the mystic phraseology of the hierophant,

we

are told in various ancient legends, sometimes that an island sank beneath the sea

:

sometimes that a lake broke through

neighbouring country

;

its

mounds, and overflowed the

and sometimes, by an union of the two ideas, that

the bursting of the lake was the cause of the submersion of the island.

Oc-

casionally the deluge

wa-

ters flow

is

represented as being itself universal, though

from a lake situated

in

some

particular country

:

and

it

its

may be

added, that the Greeks have various stories of partial floods not marked by

any of these

characteristics.

Since the

I.

Ark and

the Earth were equally typified by an island,

since (as

we

faith that

Europe and Asia and Africa were each an

ally expect,

learn from

Theopompus)

it

was an ancient sacred island;'

that the submersion of an island would be

article

we may

employed

and of

natur-

to describe

the submersion of the Earth at the time of the flood.

'

This matter

apud

is

said to

have been revealed to the Phrygian Midas by Silenus.

iElian. Hist. rer. var. lib.

iii.

c. 18. Virgil,

character of a mystagogue, discoursing learnedly on the wonders of deluge.

Eclog.

vi.

Theopom,

with strict propriety, exhibits Silenus in the llic

creation and the

chap.

vi.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

160 SO'JK IIT, 1

Of

.

these legends one of the most curious

is

that of the island At-

lantis.

According

country informed

was

to the lot of Neptune.

fell

man and woman, Euenor and

the dust of the earth

him ten sons.

his wife

and he espoused

:

Among

their

In

itself,

it

who sprang from only daughter Clito, who bore

name

The

to

wisdom and virtue

promote the

sixtii

:

and the

But

this original

of

were wont

its

to

;

and

its

ten provinces,

assemble

common

year alternately, to deliberate on the

fices to the gods.

:

glory and

and

he,

felicity. fertility

inhabitants were remarkable for

ten princes

interests of religion,

dominions.

his

to the island

much

was a most delightful region

and opulence were never equalled. their

it

Leucippfe,

and his posterity after him, long reigned there with for the country

which

that dtity found a

Neptune divided

these ten children

Atlas was the eldest of them, and gave his

As

Asia and

all

dividing the earth an)ong them, this vast island,

called ^tlanti.i,

single

to

of Hercules, an island larger than

pillars

The gods

Egypt, a learned priest of that

in

was once, at the entrance of the main

that there

iiini,

ocean beyond the Africa.

when Solon was

Plato,

to

in

each

anxious fifth

and

weal and to offer sacri-

purity of manners

was gradually cor-

became men of blood and rapine; and a lawless ambition instigated them to acts of violence and nggrcssion. Not satisfied with possessing a rich and beautiful country, and inflated with tlie pride of unrupteil

;

bounded

the Atlantians

they began to attempt the conquest of their neighbours.

prosperity,

First they

subdued Africa and

invaded Egypt and Greece.

triumphed over them

upon

their destruction.

inundation followed in the

by

:

it.

for

A

all

Europe as

far as

The Athenians Jupiter,

The

;

alone resisted, and in the end

enraged at their degeneracy, resolved

tremendous

eai

In one night, both

thquake took tlie

warriors

conquest of Greece, and the island Atlantis

tlje

T^ rrhenia and next they

itself,

(jiace,

and a vast

who were engaged were swallowed up

waters.

particular

Mediterranean

manner of the

sea, at that

was swelled above

its

island's

submersion was as follows.

Tiie

time a large lake w ithout any inlet into the ocean,

usual level by an extraordinary influx of the great

vers which disembogue themselves into

it.

The weight

ri-

of the waters, as-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAV IDOLATRY. sisted

by the earthquake, burst througli the

Europe and Africa

am

far as I

and by

sudden escape overwhelmed those exten-

their

aide to judge, this curious tradition sufficiently explains

Indeed even M.

itself.

which then connected

which once constituted the island Atlantis.'

sive tracts of land,

As

;

istlimiis

l6l

Bailly,

midst of his laborious attempt to

the

in

prove the Atlantians a very ancient northern people far anterior either to the

Hindoos or the Phenicians or the Egyptians,

Cosmas

Indico-Pleustes, which

additionally serve to teach us,

putable, though not exactly on the principles

The

Atlantians were

the antediluvians

in fact

a legend preserved by

who

this

Their claims to superior antiquity are indis-

really were.

primitive nation

may

cites

of the French philosophist.

and the submersion of

;

country was no other than the submersion of the old world

Noah

:

hence the

dition of

Cosmas

Atlantis,

hut that at the time of the deluge he was carried in an

rightly teaches us, that

their tra-

formerly inhabited the island

Ark

continent which has ever since been occupiec^l by his posterity.''

age of the great father was not from an imaginary island

to that

This

in the

voy-.

Atlantic

ocean to the eastern continent; but from the old world, the real island Atlantis,

to that

this opinion,-

new world which

his

now

descendants

And

inhabit.

with

whatever be the fate of the legend preserved by Cosmas, the

whole tradition respecting that supposed maritime region

will

he found

mi-

iiutely to correspond.

In the story, as

from

the earth,

it is

told

are plainly

by Plato, the primitive

Adaaj and Eve

;

while in

man and woman, sprung ttie ten children of Nep-

the ten patriarchal lords or Pituis of the Hindoos,

tune, as in

the ten antediluvian j>atriarchs through the line of Seth.

lence of the degenerate Atlantians giants: and the deluge,

that

is

recognize

lawless vio-

the lawless violence of the scriptural

overwhelms the country of the former,

deluge, that inundated the old world and swept tion of the invasion of Africa

made by

The

we

away

the latter.

is

The

the tic-

and Greece and of the successful resistance

the .Athenians has been patched to the genuine legend from a totally

different history.

Tim.

'

rUit.

''

H.iilly's Lcttrcs

Peg.

ful.

Idol.

It relates,

2'.;.

ct infra.

I believe, to those early

Su-ab. Gco!^.

lib.

ii.

p.

and violent irruptions

102.

sue rAllaiitidi-. p.SGl.

VOL.

II.

X

''"»'"•

"

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

162 BOOK

III.

Qf

tjjg

Scythic or Gothic tribes

M-hich established the dominion of the Shep-

;

Egypt, which founded

herd-kings in

the empire of the African

and wiiich planted the Chasas under the name of Atlantians

:

and they related the fortunes of

Hence

in

such very

who were

western

dift'crent

we

that

it is,

find Atlas

Nimrod

they

first

invented at

and the Atlantians so well known

quarters of the world

:

same

the

enterprizing race,

the authors of the daring apostasy in the plains of Shinar, not only

extended their empire generally over the other descendants of Noah, but wise

in

like-

a separate state planted their colonies equally in Africa, in Europe,

in Phenicia,

and

is

resemblance between

under the same

title.

his character melts

manifestations of

I

The many

the transmigrating great father.

Adam Atlas

and

Noah produced

commonly appears

or

their systematic

as the latter

;

deification

and sometimes

Menu

but here, as an antediluvian and as the

:

certainly the former.

is

We

are by no

have just observed, to confine him to Africa and the fabled

The priests of Egypt were who were of the same race

land Atlantis. the Phenicians,

as the Shepherd-kings, have con-

who

received their theology from the equally Scythic

and

Pallic Egj'ptians, claimed first

king of Arcadia

him :

is-

well acquainted m ith his history

spicuously introduced the astronomer Atlas into their mythology

been the

points of

Enoch, considered as one of the various

into that of

Buddha

of the ten Atlantians, he

means, as

Atlas himself, like

of the interior of Asia."

in various parts

Cronus and Menu,

eldest

is-

antediluvian forefathers in the

their

phraseology of those Mysteries, which under

Babylon.

in the

From these originated the whole legend of the

region of Mauritania.

land

Ethiopia,

as their

Pelasgi,

:

the Greeks,

Phenicians,

own, and reported him to have

and the Celts or Hyperboreans, who mi-

grated from Asia under a Scythic nobility and priesthood, no less asserted

him

to

have tenanted their northern country, where

cal appropriation they likewise placed

the Hesperides.' east under the '

c. 4,

He was

name of

These matters

famous

the

in the usual spirit

of

lo-

Paradisiaco-diluvian gardens of

alike in Britain

Idris or Edris or Jtri

and throughout the w hole :

and the mountain,

will hereafter be discussed at large, b. vi. c. 2. §

I,

III,

IV, V.

c. 3. §

on VI.

5.

* Sanchon.

apud Euseb. Pra;p. Evan.

-ApoUod. Bibl.lib.

ii.

c. 5. J

11.

lib.

i.

c. 10.

Dion.

Italic. .\nt.

Rom.

lib.

i.

c.

Cl.

THE ORIGIN OK PAGAN IDOLATRY.

165

which he pursued his astronomical researches, whether situated Africa or in Cashgar,

in

Wales or

in

but a transcript of the geograpliically coincident

is

mountains of Eden and Ararat.

There was another legend of an exactly similar nature respecting the

2.

island Samothrace, so

famous

for the Orgies of the Cabiric or diluvian hero-

gods.

We

are told by Diodorus Siculus, that the inhabitants of that country had

preserved an account of a great deluge, which once overwhelmed their

deemed of higher

land, and which they

was thought

It

to

have been produced by the bursting of the Euxine

which previously was a large tlie

third that

Nonnus

lake."

had taken place

same as that from which Deucalion escaped

must likewise be the flood of Noah really burst

its

it

was the very

who

considered

it

far

as being of

If then this flood was the flood of Deucalion,

the very highest antiquity.'

Euxine ever

us, that

an opinion, that accords

;

better with the legend of the Samothracians,

it

sea,

represents this deluge as being

but Tzetzes informs

:

is-

antiquity than any other local flood.

;

or at

bounds, a local

least, flootl

if

we suppose

that

the

must have been decorated

with incidents which belonged only to the general flood

:

because every part

of the history of Deucalion clearly proves his identity with the scriptural

The Greeks,

Noah.

the scene of

his

it

is

true,

claimed Deucalion for themselves, and laid

deluge and of his appulse

:

tains

he was reputed to be a Scytliian,

;

in

whole story of

his

as well as a Thcssalian

same

;

and the

escape was preserved with such a degree of accuracy by

the Hellenic Syrians of Hierapolis, as to leave the

Thessaly and on mount Par-

but he was likewise feigned to have landed on various other moun-

nassus

as that patriarch.

no room

to

doubt of

his

being

But enough has already been said respecting

this

ancient personage.

Wiien Samothrace was inundated, the hero-god preserved from destruction self,

is

said to have been

Dardanus

:

and, as the imagery of the deluge

namely the bursting of a lake and the submersion of an

borrowed from the IMysteries

'

Diod. Bibl.

*

Nonii. Dionys.

lib. v. p.

lib.

;

so likewise was the peculiar

322.

iii.

Tzetz. in Lycopli, ver. 72, 73.

island,

mode

it-

was

of his pre-

"«*'•*'•



THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRV.

164 BO"K

III.

According to Lycophron and

scrvation.

escape to the opposite shore of Asia

he made his

his scholiast Tzetzes,

a leathern coracle,

in

and

his

compared to the swimming of a wild hoar across the Danube.' these matters are devoid of signification.

Aspirants

among

voyage

is

Neither of

the

Hyperbo-

rean or Celtic tribes, whose priesthood and nobility at least seem to have

been of the same

faniilv as the

Pclasmc or Pallic or Scvthic aborigines of

Greece, were wont to be initiated into the diluvian themselves to be inclosed

in leathern coracles

arm of the sea and in make a very conspicuous figure

cross an

the Cabiric Mysteries

and thus boldly attempting

Avas the

Ark, and the former the hero-

Samothrace was celebrated

its

And

these Mysteries were

which were established among the Celtic

as those,

INInaseas, as I have already observed, informs us, that Ceres,

Proserpine, were reckoned in the

number of

;

and Artcmidorus yet more

tribes

:

for

Bacchus, and

the Samothracian Cabiri; Dio-

nysius asserts, that the Orgies of Bacchus were celebrated isles

attachment to

and as leaving the realm of the

Corybantes, when he escaped from that island.*

same

for

whence Nonnus and Lycophron represent Darda-

:

nus, as abdicating the sceptre of the Cabiri

the very

to

as sacred symbolical animals; the latter

which ship

Now

divinity of that siiip.'

by suffering

those same Orgies the boar and the sow-

:'

clearly typifying a ship

ISIvsteries

definitely declares,

in the British

that in an islet close to

Britain Ceres and Proserpine were venerated with rites similar to those of

Samothrace.'

The accuracy

of such assertions has recently been shewn in

a very curious manner by Mr. Davies from the remains of the ancient bards themselves

in rites

whence

:

and

appears, that the Druidical worship was in fact the

it

and that the

Cabiric,

gi'eat

in character

find, that tiie

mode,

in

gods of Samothrace were precisely the same both

as

which

those of Britain. tiie

Celtic

Accordingly we shall soon

Brahmens described

the flood, mi-

nutely corresponds with the legends respecting the islands Samothrace and Atlantis.

— 82.



Lycoph. Cassand.

"

Davies's Mythol. of Brit. Druids, p. 161, l6'2, \63.

'

Ibid. p. 42ff, 430.

*

Nonn. Dionys.

'

Mnas. apiid Sthol.

Strab. Geog.

vor.

72

Tzctz. in loc.

Dissert, on Cabiri, vol.

HI), iii.

in

lib. iv. p. ]<)8.

I.yc Cass. Apoll.

i.

p.

220— 224.

vor. 78.

Argon,

lib.

i.

ver.

yi7.

Dionys. Pericg. ver. 565

i>7i.

;

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. As

165

the former of these islands thus connects itself with the old Druidical

worship of Britain, on the one hand

on ihe other hand,

so,

;

it

no

les.-.

con-

nects itself with the famous tradition which details the sinking of the latter

To

island.

say nothing of the p^dpal^le similarity of the two legends, the

submersion of Atlantis by the bursting of the Mediterranean sea and submersion of Samothrace by the bursting of the Euxine

Dardanus was himself by

reinited descent an Atlantian

:

tlie

sea, the fabulous

wlience

it

will fol-

low, that, as the guds of the imaginary island beyond the pillars of Hercules

cia

;

so are they equally connected with the hero-deities of the Iliensians.

Dardanus

is

said to have been the grandson of Atlas

relationship of

may sus;

Deonaush

who was one

the

is

same

two names are no

than the two persons

less identical

naush or Danaus united

Brahmen.

deluge

There

is

Arcadia, the

in

in

composition with

in

the identical

We

Deonaush or Dionu-

who was an

for

:

Dam,

is

and British Atlas.

as

of the Samothracian Cabiri, and

on the sea inclosed

which

;

to Atri or Idris, the oriental

conclude therefore, that Dardanus

lieved to have been set afloat

or

Greece, and Pheni-

with the gods of Egypt,

are immediately connected

ark.

similarly be-

In

fact,

the

Dar-Danus is Deosignifies a Druid

which

a story, that Dardanus had already escaped from a

fictitious

kingdom of

This however

to that in Samothrace.'

is

his grandfather Atlas,

previous

a mere local reduplication of the

Since Dardanus escaped from the universal deluge of Deuca-

same

event.

lion,

and since Deucalion alone escaped from that deluge, Dardanus must

be the same as Deucalion under a different name

be

Noah

:

in other words,

he must

a conclusion exactly agreeing with that, which recently identified

;

him with Deonaush, Dionusus, and Danaus. deed of Dardanus

is

the early Trojan kings,

purely mythological

and, in the

:

pretended line of

the Egyptian, the Phenician, the Grecian, the Italian, the Celtic, and

The

Indo-Scythic, superstitions.

Samothrace, and Troas,

dia,

is

;

Ilus

and Assaracus Rom.

'

Dionys.

*

Tzctz. in Lycoph. vir. 29.

llalic.

Ant.

;

lib.

as follows

Laomedon i.

c.

the

descent of this fabulous prince of Arca-

teemed a Pleiad or mystic arkite dove

Tros

in-

easy to trace the connection of the Atlantian,

is

it

The whole genealogy

:

Atlas

Dardanus

;

;

Priam.'

6\.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib. iii. c.

11.

;

;

Electra, Ilus

Now,

who was

es-

and Erichthonius as

we have

already

«^"*''-

*'

THE ORIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY.

]66 BOOK

III.

was celebrated throughout the whole world

seen, Atlas

even by name, both the north of

in the island Atlantis,

Europe among the Hyperborean

though she bore Dardanus to Jupiter, by

ritus king of Hetruria,

This Jasion

sion.

nus

in

whom

fabled,

is

in

is

and

in Phenicia,

Arcadia,

in

and was placed,

;

His daughter Electra,

Celts.

been the wife of Co-

said to have

she was also the mother of Jasius or Ja-

one legend, to have been

by Darda-

slain

whence he migrated

Italy;

Samothrace, and

to

But, in

afterwards synchronically with the flood of Deucalion to Troas. others,

who

a quarrel respecting the succession to the kingdom of Hetruria,

was thereupon banished from he

represented, as the

is

of Cybelfe or the great mother great mother, of Plutus,

Firmicus)

is

the

equally the

(according to Cicero, Fulgentius,

and Julius

the infernal

Osiris

of the

as the father

;

as having been struck with lightning for attempting the

and yet

chastity of Ceres, first

;

as the consort

;

who

as the parent by Ceres,

same as Pluto or

Samothracian Cabiri

and as the

own brother of Dardanus

is

;

who

in

husband of that goddess

the favourite and

as

as translated to heaven

agriculturist;

and as the

;

father-in-

law of the Cilician Theba or the Ark, in consequence of her allegorical

As

nuptials with his son Corybas.'

conducted by a cow to the

scite

for Ilus,

there

a legend of

is

his

being

of Ilium so precisely resembling the legend

of the foundation of the Bcotian Thebes by Cadmus, that

doubt of their origination from a

common

it is

impossible to

Tliat source, so far as

source.*

the Greeks and Ilicnsians are concerned, was probably Phenicia and Egypt:

both because

Cadmus

brought from each of those countries into Beotia;

is

because in Egypt and Syria a cow was called Tkcba, the

Ark

;

and

cording to '

Sanchoniatho)

Virg. /Encicl.

V. p.

323, 31-3.

lib.

dto«-. lib.

ii.

story

vcr.

Strab. Gcog.

c. 2().

in Lycopli. ver. 29-

who

iii.

.AiJKn. Dtipnos.

lib. V.

lib.

l63

as

being a symbol of

— 170.

lib. vii. p.

xiii. p.

566.

Fulgcn. Mythol.

The

Cronus, and the brother of that very Atlas

Cilician

lib.

Scrv. in loc. Conon. Narrat.

331.

C'li'in.

Schol. i.

in

Thcoc.

c. 4. Jul.

Thcba was

fundamentally the same

Bibi. lib.

Nonni Dionys.

Idyll, x. ver. 19.

Cicer. de nat.

Cohort,

p.

Firm, de error, prof.

rcl. p.

IJ. Tactz.

the daughter of Cilix the brother of it

in both cases;

and one character

Apollod. Bibl.

lib. iii. c. 11.

name of Theha. *Tzetz. in Lycoph. ver. 29.

x.\i. Dior].

21.

Alex.

himself founded the Beotian Thebes, being conducted to is

aa-

because Ilus was himself a Phenician deity, the same (ac-

J 3.

by a 1 heba or is

set forth to

Cadmus,

heifer.

The

us under the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

whom

the

Greek

remote progenitor.'

fable exhibits as his

The male

Hindostan, both as a mascuHne and a feminine name. the great mother.

is

But we are not

Ila occurs in the mytliolojiy of

to confine Ilus either to Phciiicia or Troas.

great father; and the female Ila

167

11a

is

the

Tlie latter was the

who m as preserved Her name, as I have

daughter and wife of Ila or Buddha or INIenu-Satyavrata, an ark from the waters of an universal deluge.

in

elsewhere observed, denotes the JVoiid the Earth and the

Ark

she w as at once a personification of

and the imaginary circle of

:

"the Paradisiaco-diluvian

:

Meru,

whicii

on the summit of

hills

was copied by the circular temples of

the Druids and which equally represented the Microcosm and the IVIcoracosm

of old mythology, was termed from her Ida-vratta or Ila-vratta, that say,

Hence

the circle of Ila.

Hindoo

arkite gods

both of Ilium and of

alike

whole

short of the early :

Olympus

is

to

or Ilapu of the

its

reputed founder Ilus were

from the Mysteries of Ila or Theba or the bovine Ark.

borrowed

mythological

the

so was Ida, itself denominated Olympus, of the Ilien-

;

sian:' and the names

in

Meru was

as

history of the Iliensians can only be

and the true key to the interpretation of

it is

The

deemed

afforded by the

legend of Dardanus and the Samothracian deluge. 3.

island

Sometimes we ;

because a

city,

the sacred circle of the

Meru uas

submersion of a city substituted for that of an

find the

surrounded by a wall, was equally deemed typical of

World: hence the fabled

likewise called either the

citi/

circle of Ila

of Ila or the

city

on the summit of

of Brahma ; and

hence the Druids indifferently used the word Caer to describe both a city and the inclosure

of

Sidi or Stonehenge.

manner or another, connected

Still

either with

however

it

is

usually, in

some

an inundated island or with an

inundating lake.

Of cities,

such a nature

w liich bore

is

this

the

Greek legend of Orchomenus.

name

:

This, along with

some other towns, was thought

by a flood

time of Cecrops

in the

There were four

and the most ancient w as styled Miiiyean.

:

to

have been swallowed up

and a pool or chabm was shewn near the

'

Euseb. Praep. E\an.

*

Strab. Geog. lib. x. p. 470.

'

Strab. Gcog. lib. viii. p. 338. lib. ix. p. 4l6. Plin. Nat. Hijt.

lib.

i.

'

c. 10.

lib. iv.

c. X.

c"*'"-^"-

THE

168

more modern town of been

and

lost,

The

into

ORlCirX

OF PAGAN IDOLATUr.

same name,

the

which the

which the waters were said to have

in

river IMelas

still

continued to empty

v\hole connection of the present legend sufiiciently shews,

Orchomenus, from whom the submerged

orisiiuated.

have received

its

name,

was thought

city

Lycaon, whose daring wickedness produced the general deluge.

which occurred

in

whence

it

to

by the Greeks to have been the son of that

said

is

itself.'

the days of

Orchomenus and

was the same as that of Deucalion

consequently,

:'

This

his brother it

delu"-c,

Nuctimus,

was the same as that

Dardanus escaped, when Samothracc was inundated by the Orchomenus is fmther said to be the supposed eruption of the Euxinc.

from which

father of IVlinyas, the general progenitor of the

Tzetzes

tells us,

is

no difference

Argo

ship

is

;

the

Mlnyean.^

danus and Deucalion,

Ark

evidently,

is

same

him as a countryman of

own

their

:

history of the

common

appellations of

Dar-

as appears from every circumstance of

The Greeks

patriarch. ;

but

and the fabulous Argonauts

as well as his imagined contemporaries

himself,

no other than the

his legend,

The

they both relate to the deluge.

a perverted history of the

Orchomenus

:

the city

In the import of these two traditions

were called Minyce from Menu, one of the most

Noah.

came from

that they were so called, because they

Orchomenus sirnamed there

Minyce or Argonauts

indeed claimed

and pretended, that the

city whicli lie

founded was swallowed up by a flood: hence, as was their custom, they so

name as to give it an Hellenic aspect. logical Orchomenus himself, r.or yet (a^ we may Nonnus tells appellation, was of Greek original. modified his

But neither the mythotherefore conclude) his us,

that he

was a Pheni-

cian (consequently an Indo-Scythic) deity; that he was coeval with Tetliys

and Oceanus; and that he was worship[;ed on mount Lebanon tion with a

Star.

nvmph Bcroe, '

He

also describes

the Beruth

of

iiiiilst

iii;;

w-alcrs of

llif

conjunc-

him as being contemporary with the

of Sanchoniatho, and the

Buris or

Argo of

Liician mi-ntions a similar tradition respicting a

Sliah. Gcoc. lib. ix. p. 407.

the

in

Icmple of tho Syrian gndrlcss, which was supposed

to

have

thasm

Deucalion's flood.

*

Apollod. Bibl.

'

Anton. Liber. Metani.

lib. iii.c. S. c. x.

f

1,

2.

Ovid. Mctam.

Apoll. Argon,

lib.

i."

lib.

vcr.

i.

229. Tzctz.

in

in

rco.'ivfd the rclif-

Lycoph.

ver.

874.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN' IDOLATKY. From Phenicia

Egypt.'

16y

legend and his

therefore both his

name must

have been brought into Greece, most prol)abIy by the Cadinonitcs and the

Hermonites; as they were originally brought into Phenicia from the Indian

He

Caucasus by the Cuthic ancestors of the Plienicians.

seems to have

been the same as Remphan, Chiun, or Saturn; whose star was so famous

and

oriental mythology:

I

take him to have been the corresponding male

whom

divinity to Astoreth or Astartfe;

a

and who

star,

in fact is

in

Sanchoniatho similarly connects with

no other than Beroe

or Theba.

oi Baris

Mount

Lebanon, as the name imports, was one of the sacred mountains of Lebanah or the j\Ioon

but

:

Moon was

symbolical

this

Ark

the

under the hieroglyphic of the navicular lunette

elevated to the sphere

and Lebanon, where

;

it

was

worshipped, was a copy of that Armenian mountain, on which the Ark rested after

Orchomenus,

the deluge.

at the era of Deucalion's flood,

whom

in short,

was Noah

:

and

the Greeks rightly placed

name,

his

I apprehend,

pronounced by the Phenicians of Lebanon, just as they received Indo-Scythic ancestors, Orcha-Afenu or

Menu Ila

which

;

Ila

of

the is

He was

Argha.

name

a

the

Argha-Menu

same

Menu and

of exactly similar import, for

upon the ocean

Argha

Thus

it

is

it

from their

which denotes

Argh-

the masculine

This personage the Greeks styled Heracles, and the Latins

were one.

the ship

title,

as their maritime Arcles or

Hercules, though without forgetting his real character to have sailed

;

a

was

the

in

one of

;

for they

supposed him

tliose large navicular cups,

which from

Hindoos denominate Arghas.''

easy to discern the import of the tradition, respecting the sup-

Orchomenus and

posed submersion of the ancient

city

near the more modern

name.

city of that

But

it

is

the lake or

chasm

worthy of notice,

the legend goes on to introduce the inundation of an island.

A

that

certain

wicked race of men, denominated Phlegyce, are said to have anciently come out of the land of Minyas and in the pride of their heart to have quitted city of

They

Orchomenus.

Neptune, enraged at

afiervvards

their impiety,

settled in

an island

:

tiie

and at length

overwhelmed them with the waters of the

sea.'

'

Nonni Dionys.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

c. 5. '

lib. xli.

lib. v. c.

21.

Allien. Deipno-. lib. xi. p.

iGp.

ApoUo'd. Bibl.

# 10.

Paus. Baot. p. 597- Nonni Dionys.

Pag.

Idol.

lib. xviii.

VOL.

II.

Y

lib.

ii.

'^"•"•'^'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

170 4.

Stories of a similar description entered largely into the

old Celtic Druids

and traditions of the submersion of

:

various lakes of the country are

The in

which ancient

cities

is

Llyn Savaddan

in Brecknockshire.

ginary formation

is

cities

beneath the

current throughout the whole of Wales.

still

Camden mentions

annotator upon

mythology of the

the

names of no

less

are reported to have been drowned.

To

not forgotten: and

this

it is

than six lakes,

One

'

of these

day the old legend of

its

ima-

most curiously and deeply tinged

with the mythological notions of other times, which prevailed over so large

Some

a portion of the globe. the

of

its

as related by an old

incidents,

man

in

town of Hay, are thus detailed by Mr. Davies.

The

scite

of the present lake was fonnerlxf occupied by a large

city

;

but

the inhabitants xvere reported to be very wicked.

The king of the country

sent his servant to examine into the truth

this

rumour, adding a threat,

that, in case it should prove to be wellfounded, he

would destroy the place as

an example

of

The minister arrived

to his other subjects.

evening.

Not

ing in excess.

in the

one of them regarded the stranger, or offered him the

of hospitality. At last he saw the open door of a mean which he entered. The family had deserted it to repair to rites

mult, all but one infant, xvho lay weeping in the cradle. sat

town

at the

All the inhabitants were engaged in riotous festivity and wallow-

down by the

side

of

habitation, into

the scene

of tu-

The royalfavourite

this cradle; soothed the little innocent;

and

zvas

grieved at the thought, that he must perish in the destruction of his abando?ied

In

neighbours.

this situation the

stranger passed the night

:

and, whilst

he was diverting the child, he accidentally dropped his glove into the cradle.

The next morning he departed tidings to the king.

He had

before

but just

it

zcas light, to

left the tfftvn,

carry his melancholy

when he heard a

noise

behind him like a tremendous crack of thunder mixed zvith dismal shrieks

and lamentations. of

zvavcs

:

He

stopped

and presently

happened, as

it

for

his gloves

;

dead

silence.

was dark, and he felt no

so he pursued his journey

till

Noxo

to listen.

all zvas

sun-rise.

it

sounded

He

like

the dashing

could not see what had

inclination to

return into the city

The morning was

cold.

:

He searched

and, finding but one of them, he presently recollected where '

Gibson's Camden,

ceil.

706.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY. he had

He

These gloves had been a present from his sovereign.

the other.

left

171

determined to return for that, which he had

IVhen he was

beJiind.

left

come near to thescite of the town, he observed nith surprise that none of the buildings had presented themselves to his view as on the preceding day. He advanced a few

was gazing middle

of'

had

at this novel

and

terrifc scene,

it

JVhilst he

lake.

he remai^ked a

The wind gently wafted

the zvater.

As

he stood.

The whole plain was covered with a

steps.

spot in the

little

towards the bank whei-e

drezv near, he recognized the identical cradle, in which he

it

His joy on receiving

left his glove.

heightened by the discovery, that the

ed the shore alive and unhurt.

He

this pledge

little

object

of

of royaljavour was only his compassion

had reach-

carried the infant to the king ; and told

him, that this zvas all which he had been able to save out of that wretched '

place.

Mr. Davies remarks, of one of those

tales,

that this nan'ative evidently contains the substance

which are called Mabinogion, that

instruction of youth in the principles of Bardic mythology

tales

is, :

and

it

for

the

seems

to

and impressive commemoration of the destruction of I think him perfectly in tlic a profligate race by the waters of the deluge.

havefor

right

for,

:

fiction

its

;

object a local

in all countries,

servation.

hall,

has at length found refuge

But the preceding legend deserves more than

in the nursery.

in

mythology has been the substratum of romantic

which, gradually banished from the

In

it

we

rious to note,

birth

how

The

from the great universal mother,

as an infant

:

and, as the

sions, that the

egress from the

Noah was

Ark was deemed

dying to the antediluvian world, so

was viewed as born

It

faithfully this ancient mythological idea has

to the present age.

it

ob-

an infant floating

find the great patriarch, represented as

a cradle or small ark on the waters of an inundating lake.

down even

this single

is

most cu-

been handed

Ark being esteemed a

thence naturally considered

his coffin

when he was viewed

as

was equally deemed his cradle when he

into the postdiluvian world.

It

was under such impres-

Egyptians represented the god Helius, or

Noah

elevated to

the solar orb, as an infant sitting in the calix of the aquatic lotos, which by

them

as well

as by the

'

Hindoos was thought an apt symbol of the ship

.Mythol.

ot"

r>rit.

Druids, p. 146,

147.

'

TH£ ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

172

Argha:"

and

it

was under similar impressions, that the Druids of Britain

composed the preceding

The

5.

fable.

destruction tlien of the old world by the deluge being represented

under the image, either of an island or a

a lake

and

;

Dead

tire

:

it

Sea, would be considered by those

The

all

it

was from

righteous

Noah The

vale

the

production of the

floods, general

cities

of the plain

resemblance, as

this

and who

lived

or

particidar,

are equally denominated by the

Abraham, who was the tenth

after the creation,

as

of which

I

is

tlie

Hindoos

antediluvian

pointed out by Christ himself:

have already observed, that the

after the flood as

Noah was

contemporaneously with the

the tenth

latter

pralaya

did with the former, was called by the Phenicians Ilus or Cronus.

very names of Sodom or

Sedam and of Siddim or Seddim,

as the

was heretofore called which now forms the bed of the asphaltite

mode

serve to point out the

subverted

have

easy to perceive, in what

close analogy between the destruction of

world and that of the

and

is

to

whose mythology was eminently

;

founded on the doctrine of a succession of igneous or aqueous,

commonly supposed

Sodom and Gomorrha, and

overthrow of

Pralaya.

inundated or swallowed up, by

that destruction being likewise very

been partly effected by the agency of light the

city,

cities.

The

lake,

of idolatrous worship which prevailed in the of them venerated the great father and

inhabitants

the sreat mother under the titles of

Sed or Seth and Siddi or Sila

from the plural form of the word Siddim,

we may

collect,

:

and,

that they adored

the hero-gods generally under the appellation of Siddim, as others did under tliose

They

of Baalim or Titans or Cabiri.

ol)scenities,

which prevailed

in the

greedily adopted

all

the gross

worship of Seth or Baal-Pcor: and to

these they added those last abominations, which

were religiously practised

consequence of the doctrine, that inseparably united the great generative

in

father

and the great generative mother

hermaphroditic parent. '

'

in

the single character of the great

This compound being, at once the male and female

Pint, de Isid. p. 355.

26—30.

^

Liikuxvii.

'

The occurrence of

the

title

Sid or Set, Sida or Sita, in so

many

different regions of the

globe, as an appellation either of the great father or the great mother or the androgynous divinity

composed by

the vinion of the two,

seems

to indicate the

very high antiquity of

its

ORIGIN or VAGAN IDOLATKY.

THf.

Zeus of the Orphic theology and

principle of the Universe, the arrhenothelyc tlie

173

Ardha-nari of the Hindoos, was practically served by

such a manner as they deemed most consentaneous to his fabled cha-

ries in

racter; an awful instance of the

may

wretched vota-

his

when he

sink,

own

prefers his

man

deep depravity into which speculative

inventions to the pure behests of revela-

tion.

ori"in it

will be

As

unless

for,

:

no easy

we suppose

account

iniittcr to

we

import.

He

bignifies

a Jish

Justin at once mentions that Sidon

tells us,

and to

:

this

this is

and gives us what

it

it.

both in protimc and

have no doubt was

I

or Said-On.

The

is

plainly the

historian fancies, that

its

lib. xviii.

c.

a mere gloss of his own, which the curious fragment of Sanchoniatho

That

ently proves to be erroneous.

writer informs us, that

first

received

it

which was caught there (Just. Hist. Phil.

fish

real

its

the Phenician language

in

day the city bears the name of Said, which

appellation from the abundance of

but

it,

a frequent reference to

was so called from Sidun which

compound word Sid-On

half of the

find

from Babel,

to the dispersion

almost universal adoption of

for tlic

previiiling througliout Palestine,

sacred writers.

3.):

have been used even prior

to

it

suffici-

Dagon, so highly

the fish-god

venerated by the Scythic Philistim and their brethren the Phenicians, was likewise called Sitoa

:

and he adds, that

i.

dance of

fish

lation: and

submerged

thought to

named

was from the similar worship of the hermaphroditic

cities

es-

have been born out of the sea (Euseb. Pra'p. Evan,

viewed as an article of food, that the city of Sidon received

it

who was

Sidon,

was from the god and goddess Siton or Sidon then, not from the abun-

It

10.).

c.

people also worshipped a goddess

who was

teemed a mermaid, and lib.

this

of the plain borrowed

its

cognate

name

of

of the sea, Sidon was sometimes adored under the feminine

distinctive appel-

its

Sodom or Sedom.

title

one of the

fish-god, that

As

a goddess

Hence we

of Saida or Sitta.

read of the towns of Bcth-Saida and Beth-Sitta; each of which, like Beth-Dagon or Beth-

BaaJ, certainlj received

So

vii. 22.).

tion of

its

name from a

belh or temple of the fish-goddess (Matt.

Sad or Sid

or Sit, the younger hero-gods with their great [uuent

venerated under the plural

or Sid, just as Baalim

title

of Sadim or Siddim

(Deut. xxxii. l6, 17.

;

h formed from Baal. Sadim, who are represented Psalm

cvi.

Moab where

find

distinctly points out to us

llie

8.);

and hence,

(Numb. xxv.

1.

This

xxxiii. 49-).

it is

nature of these Sittim or Baalim.

alluded

to

Sad

last

by the Psalmist

in

in

the

we meet

remarkable

ylbcl-Sittim denotes

and that mourning was the same as the mourning

Accordingly,

head were

a sacred vale of the Siddim, in

the impure rites of Sclh or Baal-lVor eminently prevailed,

the mourning of the Sittim: Osiris or Adonis.

their

the singular

as being the false gods of the Canaanitcs

35—38.): hence we

with a place called Sittim or Abil-Sittim

compound

21. Judg.

the idolatrous Israelites sacri-

immediate neighbourhood of Sodom and Gomorrha (Gen. xiv.

plains of

lit

name formed from

a

Hence we read of

ficing their children to the

the

.\i.

again, as the principal hermaphroditic hero-god was wori^hipped by the appella-

for the

the account,

dead

which he

ClIAF. \l.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

174 BOOK

III.

who appear

peculiar punishment of the abandoned Sodomites,

'pi^g

have

to

carried their religious enormities to a greater length than their brethren in any

other part of the world, was not, I apprehend, aibitrarily selected by the

Supreme Being

of the doleful though lascivious Orgies of the principal Sit divinity Baal-Pcor:

gives us,

The

original word,

translated

apostates eat were the offerings

during

this part

his seven If

made

Me

dead,

to the

in

is

of the ceremony, that mourning took place for the ark-inclosed Osiris and

Typhon, who

Osiris

adv. hsr.

lib. iii. p.

Dagon

:

was called

who was worshipped

and the Isis or Neith,

by the feminine name of Saida

used in the same

Baal-Peor,

(Plut. de Isid.

p.

at Sais or

Epiph.

367, 375.

1093.).

we next proceed

to India, still the

same

was likewise called

of the Philistim

Thibet yet bears the

Se(h

find the title

blends himself with Osiris and

ultimately

was denominated Sothi

Said, was distinguished

If

what the

so that

dead Sadim or mystically defunct hero-gods; and,

from Palestine we pass into Egypt, we shall again

:

number:

plural

the

companions, which gave occasion for the name o( Abel-Sittim.

manner. Set/i

he

that the Israelites, while celebrating them, cat the oflFerings of the dead (Psalm cvi.

tells us,

28.).

but was chosen, as speciality testifying his abhorrence of

;

title

of Sati

:

title will

Sit on

so

;

present itself to our notice.

Dae

the

as the Derccto of the Syrians

sea-nymph Sidon or Sitta; so the Durga or

of Hindostan

Isi

womb

Sita or Sati, as comprehending within her

As

the

of their Cuihic brethren in

was worshipped described by

is

as the

also,

the

name

the whole family of the hero-gnds

of

and,

:

were by the Canaanites denominated Sirfrftm; so the

as the mystically

dead arkitc

spirits of deified

mortals are by the Buddhists of the sect of Jain yet styled Siddhas (La

Croze p. 491. Asiat. Res.

we

If

father

divinities

vol. vi. p.

X77

.

vol. ix. p.

return step by step to the utmost

280.

Moor's Hind. Panth.

we

limits of the west,

p.

107, lOS.).

shall equally find the great

The

and the great mother venerated under the same ancient appellation.

consort of the

god Belus, the Bali of Hindostan, the Bel of Babylon, and the Baal of Palestine, have been called Sida

;

in other words, she

goddess

who was worshipped

synt.

c. 4.

ii.

p. 220.):

at Beth-Saida

is

said to have borne the identical

and Beth-Sitta (Cedren. apud Seld. de

the primeval king and father of the

lib. vii. c.

was revered by the the

title

122.

Lycoph. Cass.

of Sitn

ver.

583, I161.):

(Athen. Deipnos.

lib. iii.)

:

the Ceres

Hu

and the

(if

said to

lib. vii.

5j///jn,

ver. 4,66.

the Syracusians

and the Ceridwen of

Druids were known also under the appellations of Saidi and Sidi (Davies's Mythol.

197, 199,

2J.2,

their

p.

292, 557.).

In all these cases, father

the

diis Syr.

Gothic Thracians was

whence the whole region of Thrace was denominated Sithonia (Ovid. Met. Herod. Hist.

is

name of

we

find

the

same persons venerated under

and the great mother were viewed

as

the

same names.

a merman and a mermaid

emblematical forms, they were distinguished by

titles

;

which,

Cuthic Phenicians, the descendants of those Nimrodian Cutliim who into the postdiluvian world, denoted,

we are

told,

a fish.

:

The

great

hence, in allusion to

in the old dialect first

of the

introduced idolatry

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. tliat

idolatry, whicli originated

every quarter of the globe.

Babel and which thence diffused

at

As

and of water

fire

own

system, as

was

and as they impurely

;

by the agency of which the world was

principle,

thought to be firom time to time regenerated their

itself to

they were devoted to those Mysteries, which

taught a succession of floods both of

venerated that twofold

175

:

they were so far punished upon

God

consistent with the oath of

not be again destroyed by a deluge of water

that the earth should

an oath, the more carefully

;

recorded by Moses, as directly contradicting the fundamental theory of Pa-

A

ganism.

flood of liquid fire inundated their cities

hadstood, became a spacious inland sea

the plain, where they

:

and, instead of anv

:

happy renova-

tion being accomplished by the two fructifying principles, a once

the garden of Paradise,

fertile as

w as

'

fertile land,

visited with the curse of perpetual

sterility.

Agreeably

to these remarks,

the lake of

symbol of the deluge by the neighbouring

we may

Sodom

Avas

This, if I mistake not,

idolaters.

As

gather from various particulars.

viewed as an eminent

the waters of the flood were

fabled to be of a poisonous nature, as lakes were esteemed natural hieroglyphics of the flood, and as the dove sent

any resting place typical lakes.

;

out by

Noah was

a notion arose, that no birds could

fly

unable

over the sacred

Such was the idea entertained of the lake Avernus, near

which there was supposed to be a passage to the infernal regions

was the idea entertained of many of the cisely the

same mythological

This inference

will

fiction respecting the

to

it.

such also

there was prcr

potency of the

Dead Sea

have originated from the same

if

or Acherusian pool of the Canaanites and their neighbours

was the sacred river of their theology

:

we attend to the peculiarities The Dead Sea was the Avernus

be strengthened,

of the principal river which flows into

Now

British lakes.

which may therefore be reasonably inferred cause.

to find

:

and the Jordan

just as the Styx, the Nile, tiie

;

Ganges,

the Euphrates, the Po, or the Danube, were the sacred streams of the

Hence

theological system, as professed in other countries.

of mountains, from which tain of the

Moon

:

it

springs,

the country,

'

bore

tiie

name

through which Gen,

xiii.

10.

of

same

the lofty range

Lebanon or the moun-

it first

flows,

was denomi-

CHAP.

\i.

:

THE ORIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

17G nooK

III.

Argob

nated near

its

which

;

hind of the serpent god of the Jrgfiu

signifies the

source, and skirting

of the Cadinouites, was

territory

tiie

Herinon; so called from Hermes or Ilermaya, one of the or Menu, as

Buddha

of

C'adnionites received their appellation from Cadtim or Co-

tlic

dom, another

titles

mount

title

same

of the

and the

deity:

river itself

was designated by a

name, which denotes the river of Dauaus or Deonaush

;

agreeably to

Indo-Scythic legend, that Deonaush travelled over the vvhole world,

communicated

his title to all the principal rivers

tlie

and

both of Europe and of Asia

and of Airica.'

The proper and complete form

II.

considering,

have been

we

of the traditions which

now

are

a form borrowed from the language of the Mysteries, I take to

this

a lake or inland sea bursts

:

its

bounds and overfioxvs an

islatid;

by which was shadowed out the eruption of the waters of the abyss, and the But, as a city was sometimes substi-

consequent submersion of the earth. tuted for an island, so the sea itself

is

occasionally substituted for the lake

and there are instances again, in which the bursting of a lake

is

have

said to

produced a general deluge or a particular inundation, while no mention

made of the sinking of an island. 1. One of these stories I have nection with

We

danus. llic

already had occasion to notice from

Orchomcnus and thence with

its

the flood of Deucalion and

Nonnus, that formerly a

are told by

:

is

con-

Dar-

certain island inhabited

by

impious Phlegyas was violently torn up from the roots by the marine

and plunged with

deity Neptune,

the sea.

*

If

we

waves of

these Phlegjas were, we are informed that they

who

inquire

vvhole population beneath the

its

were a branch of the Minyas or Orchomenians, and that they had separated themselves from their brethren selves,

through a

mad

:

in other

words, they had separated them-

fool-hardiness, from those

more righteous Minya; or

children of Menu, w ho were the navigators of the sacred ship Argo.

'

Jor-Dan, or the river of Dan,

is

'

a word of ihe same origin as Dnnavi or Danube,

After Tanu'is,

Tunis by which appellation one of the outlets of the Nile was distinguished, and Eri-Dan

which the

signifies the

lunar Dan.

town of Dan received

Abraham, long

It

was from

appellation.

its

biforc the patriarch

*

Nonni Dionys.

lib. xviii.

'

I'aus. Baeot. p.

597-

this

Dan, not from the patriarch so

Accordingly,

Dan was

born.

it

is

mentioned even

Sec Gen. xiv. 14.

called, that

in the

days of

THE OUTGIV OF PAGAN IDOLATRr. while

this separation,

in that

Argo or Argha

some of the Minyae were whicli (according to the

the waves of the universal deluge

name

safely wafted over the

Hindoo mythology)

others of them,

;

177

who bore

deep

on

floated

the additional

of Phkgyce, were suddenly overwhelmed by the waters on account of

Such a legend, so

their Mickedness.

far as I

can judge, sufficiently explains

itself.

As

the supposed father of the Phlegyae, he

for Phlcgyas,

is said by the have been the son of !Mars and Chrysa the Beotian, who was the We learn however from Phavorinus, that he was not daughter of Almus.

Greeks

to

'

a Greek, but an Ethiopian or Cuthite

;

and that he and another personage,

called Mitliras, were chiefly instrumental in introducing that mystic worship

of the gods which

commenced

in

Ethiopia or the land of Cush.

This fable

'

merely serves to shew, that the Cabiric Orgies originated from that widespreading family die Cushim of Nimrod, or (as the Hindoos

The

Cliasas or Chusas. celebrated, is

was the Asiatic, not the African, Ethiopia.

denoniinattd Ciisha-clxvip

or Cusha dwip

The

very

that

we must

:

and

them) the

the

it

first

Hindoos

African

it

Cusha

included Babel and the whole laud of Shinar. the

companion of Phlegyas, teaches

us,

look, not to Africa, hut to Asia, for the origination of the

If ever there

were

from the pretended

Brahmens or

By

ziithin, in contradistinction to the

name indeed of Mithras,

Mysteries. distinct

xvithoiii

call

Ethiopia, within the limits of which they were

INIagi

;

literally

first

such persons as Phlegyas and Mithras,

hierophant Noah, they were most probably

the latter of

JMithras, agreeably to a practice

great father and the great mother.

whom had assumed the very common among the

title

of

liis

god

votaries of the

Phlegyas himself appears to have been a

character sustained in the celebration of the Mysteries, which was designed to represent that of the great preacher of righteousness.

His

office

was

gravely to admonish the initiated, that they should practise justice and venerate the gods.

Virgil accordingly ascribes this function to

'

Paus. Baeot. p. 597.

*

Phavor. apud Stcpli. Byzant. de Urb. p. 6o.

Pag.

Idol.

Apoll. Bibl.

lib.

iii.

VOL.

c. 5,

II.

him

in

that part

§ 5.

Z

c"*^'--*»-

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

178

of the Eneid, which has been thought, and (I behove) rightly thouglit, to

shadow out the ancient

]\Iysteries.

Tlie connection of the Ethiopian Phlegyas with the Mithratic Orgies and

thence with the deluge

is

intimated not obscurely, both by his special union

with Mithras or a priest of Mithras, and by a circumstance

which the Greeks have preserved and related

The raven

accused her of

falsely

a fit of jealousy

infidelity

This fable

misrepresentation.'

Mysteries.

Mithras of the Persians both

;

upon which the god slew her

in

way

The :

of punishment for his malicious

Apollo of the Greeks was the solar

solar

the raven

was esteemed equally sacred

to

them

were from that bird denominated ravens

Yet, in allusion to the circumstances which preceded

and holy ravtns.^ the egress of

Coro-

wholly founded on a perversion of a

is

priests of ISIithras

and certain

:

own manner.

but, afterwards discovering his error, he changed the colour

:

of the raven from white to black by

part of the

history

was the motlier of Esculapius by Apollo.

the daughter of Phlegyas,

nis,

after their

in his

Noah from

the

Ark, the raven, though a sacred

bad news

ill-omened carrier of

ever esteemed an

:

while the

was

bird,

dove, from

was reckoned

which the arkite priestesses were themselves called doves, highly propitious.*

With

and the whole both of

He

deluge.

Baris

On

:

his

:

was a Phenician or Indo-Scythic

respect to Esculapius, he his

history

was worshipped

and genealogy

in BerytuS;

relates

vian hero-gods,

Bacchus, he was

whom

the

I

understand /Eneid.

inc to be the monitor:

Phlegyae; and

for

why should

lib. vi. ver.

why

:

Apoll. Bibl.

^

Coraces and Hierocoraces.

Mythol.

vol.

Herod,

^

i.

lib. iii. c.

p.

lib. ii.

6l8, 619.

man

;

whence San-

Phlegyas, not Theseus, clearly seems to

should Theseus, rather than any other person, admonish the ?

10. § 3.

289. c.

Da-

and he was esteemed the youngest

the Pblegyae, already condemned, be fruitlessly admonished

*

solar

Phenicians called Astarle or Jstoreth, by

of the Cabiric ogdoad, and the son of Sydyk or the just So

circle of the

beloved by the great mother of the dilu-

niascius written hellenistically Asironoe

'

:

so called from the ship Barit or

mother Coronis was the Cor or sacred arkite

like Attis or

deity

immediately to the

54—57.

Myrsii. apud Antig. Caryst. Mirah. Hist.

c. xvii.

Banier's

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY. choniatho informs

Thus

way

every

in

us, is

that he

179

was denominated Esmuni or the eighth.

'

the submersion of the Phlegyan isle connected with the

deluge. 2.

Nor

is

mode

such a

fined to the west

of describing the ruin of the primitive world con-

the Chinese relate,

:

a very similar manner, the preser-

in

vation of the virtuous Peiruun and the sinking of the island Alaurigasima,

which may well be styled the Atlantis of the eastern hemisphere.

Maurigasima, says Kaempfer, was an island famous

and fruitfulness of

the excellency

its soil,

particular clay exceedingly properfor the viaking

go by the name of Porcellane or China ware. enriched themselves by this manufacture

in

former ages for

which afforded among the of'

rest a

now vcfy much

those vessels which

The inhabitants

but their increasing zvealth gave

:

and contempt of religion ; which incensed the gods that by an irrevocable edict they determined to sink the whole

birth to luxury

to thai

degree,

island.

Hozvever the then reigning sovereign, whose name was Peiruun, being a very virtuous and religious Prince, no ways guilty of the crimes of his subjects, this decree

of the gods was revealed

to

him

in

a dream

manded, as he valued the security of his person,

and

to

fee from

the two

:

wherein he was com-

to retire

on board his ships

the island, as soon as he should observe, that the faces

which stood at the entry of the temple, turned

idols,

of

So press-

red.

ing a danger impending over the heads of his subjects, the signs whereby they might know

its

approach, in order to save their lives by a speedy fight,

he caused fort hzoith lo be

made public

:

but he xcas only ridiculed for his

zeal, arid grezv contemptible to his subjects.

fellow,

further

to

Some

titne after,

nobody observing him, and painted the faces of both

morning which, it

notice

little

was given

imagining

as a miraculous event

now

loose idle

to the king,

it to

idols red.

The next

that the idols faces were red

him

;

vit.

Isid.

upon

island's destruction being

and

all

and, with crowded saiU, hastenedfrom the fatal shores

towards the coasts of the province Foktsju in China. Damas.

:

be done by such wicked hands, but looking upon

and undoubted sign of the

at hand, he went forthwith on board his ships, with his family

that wouldfolloxv

'

a

the king's superstitious fears, went one night,

expose

apud Phot.

Bibl. p. 1073,

Jfter the kings de-

Eusob. Prsep. Evan.

lib.

i.

c. 10.

<^"*''' ^!-

THE ORIGIN OF PyVGAN IDOLATRY.

180

ooK

III.

part lire the island sunk ; and the scoffer

icilh his

would be attended with

sive that their frolic

acxompUccs,

not apprehen-

was

so dangerous a consequence,

szvallowed up hy the waves, with all the unfaithful that remained in the island

and an immense quantify of porccllane ware. The king and his people got safe to China, where the memoty of his arrival is still celebrated by a yearly festival

on which the Chinese, particularly the inhabitants of the southern

;

maritime provinces, divert themselves on the water, rowing up and dorm in

were preparing for a flight, and sometimes crying

their boats as if they

name of that prince. The same Chinese into Japan ; and is now celebrated

with a loud voice Peiiuun xvhich zvas the festival has been introduced by the

there, chiefly on the western coasts It

easy to see,

is

that

of that empire.^

this tradition

respecting the island Maurigasima,

though adapted to the manners and habits of China, has originated from the

same source

Samothrace, and the

as the legends respecting Atlantis,

isle

of

the Phlegyae.

As

III.

the submersion of an island

is

sometimes celebrated

mythology without any mention being made of the bursting of a lake bursting of a lake

ancient

in ;

so the

sometimes spoken of without any mention being made of

is

In this latter case, the deluge produced

the submersion of an island. casionally described as

partial,

and occasionally as universal

we may

said to be partial,

where

it is

in the

midst of local appropriation.

discover

some

:

but,

is

oc-

even

traces of primitive truth

The Arabs of Yaman had a story of this nature, which they incorporated with the history of their own tribe, assigning the occurrence to one 1.

particular region. literally,

and

fixes

same manner,

as

Mr. it

to

Sale, its

some

in

whose words

I shall give

it,

supposed proper chronological epoch

understands ;

much

it

in the

writers have attempted to determine the era of the

Argonautic expedition and the age of the flood which was said to have over-

whelmed Samothrace tailed in

leads

me

it,

to

in the

time of Deucalion

:

but every circumstance de-

as well as the particular form into which

it

has been moulded,

adopt a very different opinion.

The flrst great calamity that '

befell the tribes settled in

Ktempfcr's Japan. Append, p. 13.

Yaman was

the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. inundation of

Arum, which happened soon

and iifanwus

great,

forced

to

in the

Arabian

potamia by three

chiefs

Beer,

provinces of the country are

called

N'o

this occasion,

And

named Diyar

;

from zvhom the city

built

made a vast mound or dam

j\Iarel>,

the three

Beer, Diyar ^lodar,

Abdshems, sirnamed Saba, having

Saba and afterwards

some of which gave was probably the

this

which were led into Meso-

colo7iies,

Modar, and Rabia still

Alexander the

than eight tribes were

less

kingdoms of Ghassan and Hira.

time of the migration of those tribes or

Diyar Rabia.

after the time of

history.

abandon their dwellings upon

rise to the tu-o

181

and

from him

to serve as

a

bason or reservoir to receive the water which came downfrom the mountains, 7iot

and watering

only for the use of the inhabitants

keep the country they

water.

had subjected

This building stood

like

their lands, but also to

greater axce by being masters of the a mountain above their city, a?id was by in

them esteemed so strong, that they were

in no apprehension

of its ever failing. The water rose to the height of almost txccnty fathoms, and was kept in on every side by a work so solid, that many of the inhabitants had their houses built

upon

Every family had a

it.

But

by aqueducts.

certain portion of this water distributed

at length God,

pride and insolence and resolving

to

being highly displeased at their great

humble and disperse them, sent a mighty

food, which broke dozen the mound by night while the inhabitants were asleep,

and carried axvay the whole

towns and

city xcith the iieighbouring

people.^

This story bears such a resemblance without descending to

tiie

involuntarily led to pronounce; that

them, that

it is

alone,

but that

world.

The

to other parallel traditions,

minuteness of nearer observation, it

relates to

an awful

that,

even

are almost

must have had a common origin with

no narrative of an event which concerned the it

-vvc

visitation

persuasion however will be

tribes of

Yaman

which equally affected a whole

much

strengthened,

if

we note

the

j^articulars of the legend.

In respect to the probability whicli circumstances, I cannot but think

it

it

may

not a

claim as a

little

unlikely,

should build a city immediately beneath an enormous

"

Sale's Prelim. Disc,

to

Koran,

literal detail

sect.

i.

mound

p. 10.

of local

that a body of men

that

formed an

""*'''

^'''

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

182

from

lake,

They must have been aware,

lake of great extent.

artificial

very nature of

tlie

its

situation,

by those mountain torrents which were

was so

swelled, there

was

was

feeders

its

be suddenly swelled

liable to

at least a considerable

and

;

that such a

whenever

that,

it

degree of danger that the

mound might not be strong enough to bear the increased pressure of the water. They would hope that it might be equal to the weight but they would ^

:

scarcely have built their town in a place, where

mound

dated, if the

taken pains to place themselves in danger

might just as well have dwelt

So again

the lake.

must inevitably be inun-

it

way

unfortunately ever should give

:

is

it

they would not have

;

beneath the mound, when they

in safety either at the

head or on the side of

how

not easy to conceive,

these Arabs, consider-

ing what has ever been the state of society in their country, could have been

The

equal to the accomplishment of so stupendous a work.

a few

in the very

tribes,

keeping

its

midst of a hostile region and partly with a view of

inhabitants in a state of dependence

slender means to construct a like

a mountain above

houses upon idea of

its

lake

artificial

mound

his city

broad summit

I

upon him,

ing for the

is

fall

and was equal

We

may form however

valley must, on the outer side of

of the

mound must

equalled, drals."

'

The

if

its

bed, the

Now

it

at least

have been 120

six

feet:

its

length was across the valley,

:

but

feet

that

we

we may

be more than 120.

is

:

I believe,

the loftiest

the most

it

the height therefore to say,

it

must have

loftiest cathe:

but

we

Abbey and York Minster

their external height therefore to the top of the battlements

These two are,

be

at least con-

are not informed

internal height of the naves and choirs of Westminster feet:

mound

What may

by that English measure to which

a fathom contains

of the

next to the city which

not exceeded, the altitude of the bodies of our

What

from 99 to 101

The depth

Mr. Sale expresses by the

English word Jathom, I pretend not to determine clude, that he designated

many

a yet more distinct

more than twenty fathoms in height.

the precise length of the Arabic measure which

nearly approaches.

it

rose

consequently, allow-

:

of ground in the valley which formed

lay beneath, have been

it

the supporting of

to

said to have been near twenty fathoms

built across the

yet able with his

is

of such ample dimensions, that

bulk by calling in the aid of mensuration.

its

chief of only

is

can scarcely

buildings of the sort in England.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT. may presume

it

183

to have been so great, as utterly to destroy the credibility of

the story considered as detailing an absolute local matter of fact.

may mound

it

may

be said, that the story itself be a palpable exaggeration.

bulk of the

mound and

To

this I reply,

therefore the size of the lake

we diminish

the

we proportionably

di-

tiiat, if ;

minish, though in another way, the credibility of the narrative.

are the alleged effects of the failure of the

under water the

cellars or the

mound ?

lower rooms of a

which the bursting

do

but

;

Nor yet does it sweep away a single city same destruction many neighbouring towns. Nay more which it

city.

:

involves in the

a calamity,

it is

affects a considerable proportion of the tribes settled in

Yaman

their dwellings

;

Now

contain a population sufficient to establish two kingdoms.

ing of a mere mill-dam could not have produced such results

body of water

sweeps away

it

it

:

compels no fewer than eight of them to abandon

For what

It does not merely lay

village,

forth of such a pool as a large mill-dam might easily

a whole

Perhaps

be true, though the bulk of the

:

we

at least as large as that which the story sets forth.

for

;

and these the burst-

require a

Thus we

are brought back to the original difficulty of admitting the construction of

such a stupendous

mound by

the inadequate agents, to

I allow, that vast tumuli in various parts of the

whom

it is

ascribed.

world do indeed prove the

wonderful perseverance of the early idolaters and demonstrate what

done by the united

mound by

efforts of multitudes

:

may

be

but the aggestion of the Arabic

the subjects of a petty Sheich surrounded with hostile neighbours

exceeds every limit of moderate credibility.

For

my own

cannot believe a syllable of the matter,

part, I

terally

esteemed a proper local circumstance

which

details

fixes the

it

does

to the age

was the

earliest calamity

which

The chapel

of King's College in Cambridge

equals

it

the length of the

it

the

befell

the precise mode, in which the flood

cept that

its

ow n

interpreter.

is

may

Yamanic

tribes.

Mr. Sale

give one

pendous mass would a

solid

mound

that

this is

some idea of the Arabic mound, ex-

would depend upon the breadth of the

it

Now

it,

described in every local appropria-

not in height, and muit be deemed far inferior to

mound,

li-

immediately following that of Alexan-

der: but the tradition seems to have been, even as he himself details it

be

but I think, that the Iccrend

;

a great measure act as

in

supposed event

if it

it

in breadth.

valley.

As

Yet what a

of earth be of the dimensions even of that chapel!

for

stu-

*'"*''•

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATK\'.

184 iKxiK

III.

Qf

(i(,,,

Yhc event

|{

itself

inoieover was not the result of

The mound

called an unlucky accident.

was produced by a deluge,

tion

did

vvliat

indeed burst: but

by the gods

specially sent

in

Numbers

?

perish

:

disrup-

its

order to punish

the pride and insolence of an impious and degenerate race. the consequence of this divine visitation

usually

is

And what

but eight tribes

preserved, although constrained to quit their former habitations

are

Do we

these eight tribes emigrate under three leaders.

i.s

;

and

not here detect an

evident allusion to the arkitc ogdoad and to the triple offspring of Noah, so

famous

the traditions of every ancient nation?

in

siderably strengthened by the

deluge,

gion of Arabia,

and the three

Now

try.

names exhibited

though said to have occurred is

yet called

i/tc

in

deluge of

And

this

in the legend.

opinion

Yaman or the south-western reAram or Jllesopotumian Syria

chiefs are represented as leading the emigrants into tliat

the country of

Aram was famous

Hierapolis, which

comprehended w ithin and which extended

river Euphrates,

From

ter of the

globe

this centre the arki te :

to the primeval Cuthic

empire of Ba-

Mysteries were carried to every quar-

and with those Mysteries Sabianism, or the astrononiical

cordingly, a clear reference to is

We

Sun.

:

The

Arabian legend.

in the present

it

find,

reported to have been called Saba from the sirname of

posed founder Abdshems. Sabianism

Apamea and

limits the sacred Paradisaical ri-

worship of the host of heaven, was immemorially blended.

dated city

coun-

for meuiorials of the deluge.

which, viewed as including Syria, contained its

con-

The pretended

It is the district;

bylonia.

is

But Saba denotes a

and Abdshems or Abed-Slicmesh

host,

inun-

its

sup-

whence the term

the

signifies

ac-

servant oj the

In a similar manner, with reference to a symbol of the great father

held in high veneration throughout the whole pagan world, one of the three leaders of the eight emigrating tribes tion, in short,

down

seems

in the very

to

me

is

Beer or

called

to relate to the very

same mystical phraseology,

same

as

the ox.

event,

and

The to be

tradi-

handed

the parallel legends wliich

have been already considered.' '

Arkite Sabianism was established in Arabia by

grated from Babel under Cuthic leaders

pia or Chu$i»tan or the land

-of

Cuih.

;

Jor

we

find

its

first settlers,

who appear

to

have mi-

a part of the country denominated Ethio-

The inundated

city in

the legend was called Saba

:

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

TIIK '2.

As most of

the sacred British lakes were thought to iiave

on account of

certain cities

\S5

overwhelmed

wickedness of their inhabitants

tlie

ne

so

;

find,

that the Druids ascribed the general deluge to the bursting of the lake Llion, thiis

mingling what they acknowledged to be universal with some degree of

The

local appropriation.

first

of the three awful events, which are said in

the Triads to have befallen the British island, was the bursting Jorth of the lake of Llion

and

the otcy-whclming of the face

(f

all lands

so that all

;

mankind were drowned, excepting Dv^yvan and a naked vessel (or a vessel without tain

was

repeopled.'

sails),

With respect

Dwyvach, who escaped in and by whom the island of Bri-

«e

to this vessel

are further

that

told,

one of the three chief master-works of Britain was the ship of Nevydd- A^ax:Neivion, which carried in

it

and

is

in the

book of Job mention

The holy man

worship.

made both of

the

in terms,

it

ofifer

up

was a

festival

:

countrymen.

his

and the pious father dreaded,

illicit

lest the feasts

Such

ly.

my I

I

deem

and cursed God

luge,

couched

ver

said to have been suddenly

in terms

which not a

in this ancient

is

time, a river

xxii.

1

j

me

— 19.

!

Yet

Who said

Who

Every

practices.

to bless the

i.

The righteous saw

idol

gods

more open-

afterwards perhaps

may

be, that

15. xxxi. 26, 27, 28.

it,

as follows.

i.

The

ri-

pas-

Hast thou marked

good:

but, counsel

us,

and what

of the wicked,

and were glad ; the innocent man laughed

the ocean

5.

to the de-

were laid hold on before their

unto God, Depart from

hc_filled thtir houses with

.^mong the ancients,

that the

it,

resemble those of the Arabian legend: a mighty

little

was poured on theirfoundation.

be thou farfrom

take

book a manifest allusion

somewhat more accurate version of Bp. Stock, runs

can the yilmighty do for us?

utter abhor-

poured out upon the foundations of the wicked.

tht path of old, which iniquitous mortals hale trodden ?

Job

first,

See Job

in their hearts.

cannot refrain from observing, that there

sage, in the

secretly at

I

the proper import of the passage rendered in our translation. It

tons haxe sinned,

is

his

of his children should be

so perverted in imitation of the Sabian feasts, that they should be tempted ;

of

sons during the days of their feast-

sacrifices in behalf of his

(the false gods of the apostates) in their hearts

the lake

the grand objects of their

Noah, declares

ing originated from a fear of their secretly hankering after these sacrifice

when

which shew that the practice of adorino

Sun and Moon was very generally prevalent among

caution used by Job to

living

Sabeansandof

himself, adhering to the religion of

rence of such superstition: but he does the

and afemale of all

a male

at them.

was esteemed a vast river: and, on the

other hand, a large river was considered as a symbol of the ocean at the time of the deluge.

Such was

the case with the rivers Siyx,

formed (according

to the legend)

Nile, Euphrates^ and

Ganges

by a mouud built across the bed of a

and overwhelmed the dwellings of the unrighteous, had,

I

believe,

:

and the Arabian lake,

river,

when

which burst forth

stripped of

its

locality,

the very same reference. '

Davies's Celtic Research, p. 157.

Pag.

Idol.

Mythol.of

VOL. u.

Brit. Druids. p. 95.

2

A

c^^-

^'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

186 BOOR

III.

And

L/ion burst forth. ^ the

it is

added, that another of these master-works vvas

drawing of the Avanc (or mystic beaver)

land out of the lake by the

to

branching oxen of Hw-Gadarn, so that the lake burst no more.^

Such legends, which

plainly relate to the Noetic deluge,

key. to the other British stories,

th« sacred lakes

some

may

which so frequently connect with each of

tradition of a

As

flood.

have already observed,

I

they are only multiplied accounts of one event, adapted to

Every lake was a symbol of the deluge

gions.

reposed on

bosom and which was

its

presented the

mundane

ship

serve as a

Argha

:

particular

and the small

which

island,

often feigned to have once floated, re-

hence, in most of those recesses where

:

the diluvian Mysteries were celebrated,

we

find

a story, of a flood which

overwhelmed a wicked race of mortals while some ancient personage caped

in

es-

a boat or ark.

Respecting the legends the just

re-

now under

remarks of Mr. Davies, as

nishes sufficient proof, that they

Such memorials as

consideration, their locality, zvell

to

adopt

as their other peculiarities, fur-

must have been ancient national

traditions.

these cannot be supposed to have originated in the perver-

of the sacred records, during any age subsequent to the introduction of Christianity. The contrary appears from their ichimsical discrepancy with

sion

The Britons then had a

historical fact.

overwhelmed

all lands

tradition of a deluge, which

but this deluge, according to them, was occasioned by

:

One vessel had escaped the catastrophe : man and woman were preserved : and, as Britain and

the sudden bursting of a lake. this

a

single

inhabitants were, in their

world; so we are pled by the

told,

estimation, the

tradition,

that a vessel

serve a single family

luge

:

its

that this island, in an especial manner, was repeo-

man and woman

zvho

had

escaped. :

This has no appearance of it is

such as was common to most heathen nations.

had a

in

most important objects in the

having been draxcn from the record of Moses tion,

had

and

a mere mutilated tradi-

So again

:

the Britons

had been provided, somewhere or other,

the race of anitnuls from the destruction

but they possessed only a mutilated part of the real history

tradition positively affirmed that their

;

to

pre-

of a deand, as

own ancestors were concerned

in

the

building of this vessel, they naturally ascribed the achievement to that coun'

Davies's Otitic Research, p. 157-

Mythul. of Brit. Druids,

p. 9i.

*lbid.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. try, in

which their progenitors had been

lastly they

had a

worldfrom a tory,

tradition, that

it

remote antiquity.

And

some great operating cause protected the

They had lost sight of the true hisupon the promise of the Supreme Being ; and to thejeat of a yoke of oxen, which drew the avanc or beaver repetition

which rests

ascribed

settled from

187

this security

And

out of the lake.

of the deluge.

the

want of more accurate vformation gave them an

opportunity of placing this ideal achievement in the island of Britain.

In

such tales as these we have only the vestiges of heathenism/

The whole

mythological history of Hu, whose oxen draw the beaver out

of the lake and thus prevent a repetition of the deluge, sufficiently proves

him

to

ginally

have been the British Dionusus or were three

in

Noah

and

:

his oxen,

bol of the great father, formed allusively to his triple offspring.

legend

among

itself,

the

perstition,

it

which

ori-

number, are but a multiplication of a well known sym-

exists not only in the Triads,

but

As

for the

traditionally preserved

is

Welsh even to the present day. Of all the objects of ancient susays Mr. Davies, there is none which has taken such hold of the

Hu.

populace of JVales, as the celebrated oxen of

gorous in every corner of the principality, asfar at

guage has 7naintained extraordinary

its

ground.

and that they

size,

Tradition

Their fame

is still vi-

least as the JVelsh lan-

tells us,

that they were of an

tvere subjected to the sacred yoke.

I have

pagan Britain some rites in commemoration of the deluge, xvherein the agency of sacred oxen was employed, were periodically celebrated on the borders of several lakes. In replying to a tale which seems utterly impossible, we use an old adage which says. The Ychen Banawg cannot draw the Avanc out of deep waters. This imports, that they also several reasons to suppose, that in

And popular and local

could draxc him out of waters of a certain depth. traditions of such an achievement are current

hardly a lake in the principality, which

where

is

all

over JVales.

There

is

not asserted in the 7ieighbourhood

Such general traditions of the populace must have arisen from some ceremony, which was familiar to their to be that,

ancestors.

heathenish

And 7-itcs.

this feat xvas

performed.

this cei-emony seems to

Air.

'

Owen

Mythol. of

tells us,

have been performed

that there

Brit. Druids, p.
is

xvith

several

a strange piece of music,

CHAP.

VI.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

188 Still

Banawg

kno-um to afew penons, called Cainc yr Ycliain

which was

;

in-

tended as an imitation of the lowing of the oxen and the rattling of the chains in drawing the

By

Avanc we

the

A vane out of

the lake.'

are generally to understand the beaver

the present instance tradition makes

that in

we

but

:

are told,

an animal of prodiiiious bulk

it

name implies, an animal of the beaver kind, otherwise there is no reason why it should be particuMr. Davies conceives the Avanc to be ultimately referlarly called J vane ^ or to the Ark considered as his shrine and suppatriarch to the himself, able and force

yet

;

I should

still,

apprehend,

the

as

posed to have been exti'icated from the waters of the deluge by the aid of the

am somewhat

Tlie propriety of this conjecture I

sacred oxen. doubt, though

by no means devoid of

it is

lake in order that

was produced by well either to

mon, which

may

burst no

more ; which

or the

Ark

:

but

is

implies,

drawn out of the

that

disruption

its

This character does not answer very

his instrumentality.

Noah

accurately corresponds with that de-

it

many

so conspicuously introduced into

is

The

deluge.

it

The Avanc seems

plausibility.

to have been esteemed the cause of the deluge, and he

inclined to

flood being the consequence

old tiaditions of the

and punishment of

and

sin,

sin

having been brought into the world by Satan, the old mythologists appear to

have ascribed the flood is

distinctly

to the operation

in the

of the

Zend-Avesta

;

it

but at the close of the deluge

the ocean,

is

slain

by Vishnou.

another Hindoo fable, a monstrous serpent and a host of

prominent part

Typhon, who

is

in the

clearly the

that Plutarch declares

:

him

Greek Python, personates yet

is

would interpret the

and would '

less

is

In

all

either slain

the

in

act a

Egyptian

the evil principle and

oi'

these various

subdued

Brit. Druids, p. 128, 129.

fables,

at the

the

end of

it.

Avanc in the same manner, Typhon or Hirinacheren of the

British stoiy of the

consider that mystic animal as the

Mythol. of

Thus,

demons

he so closely connected with the deluge,

to be the sea.

monster, which produces the flood,

evil

Thus

submersion of the old world.

appears as a huge dragon

I

more or

occurs, with

in

fable,

Now

Such a notion

evil principle.

and

many of the legends of pagan antiquity. Thus, in the Hinthe demon Hirinacheren carries down the earth to the bottom of

clearness,

doo

avowed

* Ibid. p.

129, 130.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. The adoption

Druids.

of the beaver as a symbol of the evil principle, ra-

a mishapen demon, naturally

or

than a sei-pent

ther

to be typical of the deluge.

world

bursts in

but

it

followed from

the

The lake bursts and inundates a consequence of the mound which restrained its wa-

making a lake :

189

being weakened and undermined by the destructive operations of a vast

ters

The beaver is at length drawn out: and more, because the mound is no longer liable to the

then the lake bursts no

beaver.

3.

It

is

remarkable, that the same cause

savages of North America

ravages of that animal.

assigned to the deluge by the

is

a circumstance, which serves to shew

;

how

very

widely the prevailing notions of the Cabiric Mysteries had spread themselves.

A spirit,

called

Otkon by the Iroquois and Atahauta by the other barbarians

at the

mouth of the

world

:

new

der the

Laurence,

river St.

and they assign

its

is

thought to be the creator of the

appellation of Messou.

a hunting one day, his dogs

They

say, that,

themselves in a great lake; which, thereupon

lost

overflowing, covered the whole earth in a short

They

world.

same Otkon unMtssou or Otkon being

reparation after the deluge to this

add, that this

ti??ie

and swallaived up the

Messou or Otkon gathered a

ther by the help of some aniinals,

and made use of

little

this earth to

earth togerepair

the

world again.^

We

may

observe

in the present

legend

all

principal

the

mark

the sacred fables of the whole eastern continent,

some

early period

The tion

;

gic

and each mundane system

god

in

short,

the character of

appearing the lake, repetition

in

who like

is

is

whence no doubt

is

considered as a

ascribed to one and

the

at

Menu

and other

new

crea-

same transmiThis demiur-

clearly the great father of paganism.

Cronus and

Adam

Noah

which

was carried into America.

it

reproduction of the world after the flood

grating divinity,

features,

siuiilar deities,

supports

the parent of the antediluvian world, viewed as re-

the parent of the postdiluvian world.

and the inundation of the whole earth by of those traditions

its

The

disruption of

waters, are but

which have already passed

in

review

a

be-

fore us.

Nor

are the dogs introduced into the story accidentally and without rea'

Hennepin's Discov. of Norih Amor.

p.

54.

^^*''

""'

'

190 BOOK

III.

son

;

nor

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

yet,

I

to

any devotedness of the

find

them here immediately

suspect, merely in reference

North-American savages

We

the chase.

to

connected with a tradition of the flood

and we

:

find them,

the eastern

in

hemisphere, esteemed sacred animals, associated with the arkite goddess,

and generally making a very conspicuous

figure

were immediately commemorative of the deluge. tain canine

tiated

phantoms never

Pletho

very justly in

my

deemed

of similar apparitions

;

and informs

Virgil,

bowlings of dogs were

Dogs were

tinctly heard through the gloomy shades of Hades.'

sacred to that Hecatfe or Diana,

who was thought

thracian Cabiric grotto of Zerinthus

;

to

dis-

likewise

preside in the

Samo-

which (according to Ly-

grotto,

tliat

that part of

in

the Mysteries, speaks

allusive to

us, that the

ini-

opinion, supposes that one

of these phantoms was the infernal dog Cerberus.' the Eneid which has rightly been

that cer-

tells us,

be exhibited before the eyes of the

failed to

and Bp. Warburton,

:'

those Mysteries which

in

cophron) Dardanus quitted when driven thence by the flood of Deucalion.*

Hence Apollonius

resounding through the midnight before his eyes.*

air,

Hecat^ herself

is

and speaks of

;

was no unimportant character

represented by the :*

;

and he bore

for

:

same

many

as

hand the caduceus of

Plutarch

as Cronus.' I believe

He was

them

to

tells

sacred

emblems of the great

Cronus or Osiris

;

The dog seems father

:

so the dog Cerberus

have been in the

to

is ulti-

have been one

whence, as Anubis is

that

us,

he was no other than the Egyptian Thoth or Hermes, who

mately one god with Cronus and Osiris. of the

and the barking Anubis

in his

Hermes, round which two snakes were intwined.

right

yellings

Orphic poet, as

in the diluvian Mysteries of Osiris.'

depicted with the head of a dog

some esteemed him the same

their shrill

while the torches of the Orgies gleamed

having the heads of a dog, a horse, and a lion



when

properly describes the goddess as attended by them,

she appeared to the Argonautic Jason

often represented

is

the

upon

medals as couching at the feet of Serapis, who was esteemed the same as '

Orac. Chald.

p. po.

'

Virg. ^neid.

lib. vi. ver.

'

Apoll, Argon,

'

Latrator Anubis. Virg. /Eneid.

lib. iii. ver.

257.

1211

— 1220. lib. viii. ver.

698.

*

Divine Legal,

*

Lycoph. Cassand.

b.

ii.

sect. 4. p. 123.

ver.

'

Orph. Argon,

'

Plut. de Isid. p. 368.

ver.

973

72

— 85.

—976-

THE ORIGIN OF FAGAW IDOLATRY.

Nay we

Pluto, and the Sun.'

Osiris,

was the Sun, or Pluto, or Orcus Osiris in his celestial capacity

character he

he was therefore Osiris also

:

;

because

human

less clearly the great father.'

he employs his dogs

;

are assured, that Cerberus himself

declared to be the Sun, while in his

the North- American god

But dogs

no

is

is

191

of the deluge

is

not merely attended by

This peculiarity also prevails in se-

in hunting.

Hecat^ or Diana was

veral of the mythologies of the eastern continent.

esteemed the goddess of hunting, and was represented as followed by her

hounds

yet she

:

and thence

was one of the principal Samothracian or Cabiric

American god Messou immediately connected with the

like the

Moon

In heaven she was the

flood.

deities,

Moon, from

but that

:

the navicular

form of the crescent, was the astronomical symbol of the Ark. Accordingly, she

declared by

is

more than one

Venus, and Ceres

to be in reality

;

amply points

out,

same

as the maritime Isis,

no other than Rhea or Cybel^, the uni-

mother of the diluvian hero-gods

versal great triplication

writer to be the

to

;

be therefore, as her

the threefold Indo-Scythic Devi,

who

as Par-

Hence

vati floats on the surface of the flood in the form of the ship Argha.'

we

that this patroness of hunting, this lunar deity,

find,

is

own

styled never-

of the waves, the maritime goddess, the preserver of ships.* In a similar manner, Typhon, who (as we learn from Plutarch) was the same

theless the queen

Oceanus or the

as

when he found nis likewise,

sea, is said to

have been employed

"

lib,

*

much

who

c.

is

undoubtedly no other than Osiris, and

Lucian.

ii.

represented as be-

part

ii.

p. 186, 189.

Plut. de Isid. p. 36l, 362.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib. xi.

* Inscrip. vet. p.

lib.

iii.

c.

10. p. 68.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

c.

20.

Sil.

845.

dial. deor. p.

Apul. Mptam.

*

vol.

Porph. apud Euseb. Praep. Evan.

Lacon.

is

who was thought

20.

Ilal. lib. xiii. ver. ^

Ado-

addicted to hunting and as finally receiving his allegorical death

Montfauc. Ant. i.

hunting the boar,

the luniform aik which contained the body of Osiris.'

to have been during his infancy inclosed within an ark,

ing

in

123. Clem. Alex. Strom,

Serv. in Virg. Georg.

apud Gruter.

208. Stvab. Geog.

Plut. de Ibid. p. 344,

p. 37.

lib.

i.

lib.

Artem. Oniroc.

lib. viii, p.

36l.

i.

p. 322.

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

p. 21.

ver. 5. lib.

ii.

c.

42. Paus. Acbaic. p. 437.

CHAr.

!.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

192 HOOK

III.

from the tusks of a boar.'

Exactly

same

tlie

notions, respecting the sacred-

among

ness of dogs and a certain mystical hunting,

prevailed

Druids, and thence appeared

Orgies of Britain.

in the diluvian

denoted the celebration of the Mysteries ever affected the

titles,

and claimed

forms, of the. great father.'

In

:

when about

to

;

who

in the

this subject,

American

fable,

engage in the exercise of hunting, chooses for the place

of his diversion the vale of the boat or ark.

In the midst of the pursuit,

same no doubt

deep, the

as the infernal dogs of the Eleusinian and Chaldaic Mysteries.

of them informs him, that he the Arkite.

chase

to themselves the various hieroglyphical

a curious legend relative to

he meets with a pack of hounds, termed dogs of the

Arawn or

The

and the dogs were the epoptas

which singularly coincides with the ideas exhibited Pwyll,

the ancient

He

is

lord

of the deep, and that

The master his name is

then proposes, that Pwyll should assume his form,

and thus rule over the vast deep during the space of a complete year ; the time during which

Noah was

Pwyll remains a year

when

and,

The

confined within the Ark.

a tenant of the palace of

in the great deep,

at length he emerges, after a

solemn

festal sacrifice,

ed with the beautiful phenomenon of the rainbow.'

'

Lucian. de dea Syra. § 6,

7- Plut. delsid. p.

offer is accepted

he

is

Arawn

:

:

astonish-

These various coinci-

357. ApoUod. Bibl.

lib.

iii.

4.

Non-

when a

boar,

13.

c.

§

ni Dionys. lib. xli. *

When the

boars.

a dove, doves '

great father was a dog, his votaries were dogs;

In a similar manner, ;

when

when a

lion, lions

;

the great mother was a bee, her priestesses were bees

;

when

when a mare, mares.

Davies's Mytbol. of the Brit. Druids, p.

418

— 424.

From

this

source has clearly ori-

ginated the popular superstition respecting evil spirits appearing in the form of black dogs.

When any

impious wretch has sold himself to Satan and celebrates

his yearly conference

with

him, the loud bowlings of these infernal attendants are heard through the dari«ness of the night

no small terror of the peaceful

to the

were

literally devils, has

creed of the vulgar.

caused

Mr. Grose has

Mauthe Doog, and which

call the

a large black spaniel.

villager.

much

The demon,

is

him; but the adventure

seems, was wont to

him

his

life.

A

mode

come and

drunken

He

three days. Laving never been heard to speak more.

has arisen from the Druidical

Manks

believed to have once haunted Peele castle in the shape of

it

cost

early notion, that the gods of Paganism

given a curious legend of the spectre, which the

passage, which led into certain ancient vaults.

follow

The

of old mythology to be ingrafted upon the ghost-loving

soldier

was so I

have

retire

terrified, little

by a dark winding

had once the audacity that

he

to

died within

doubt, that the whole tale

of celebrating the Mysteries, which was the very same as

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. eftect of accident

minute to be purely the

dciiccs are too

193

and

:

I

conclude

from them, that our American tradition describes the catastrophe of the deluge in the well-known phraseology of the iVIysteries.'

IV. There are however certain

of a partial and local de-

otlier traditions

which are not marked by the circumstances either of the bursting of a

luge,

These

lake or the sinking of an island.

I ascribe to the

same source

as the

former, and interpret in the same manner. 1.

The Egyptians had more

than one legend of such a nature, to say no-

thing of the whole history of Osiris. (1.)

Thus we

from Diodorus,

learn

men were

Egypt, the greatest part of

that,-

destroyed by a

indeed ascribed to the overflowing of the Nile

which

to a matter,

at

is

Prometheus reigned

while

but

:

flood. is

it

The

tradition

the Egyptians entertained

and they esteemed

is

is

the inhabitants of

no doubt originated from the seniiments, which

They

of the sacred river.

called

the ocean^

it

a symbol of the deluge, as we may clearly gather from

it

the circumstance of the ark of Osiris being set afloat their hierophants

all

in

absurd to attribute

once annual and beneficial, an inundation, which

said to have destroyed at a very remote period almost

the country.''

This deluge

were obviously led

to describe

the

upon

its

flood of

waters

:

hence

Noah under

the image of an overflowing of the Nile.

The

present fable connects, with the old mythology of Egypt, the legend

of Atlas and the island Atlantis on the one hand, and the cognate superstition

of the Celtic nations on the other. singly,

is

the great father

brothers, Atlas

:

but,

and Epimetlicus,

that of celebrating the Orgies of Eleusis. p.Tssagcs, ere

through darkness

I

visible,

suspect, ihat the

light as the last

Mammoth

considered

if

.ispiraDt passed

through various dark winding ;

and, in his progress

heard the bowlings, of the dogs of

hell,

—201.

American savages viewed

A vane.

They have a

the

enormous

Mammoth much

in the

same

tradition, that, at the close of the deluge, the

sprang at a single leap over the lake Superior, and vanished for ever into the

Diod. Bibl.

Pag.

The

like Atlas,

conjunction with his two

the scholiast on Aratus assigns to

he beheld the forms, and

198

Druids did the

wilds of Canada. ^

whom

in

he emerged into the celestial light of plenary initiation

(irose's Ant. vol. vi. p. '

Prometheus,

when viewed

He was

lib. i.p.

Idol.

probably their symbol of the diluvian

evil principle.

10.

VOL.

II.

2

B

*^"'^''-

*''*

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

194

of one of the three sons of the transmigrat-

him, he appears

in the character

ing patriarch.

That w riter makes him the offspring of Uranus hy Clymen^

'

daughter of Oceanus to

Uranus a

and Gyges, occupy

Cronus meanwhile

Uranus was

:

and we may observe, that Hesiod similarly ascribes

:

In

triple offspring.

we

but

genealogy therefore, Cottus, Briareus,

made

to belong to

another branch of the family of

learn from the Orphic poet, that the diluvian

same person as Cronus the universal

the very

and Epimetheus.

Prometheus,

place of Atlas,

the is

this

Prometheus

father of mankind."

His

descent, in short, no less than the Egyptian fable, immediately connects

Uranus and Cronus, each

with the flood

:

are certainly

Adam

for

him

the head of his three sons,

at

Hence we some-

reappearing in the person of Noah.

reckoned the offspring of lapetus or Japhet; an

limes find Pronietheus

error indeed, but an error which serves to throw light on his real character.'

The Egyptians

then,

sovereigns, and fixed

an Egyptian

;

he

is

appears, esteemed him one of their most ancient

it

him

of a great flood

to the era

:

but he was not exclusively

celebrated in countries very far removed from Egypt, and

with good reason, inasmuch

Sometimes he was reported

as to

he

was the general parent of

at other times, like his supposed brother Atlas, he

;

the country of the Celts or Hyperboreans, and

Scythian Caucasus, which, no region of the

Ark and of

father of that Deucalion

Lucian) was a Scythian

;

less

Paradise.

*

He

was bound

in

an ark ; who (according to

and who was equally claimed by the Greeks, by the

observe, that Prometheus

It is

'

and Deucalion were

almost superfluous to

in reality

alike relates to the flood of

that the history of each

to a crag of that

further said to have been the

is

and by the Hindoos.

Syrians of Hierapolis,

mundane

was transported to

than the Indian Caucasus, was the very

who was preserved

:

men.

have been one of the Cabiri or Samothra-

cian divinities, and to have officiated as the priest of Ceres or the

Ark

all

one person,

and

Noah.

In another Egyptian legend, Menes or Manes occupies the place of

(2.)

'

Schol. in Arat. Phaen. p. 34, 35.

• Hesiod. '

'

Theog.

147—153. Orph. Hymn.

ver. 137,

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

Pausan. Boeot.

p.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

c. 2.

579. i.

§ 3.

Proc. in Hesiod. p. 23.

Apollod. Bibl.

c. 7.

§

2.

xii.

lib.

i.

c. 7.

§ 1.

Hyg.

in praef. fab.

.I^schyl.

Prom,

vinct.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY,

He

Prometheus. tlie

said to have reigned the

is

men

and, in his days,

:

its

back

whence

:

was saved by a crocodile, which conveyed him that animal

a symbol of the Ark; as we the very tells

name by which

came

may

Campsa

it

same

crocodile.*

and Menes,

*

sacred.

from the story

was plainly

and from

itself,

wont to designate

but Hesychius assures

:

It

it.

Herodotus

us, that

Campsa

Accordingly, the canine deity Anubis,

^

circumstance serves to shew also the identity of Anubis

Tiiis

and likewise to point out the real character of the latter.

who (viewed

by the symbolical

who was

;

and who

Egyptian hero-god) was attended

(like the

Mannus ; and

was thought to be a great

law'giver

;

and the Celts had a

:

goddess Ceridwen.

In

this

Lydia,

in

Mams;

Menwyd.

He

tradition, that

he

Afenii or

in Britain,

constructed a large ship, which they denominated their

Menu) was esteemed

In Crete he Avas called Minos

bull.

Scythian Germany,

Menes

preserved in an ark from the

as a reappearance of the elder

the primeval legislator,

oned a form of

in

to land

Cronus or Noah, was represented standing upon a

as

was the Indian Menu-Satyavrata deluge,

deemed

collect both

properly signifies an ark or chest. the

to be

the Egyptians were

us, that they called

who was

have been

to

This ancient personage narrowly escaped drowning

He

the inundation.

in

of

whole of Egypt, except the nome of Thebes, was reputed

one immense marsh."

on

first

195

Kyd and

which was reck-

he passed through the dale

of grievous zvaters, having carefully stored the fore part of

it

with corn.

The Egyptians had yet a third story of a partial deluge, in which the hero bore the name of Phoroneus, and in which he is described as the person (3.)

He

eminently called the Jirst.^

said to

is

have been the son of Inachus,

whose days likewise there was thought to have been a deluge. ' telk us, that he was the '

Herod. Hist.

lib.

" Diod. Bibl. lib. ^

Herod. Hist.

which properly

ii.

i.

lib.

'

c.

Isid. p.

6^.

Tim.

fol.

Kafi^/a,

an ark, was used

368.

fir^y.ij.

to

Hesjch.

Le.x.

denote a cow,

In a similar manner, Theha,

because a cow was one of the

Tzetz. in Lycoph. ver. 1206.

Montfauc. Ant.

Davies's IMythol. p. 176.

' Plat. ''

de

Yet Acusilaus

an ancient poet, cited by Clemens Alex-

;

c. 4.

hieroglyphics of the Ark. * Plut.

man

p. 80.

ii.

signifies

first

in

22, 23.

Tzetz. in Lycoph. rer. 177.

vol.

ii.

part

ii.

p. 197.

c"*!*'^'*

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

IDf)

HOOK u I.

aiuhinus, sty]cs h'nn

He is

of 7nortal men

tlte pai'etif

and

:

Anticlirlcs, transfemnsf

from Egj'pt into Greece, makes him the oldest king of that country.'

hiin

most ancient deluge

said to have flourished in the time of the

is

reputed to have

brought

first

men

plainly

compel us

aJso as his

own

of mortals that ever reigned.

earliest

to identify

him with Noah, and

Phoroneus

history of Inachus and

in their

and

to

characteristics

pronounce him the same

to

of certain partial floods,

new

they brought

settlements,

the dikivian

importing at the same time, and similarly

;

Hence we have numerous Hellenic

localizing, various other parallel fables.

accounts

sacrificer,

Such

'

colonized by emigrants from Egypt,

and afterwards localized

with tiiem,

and he

mythological father Inachus.

When Greece was

a.

'

together into one place, to iiave been

the grand arranger of nations, to have been the primeval

have been the

:

which were feigned

have taken place

to

M ithin the country of Greece. (1.)

One

of these was thought to have occurred in the district of Argolis,

during the reign of that Inachus

Neptune and Juno contended

who was

the reputed father of Phoroneus.

for the sovereignty of

the sea and the dove strove for the possession

Argos

Juno

:

who decided

in favour

of

upon which Neptune immediately inundated the greater part of the

country.

Juno however

and the Argives

at length persuaded

in gratitude built a

god of the deluge,

was an

their appellations,

and Thebes did similarly from the same ship Baris and Theba.

matter in dispute was referred to Inachus,

The

in other words,

of the ship Argha or Argo

from the worship of which Argos and Argolis received as Berytus

:

at

artificial hill

him

to cause the sea to retire

temple to Neptune the Inundator or the

the place w here

the waters began to abate.

sacred to Argus, the reputed son of Jupiter

the daughter of Phoroneus

;

:

Near this by Niob^

and a temple of the Dioscori, who, according to

Sanchoniatho, were the same as the diluvian Cabiri.*

The whole

of the

present story originated from the mystic commemorative rites of the Ark. Inachus and Argus were equally Noah or the god of the Argha and the :



Clem. Alex. Strom,

lib.

^

CU-m. Strom,

p.

^

Paus. Corinth, p. 112.

lib.

i.

Paus. Corinth, p. 125.

i.

p.

321.

3C1.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. vii. c. 56.

Syncell. Chronog. p. 125.

Hyg. Fab. 143, 27

1-.

'

:

THK OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. mount of Argus,

throM-n

up

immediate

in the

197

where the

vicinity of the place

dchige Avas thought to have abated, was a copy of that Armenian mountain,

where

tlie

Ark

rested

There was a

(2.)

and wliere the

real

Argus disembarked.

parallel story told at Athens,

which Minerva occupies

in

place of Juno, and into which the propitious diluvian olive

tlie

ously introduced.

A

contest,

once arose between Neptune and

said,

is

it

conspicu-

is

Minerva, which of them should build the

town

first

in Attica.

Jupiter de-

cided in favour of Minerva, because she was the original planter of the olive-

Upon

tree in that country.

an inundation of the

sea,

Neptune

this,

in

some inform

or (as

a rage began to bring over us) actually did inundate

but Mercury was dispatched by Jupiter to compel him to desist. that the contest

says,

between the two

deities

was

for the land

;

it

it

Pausanias

'

that

is

to say,

whether the patroness of the olive or the ruler of the ocean should possess whether

it,

it

should be dry and habitable or laid under water by an inunda-

tion of the sea:

and he mentions, that among the

offerings there

presentation of Minerva with the olive-tree and of raising the waves in order to (3.)

and

This

The

was a very similar story at Corinth

Corinthian fable exhibited the Sun as con-

Neptune; the Troezenian,

tending with

like

that of

Athens,

Helius or the Sun was the great father elevated to the solar orb

Neptune

struggle with

respecting

his

human

:

is

must of course be understood as In the Troezenian contest,

in

his

solely

which was

who was

a floating island, Minerva does not,

over Neptune, but agrees to divide the country with

broadly observe, that, in

all

these parallel legends, the ruler of the

represented, as striving for the possession of the land, and as sometimes

inundating

it

;

while he

is

opposed either by the divine dove, or by the god-

dess of the olive-tree, or by the Sun

who was

certainly the astronomical

bol of the great father. '

and

yet, notwithstanding this evident corruption of the genuine tradition,

we may sea

:

or the sea

compelled by the ocean to seek refuge

him

Minerva.

character.

thought to have taken place immediately after the time of Horus

as at Athens, prevail

re-

in the act of

produce a deluge.*

last writer tells us, that there

likewise at Troezen^.

Neptune

was a

Hyg. Fab. \6i. ApoU. Bibl.

lib. iii. c. '

13.

^1.

*

Paus. Corinth, p. 86, 141.

Pau«. Atlic. p. 43.

sym-

chap. n.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

198 BOOK

^4^ The

III.

it

the Greeks localized

own

their

in

it,

and appropriated the whole Thcssaly

laid in

The

a wooden ark.

to have been then inundated

few who

and nave

;

Noah:

tlic

yet

to a particular district in

scene of that flood, from which

Greece they supposed

greatest part of

and most of the inhabitants perished, except a

;

the tops of the highest

fled to

considered

alreadj'

relates to the general deluge in the time of

They

country.

he escaped

we have

history of Deucalion

clearly shewn, that

hills.

Deucalion himself,

after hav-

ing been nine days exposed to the perils of the deep, landed safely on the

summit of mount Parnassus, and Deliverer. thian

:

'

Yet

and he

this

is

there oft'ered a

very Deucalion

made

is

sacrifice

to

Jupiter the

said by Lucian to have been a Scy-

the son of the Egyptian king Prometheus, who,

having himself seen the greatest part of his subjects destroyed by a flood,

was fixed

to a peak of the Scythian

Caucasus or Meru.

Deucalion, through his reputed father Prometheus,

is

immediately con-

Dagon

nected with Atlas, with the submersion of the island Atlantis, with or the sovereign prince

Buddha in

the belly of the

fish,

with Beruth or Baris,

with the Cabiri, and with the various diluvian gods of Phenicia. rate account of his escape

Hierapolis

:

Etna and Athos,

accu-

from the flood was preserved by the Syrians of

and, in the prevailing

thought to have landed

An

as well as

humour of

local appropriation,

neighbourhood of that

in the

city

he was

and on the tops of

on the summit of Parnassus.

His deluge was

which inundated Samothrace and which constrained Dardanus to flee and it ^vas thought by some to have comthe opposite shore of Troas

that,

to

:

menced at Helic^ and Bura, and to have been caused by the action of violent winds upon the clouds which there collected together. of

The moral

occasion

was the wickedness of Lycaon, who cut Nuctimus limb from limb and

it

sacrificed

him

This fable

to Jupiter.'

Osiris and Dionusus by the Titans, of

is

nearly allied to the disreption of

Orpheus by the Thracian Bacchantes,

and of Absyrtus by Medea in the course of the Argonautic expedition it is plain however, since the fame or the family connections of Deucalion ex:

tended to Egypt, Phenicia, Syria, Scythia, Thrace, India, the mythologic island Atlantis, and the real island Sicily, that he cannot have been a mere •

Apoll. Bibl.

lib.

i.

c. 7-

§

'2.

*

Taetz. in Lycopb. ver. 72, 73.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr. petty prince of Thessaly, nor

199

deluge have been confined to Samothrace or

liis

Greece.

TheThebans,

(5.)

their story of a flood

pected

;

as well as the Thessalians and the Athenians, had also

nor

;

is

this

for their city, like the

superstitious veneration of

any thing more than might be naturally ex-

Egyptian Thebes, received

Theba

or the bovine Ark.

name from

its

the

Ogyges, the supposed

son of Neptune and Alistra, was esteemed the most ancient sovereign of Beotia

Varro

:

and

in his

time a great deluge was thought to have occurred, which

the Noetic flood, was brought, like

Egypt

:

for the Beotian

that Ogj'ges

more ancient Thebes,

With

in Beotia,

when

He

Greek

it

fables,

in the

days of

that he transfen'cd the

name

;

I\f enes

Cadmus came from this name to the city which he

Ogyges he

called

gates

its

of Thebes, he informs us, that

Theba

that in the Syriac language

of the flood, cities

signifies

a cow

;

being led by a cow to the scite of his

It is not difficult to

of that

is

Noah

decypher :

name were

and

is

Ogygian.

was borrowed

it

flourished,

and he adds,

:

whence originated the

new

fable

city.*

Ogyges, who lived at the time

this legend.

his allegorical wife

called,

tells

the rest of the coun-

according to Lycus, immediately after the flood of Deucalion

of

from

of that Thebes, which

from Theba the daughter of Jupiter and the wife of Ogyges, who

Cadmus

relates to

further tells us, that

and that from

respect to the

though

Accordingly, Tzetzes

was king of the Egyptian Thebes

was one great marsh.

founded

other of the

the Egyptian Ogyges.

alone arose above the water, try

many

fable,

Thebes and the Beotian Ogyges are a mere copy of

the Egyptian Thebes and us,

This

ascribes to an inundation of the sea."

Theba, from

whom

the two

which the Hebrews and Pheni-

the Ark,

cians and Chaldeans denominated Theba, and which was universally sym-

bolized by a

cow or

heifer.

Hence we may account of Corybas and

These, as their

the

for another fable, in

which Theba

is

made

mother of the Samothracian Corybantes or Cabiri.

whole history

sufliciently shews,

were diluvian gods:

were made, consequently, the children of Theba or the Ark. '

Varr. de re rust.

lib.

the wife

iii.

' Tzetz. in

c. 1. *

Diod. Bibl.

lib. v. p.

323.

Lycoph.

ver.

1506.

they

'"*''•

"•

'

no'JK

111.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.



200 In

the Egyptian goddess

fine,

Theba was

same

the

as

her husband Ogyges was no other than Osiris;

Baris;

Ogyges must

tells us,

that

nevertheless reported to be the

The Corybantes

and the deluge of

first

or Cabiri,

man and

in exact

Clemens

human

the father of the

who were sometimes thought

we

accordance with their general character,

race.

to be

the

of Curctes,

title

They were equally venerated

Daclyli, or Tetchines.

whence,

for

:

days of Phoroneus, who was

in the

children of Tiicba, were worshipped in Crete under the

Ida

oi*

Phoroneus and Ogyges were contemporaries, and

Ogyges happened

that the deluge of

Argo

or

Isis

clearly be identified « ith the deluge of Phoroneus

Alexandrians

(6.)

' :

in

Rhodes Cretan

find a

or Rhodian legend of a partial deluge immediately connected with them.

Nonnus

informs us, that they were the sons of Neptune

what amounts

He

to the

same

Neptune was committed

likewise tells us, that

and that they educated him

fant,

daughter of the ocean.

Cabira

'

in conjunction

the

is

mother: and the infancy of Neptune

same

is

sometimes

literally

exposed on the ocean

upon the mysterious aquatic

lotos

Theba

Noah was in

an

in-

with Caphira or Cabira the or the sea-born great Helius, Bac-

thought to have been

hence he was represented as an

:

sea.

when an

to their care

the infancy of Osiris,

chus, Jupiter, and the other diluvian gods.

born from the Ark as from a mother

as

and Diodorus,

:

were the offspring of the

that they

thing, says,

ark,

and sometimes

which among the Hindoos

is

infant,

floating

avowedly a

type of the ship Argha or Argo.

Now who

these Telchines, thus allied to the Ocean, were reckoned magicians,

could produce clouds and rain at pleasure.

where having

foretold a deluge,

The

various regions of the world. their prediction

;

they

left

They

inhabited Rhodes;

first

the island and were scattered into

flood punctually took place according to

and a few persons only escaped, among

whom

were the

sons of Jupiter so famous in Cretan story.

In

this

legend

we may

easily perceive,

through the disguise of local appro-

a very distinct reference to the monitory prophecy of

priation,

I

Clem. Alex. Strom,

^

Nonni Dionys.

'

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

lib.

i.

xxvii.

lib. v. p.

p. 3.'!.

Dioil. Bibl, lib. v. p.

3:6, 327.

3C6.

to

Jupiter occupies

the dispersion of his descendants from the plains of Shinar.

'

Noah and

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATHY. the place of the patriarch

and

;

Nor

that of the Noetic family.

he

mount

which, like

Ida,

Ararat

;

and he

who

chihhen,

esca[)e

this inconsistent

is

have been nursed, while an

said to

is

his

from the

deliifrc,

with his character: for

by doves on the summit of the Hindoo Ida-vratta or Meru, was a transcript of infant,

feigned to have been at once the father and the lover of

is

Theba, who was the w ife of the diUivian Ogy^es.

that

201

I3y her

he was the

parent of Egyptus and Danaus, Danaus being the brother of Egyptus.

Danaus was

this

Argo

Theba was sometimes reckoned

3.

Cadmus and

which

;

mother of

tlie

in

Egypt was

the ship of

Hindostan the ship of Siva.

in

*

the daughter of Cilix, the brother of

the reputed father of the Cilicians

said to be the

is

the navigator of the

Greece the ship of Jason, and

Osiris, in

But

'

:

and then

it

was, that she

As she is thus transCadmus shews) in palpable Egypt and Beotia, we shall find a story of a

Corybantes or Cabiri.'

ported into Cilicia, thouah (as her relatiunship to

connection with the theology of local deluge at Tarsus.

The

Tarsians, in their account of this catastrophe, asserted, that,

waters began to

tlie

retire,

which stood Tarsus,

first

Greeks who delighted

Hence

appeared.

Tersia or the city of dryness

;

it

In

its

which was afterwards,

immediate

name of Polis we may believe the their own language*

acquired the if

to resolve every appellation into

corrupted into Tarsus.

when

the tops of the Tauric mountains, at the feet of

vicinity another tradition prevailed,

which has evidently been borrowed from the emission of the Noetic raven.

A

neighl)ouring town, called Mallus, w as supposed to have received

its

de-

nomination from the circumstance of a raven's having brought a lock of wool there. *

The Tauric mountains, which

which the Tarsians,

to

Tzetz. in Lycoph. vcr. 1206.

'

father for

to

Bdus

what

Ark

be

Bolus,

and

or

name

common ApoU.

Bibl. lib.

From

name

w ere

the ridge,

of local appropriation, fixed the

spirit

mother Anchinoe.

tiuir

or Baal was an oriental

different appellation.

clude the

ii.

c. 1.

But

§ 4.

this

ApoUodorus makes

amounts

of Jupiter, and Anchinofe was

the evident personal identity of

of the latter to be a corruption of Arehinoi or

to the

tlieif

same thing:

Theba under a some-

Theba and Anchinoi,

I

con-

Archa-Nuc, which denotes the

Argha of Noah.

* Schol. in Apoll. '

in the

rose above their city,

Diod. Bibl.

Argon,

lib. v. p.

lib.

i.

ver. 4.

Idol.

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi. p.

323.

* Eustath. in Dionys. Pericg. ver. 870,

Pag.

Plut. de Isid, p. 359.

875.

VOL.

II.

2

C

523.

<^hap. yi.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

aOa suoK

III.

appulse of the Ark.

There was another

similarly connected with the

eastern

Armenia

history of the

into Bactriana.

The

but Tabris or Tebriz or Tabaris.

is

as

Theba or Argha

or the

Ark.

it is still

accurately

not Tauris, as the Greeks wrote

This word,

in perfect

the Cilician tradition, denotes the place of the Baris

same

same name and

which extended from

deluge,

real appellation, as

preserved by the natives of the country, it,

ridge, bearing the

:

agreement with

but the Bans was the

THE ORIGIN OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY. BOOK

IV.

CHAPTER

I.

Concerning the identity and astronomical character of the great gods of the Gentiles.

HOUGH

JL

the Gentiles were ostensibly polytheists

in absolute strict-

compound

ness of speech, they worshipped only one great the reputed parent of the Universe.

yet,

;

deity,

who was

All their gods ultimately resolve them-

who was esteemed the great father all their goddesses finally prove to be only one goddess, who was accounted the great mother and these two beings at length appear as a sole divinity, who was thought lo partake of both sexes, and who was venerated as alike the father and the selves into a single god,

:

:

mother of the whole world. Yet, while the Gentiles were thus worshippers of one deity, they did not

The

worship the Almighty Creator of heaven and of earth. they adored, was not the Unity of the real

revered as God,

butes ascribed to led

many

it

which

unity,

though, since

;

had thence by a necessary consequence the divine

it.

But, decorated as

writers to mistake

it

in the place

it

was

for the genuine

creature, or rather a very remarkable

worshipped

Godhead in

Deity

This

was

attri-

such a manner, which has ;

it

compound of

of the Creator.

it

will

was

after all

creatures, distinctly

a mere

which was

appear from

every part of the character of the great UJiiversal parent of heatlien mythology,

when

it

shall

have been carefully traced through

all

its

various ramifi-

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

206

and astronomical

inquiry with discussing the identity

I begin the

cations.

character of the gods of the Gentiles.

The

I.

ancient mytliologists of

all

nations are

each of their chief masculine deities

is

equally the Sun

less explicitly tlian consistently maintain,

rently distinct, are fundamentally one

unanimous

in asserting,

that all these deities, though appa-

and the same.

Their testimony there-

what may be called the astronomical or

fore sufficiently establishes

that

and thence they no

:

celestial

character of the pagan hero-gods.

Thus, to descend to particulars, Saturn or Cronus

1.

declared to be the

is

Sun by Macrobius and Nonnus.' Jupiter

C.

name

\he poems whicli bear the

Pluto or Aidoneus

3.

Sun by IMacrobius, Nonnus, and

said to be the

is

is

from

position follows also

of Orpheus.'

said to be the

Sun by

the Orphic poet

it

and

this

who

are

established, that Eusebius asks in

who were one and

astonishment, on what grounds Pluto and Sarapis,

same

:

his declared identity with other deities

So well indeed was

avowedly the Sun.

the author of

the

infernal deity, could yet be identified with the solar orb.

Bacchus or Dionusus

4.

is

Macrobius, Sophocles, and 5.

Priapus

is

represented as the Sun by Virgil, Ausonius,

Orphic poet.*

tlie

said to be the

Sun by the Orphic

who

poet,

identifies

him

with Protogonus and Dionusus.' 6.

That Apollo is the Sun,

it

may seem almost

specially the eolar deity of classical

be

so,

one of

if

needless to prove, as he

He

mythology.

is

is

asserted however to

proof be required, by Macrobius, Nonnus, the Orphic poet, and

his

own oracular responses

:

and Ovid

inditferently calls

him Phoebus

and the Sun.^ '

Macrob. Saturn,

lib. i. c.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

Fragni. p. 364. Edit. Gesn. ^

*

Orph. Fragra. V'irg.

Fragm.

Georg.

edit.

p.

lib.

c.

lib. xl. p. lib. xl. p.

683, 684, 6S5.

683, 684, 685.

Orph.

13.

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

lib. iii. c.

13. p. 76.

Orph. Fragm. apud Macrob. Saturn.

ver. 6,7, 8.

Gesn, p. 363, 364.

Antig. vcr. Il62

vii.

Nonni Dionys. Nonni Dionys.

23. p. 215.

Hymn.

364. i.

52. p. 214.

Auson. Epig. 30.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

lib.

i.

i.

c.

18.

c. 18.

Orph. Soph.

— 1170-

'

Orph. Hymn.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

v.

1, 8,

lib.

Orac. Vet. Opsop. p. 6.

p. xxix. 1, 2. i.

c. 17.

Nonni Dionys.

Ovid. Metam.

lib, i. ver.

lib. xl.

751, 752.

Orph. Hymn, lib.

ii.

ver. 1.

vii,

12. xxxiii.

'

THK ORIGIN' OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Janus

7.

Pan

8.

poet.

be

said to

is

or Piianes

cw^f-

Sun by IMacrobius.

tlie

also said to be the

is

207

Sun by Macrobius and

the Orphic

*

Hercules

9.

Vulcan or Hephestus

10.

whom

The

the Orpliic poet.

the

same

as

they professedly venerated as the Sun.*

Esculapius or Asclepius

11.

Sun by

said to be the

is

Phtha and Ammun ; and esteemed him

Egyptians called him Osiris,

Sun by Nonnus and Macrobius.'

said to be the

is

said to be the

is

Sun by Macrobius.

This

opinion was so fully recognized by his worshippers, that Eusebius ridicules as a well-known absurdity, on the ground that he

Apollo,

who

himself also

under the two-fold relation of son and

tually represented

12.

was viewed under

Orphic poet he

is

said to be the

is

who

is

similarly pro-

He

;

who was reckoned

was also the Theutates of the

Buddha or Sacya

and Buddha again

:

is

same as

the

the Tuisto of

Celts,

the Goths, and the Twashta or Tat or Datta of the Hindoos. as

perpe-

This deity was the Herm-Anubis, or Thoth, or

Taut, of the Egyptians and Phenicians

same

is

according

father,

Sun by Macrobius; and by the

declared to be the same as Bacchus,

to be the Sun.

Cronus or the Sun.

deity

ar-

different aspects.'

Mercury or Hermes

nounced

the offspring of

The same

rangement of the genealogies of the pagan gods.

as he

made

Such hoivever was the constant

the Sun.

is

is

it

Tat

is

the

ultimately allowed to be

Surya or the Sun.* 13.

Theus, Theuth, or Thoth, was likewise a

name of Mars

or Arcs.

Hence Macrobius joins the god of war with Mercury, and declares him to

The

be equally the Sun. Scythic tribes

and

:

warrior

Mercury was

Wudd or Budd

'

Macrob. Saturn,

lib. i. c.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.i.

'

Nonn. Dionys.

*

Orph. Hymn.

lib. xl.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.i. c.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

10.

i.

c.

into

Wudd

of the

Europe by the Gothic emigrants

Orph. Fragm. apud Mac. Saturn,

Macrob.

'

or

17. p. 195. c. 9. p. 157.

c.22,

Sat. lib.

Jamb, dc Myster.

Ixv. 6.

Woden

was the same as the Indo-Scythic Buddha,

whose worship was brought from Asia

*

the

20. 19-

Moor's Hind. Pantb. p. 2i9.

i.

c.

lib.

i.

c.

18.

Hymn.

v. S.

20.

sect. viii. c. 3.

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

lib. iii. c. 11. p.

Plut. de Isid. p. 36S.

75.

Euseb. IVa-p. Evan.

lib.

i.

c. P,

>•

'

XHK OHIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

208 BOOK

IV.

a

^rej or Heres was among the eastern nations

Cashgar and Bokhara,

fpQj^

of the Sun

title

word,

but

is

the solar

and

:

Ma- Arts

as the Latins compoundedly expressed the

J\fars,

As Mars, from

or the great Ares.

Each of

dred appellation of Dus-Ares. the Sun: and

borrowed

it

their

may

these

names

be observed, that from Thoth or

word Theus as the Latins did

their

God

has been taken from another appellation of

we

1

same

the

Siculus,

this

Our

same

English word

deity,

which toge-

are varied

titles

of

Wudd

or

God,

Buddha; and

Thoth or Hermes.'

Horus, and Serapis, are each said to be the Sun by Diodorus

Osiris,

4.

as

Greeks

received from our Indo-Scythic ancestors.

Ghaut, Godama, and Gautama, is

77?c«//j the

Deiis, which they seve-

used by way of eminence to denote the godhead.

ther with our language

kin-

Thoth-Ai'cs or Thoth

is

rally

Buddha

with

his identity

Taut or Mercury, was called Theiis-Ares ; so Dionusus bore the

Macrobius, Eusebius, an ancient oracle of Apollo, and the author

of the HorapoUine hieroglyphics.

Belus or Baal

15.

denoting

Lord ;

is

just as

said to be the

Moltch

names of the same

clearly

solar god.

riences similar modifications, as signifies the

a mere

title,

King: and jBflfl/ and Motcch were The former is variously compounded, of the deity who was known by it; as

Baal-Peor, Baal-Zebub, Baal-Berith, and the

which

is

signifies

the various attributes

in allusion to

Baal

Sun by Nonnus.

like

:

the latter also expe-

Adrammelech, Anammelech, and Melchom

burning king or the king the Sun.

were the same as Jupiter, Cronus,

Osiris, or Priapus.

Baal and Molech

Thus

the chief god

of the Carthaginian Phenicians, whose bloody sacrifices plainly shew him to

be Molech,

is

said to have been

Baal-Peor identity him with

Cronus or Saturn

Osiris,

whose name some have supposed "

Lex.

©«u(raf>if, rour'

ern

flso;

This ancient particle

Afijj. Suid. is

Aiovua-ov. "^

compound Peor-Apis

Lex. Macrob. Sat.

lib.

Hebrew Mad,

i.

c.

:

and thus

19. Mou, \i.iya. Hcsych.

the Sanscrit Malta,

descrihe greatness or excess.

the

Greek

AoiKrafijv, tov

Hesych. Lex.

Diod. Bibl.

c. 12, 13.

to be the

of which

all

thus the phallic rites of

Bacchus, Seth or Typhon, and Priapus

the basis of the

Megas, and the Latin Magnus;

:

lib.

i.

p. 10.

Macrob. Saturn,

llorapoll. llierog. lib.

i.

§

71-

lib.

i.

c. 20, 21.

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

lib. iii.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. the Babylonic Belus

wise pronounced

tiie

spoken of as the Assyrian Jupiter or Zeus, and

is

same

Adonis or Attis

16.

Sun by Macrobius ; and he

may

but we

clearly gather

it

way of

in the

repeat-

is

Dagon was

the

in effect

is

Sun

:

induction.

Sanchoniatho represents him as the brother of Cronus or Molech

on the principles of heathen mythology,

same

like-

as Osiris or Dionusus.'

I cannot produce any positive declaration, that

7.

is

Cronus and the Sun.'

as

said to be the

is

same

edly declared to bethe 1

209

which,

;

pronouncing him to be the

and he adds, that he was Jupiter or Baal, considered as the patron

:

of agriculture

however, and Baal, and Cronus, were equally the

Jupiter

:

Sun.

We

may

Jerome

was a

also infer, that he

that he esteemed

it

god from the import of

of affliction : whence a compound word, and did not imagine it

that

tells us,

solar

signifies the fish

it

from a simple Hebrew radical by the addition of the

produce then the sense, which

we must

this

and On, or

at least that

proper rendering of the

latter

distress or trouble: but

which manner

it

On

word.

affliction

be the

Hebrew

signify

I doubt,

the

names of

what ought

and Jerome or

to

that,

;Encid. *

ii.

lib.

§ i.

by the

56. vcr.

lib. xl. Pescenii. Fest.

Herod. Hist.

of a very

Thus,

supposing

ear,

it

it

to

be compounded of

accordingly.

Thus

expressed the Egyptian

also

On

the

by their

Idol.

lib.

i.

c.

apud Lactant.

181.

Hieron.

Instit. lib.

comm.

in

i.

Hos.

c. 21. ix. 10.

lib.

i.

c.

Serv. in Virg.

21.

VOL.

II.

it

Porph. de Ab-

733.

Macrob. Saturn,

Pag.

own language

then, with the usual vanity of their nation, fancying that

Nonni Dionys.

stin. lib.

the sound frequently lead-

in their

two proper Hebrew words, has translated

'

the false gods of the Gentiles

have been written Dag-On, they wrote

his interpreter,

Platonists, similarly writing

in

more than one passage of

the original sense has often been wholly mistaken.

in the present instance,

conjec-

does indeed in the

express such names by words

own On ; and

The

was likewise an Egyptian name of the Sun,

The Jews wrote

different import,

:

it

his informer.

Dag

whether

though

;

To

Dagon,

title

be made up of the two words

and the consequence has been,

:

ing them to

Dagon

to

clearly ought to be understood in

Scripture.

by the ear

it

formed

to be

servile letters.

ascribes to the

such was the opinion of

ture I believe to be perfectly right

Holy

commentator

conclude, that he supposed

evident,

is

it

name.

his

2D

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATItY,

210 BOOK

IT.

Greek word, they explained

nnust of course be a exists.

it

meaning that which

as

In absolute strictness of speecli, the origin of the

not to be sought for either

in Palestine

The

or in Egypt.

Dag-On

title

is

Philistines, like the

Phenicians and the Shepherd-kings, were of the family of the pastoral Palli or Indo-Scythfe

and they brought with them into

:

whom, they had

the worsliip of that god,

their western settlements

accustomed to adore

l)ecn

in their

Meru and under the name

In the high region of the Indian Caucasus or

native Cashgar.

Buddha

the extensive empire of Ava,

Dakpo and Dagun famous Hindoo

:

On

and the Egyptian

triliteral

monosyllable

Hebrew

nify a fish in the

is still

them from the confines of

but,

;

Om

venerated

or

or

Aun

the

is

Dag

Aum.

same word

must have received

of

as the

does indeed

sig-

name

with

as the Philistines brought the

India, they

in

it

in the first in-

stance from their Cuthic ancestors of Babylonia, where tlieChaldee, a dialect

of the Hebrew, sense of ajish,

Dagun,

is

is is

known

That they received character of their god Buddha

have been spoken.

to

manifest from the

;

styled the sovereign prince in the belly of the fish.

further manifest from the character of Vishnou,

incarnate in the person of Buddha, and

Now the form of

identified with him.

of a

man joined

to or issuing

with the preceding the

same as

that of

title

from a

of Buddha.

Vishnou

Buddha-Dagun, according

in the

who

Vishnou

fish

;

who

it

in the

wiio, as

This

is

yet

allowed to have been

is

therefore must ultimately be in the

Matsya Avatar

is

that

a form, Avhich exactly corresponds

But the form of Dagon was

Matsya Avatar ;

the

same

precisely

also, as that

of

to his title of the sovereign prince in the belli/

of

Odacon or Anne-Dot mode of worship originated. Hence the Philistines is the Buddha-Dagun of

thejish; the same moreover, as that of the Oannes or

of Babylon, whence

this hieroglyphical

Dagon of Buddha however is pronounced to be the same as the the Indo-Scythas. Hindoo triad Brahma- Vishnou-Siva conjointly. The title therefore of Om is equally bestowed upon Buddha and upon this triad and Buddha and the triad are alike declared to be astronomically tlie Sun. But, among the Egyptians, On was a name of the solar deity. Consequently, the import of the word Dagon will be the Sun xvorsliipped under the form of a jish. It may be observed, that the oriental Buddha is not only called Dagun and Dak-Po, but likewise Pouti-Sat. Tliis serves additionally to prove, that the name of the Philist^an Dagon was brought by his worshippers into Palestine, I think

it

evident, that the

:

'

THE

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

ORIGIN' OF

noi frmned subsequently to their arrival there.

one of the

of

titles

composition

Dagon was

On

witii

Sanchoniatho informs

But Siton

Siton.

and Seth, which

:

is

211

or Sid united in

Setli

is

name of Typlion,

the Egyptian

The Dagon and Siton, in plainly the Buddha-Dagun and

evidently the Indo-Scythic Sat.

is

and Phenicians are

Philistines

us, that

of the

short,

the Pouti-Sat

or Buddha-Sat of the Cuthic Hindoos.

That Dagon

is

astronomically the Sun,

may be

yet further argued from the

character of Atargatis or Derceto, the Syrian Venus.

form precisely the same as Dagon, allowing only

Now

Derceto

is

declared to be the same as Isis

by Diodorus, was the

may

:

This goddess was

for the difference of sex.

and

as

Isis,

we

are assured

If then the female deity was the INIoon,

IVIoon.

in

we

from the genius of old mythology, that the correspond-

safely conclude,

ing male deity was the Sun.

The

18.

very same astronomical character

the Hindoos,

Brahma- Vishnou-Siva

god, but likewise by

all their

;

is

sustained by the triple god of

and not only by

other male deities.

sured, ultimately resolves himself into

Brahm;

unity springs the subordinate triad,

acknowledged

is

this

Each of

preeminent tliese,

triple

we are

as-

while Brahm, from whose

The

to be the Sun.

peculiar mode, in which the Hindoos identify their three great gods with the

a curious specimen of the physical refinements of ancient my-

solar orb,

is

thology,

jlt flight

the east

and

1 he Persian

19.

Slatius,

and

The

20.

is

in

'

;

from

who

Druidical Hu,

is

c. 3. p.

Ausc. Phys.

is

203.

lib. iv.

Hu

Diod. Bibl.

Moor's Hind. Pantt.

'

Strab. Gcog. lib. xv. p. 732. i.

ver.

715

clearly the

to

is

Siva.

Brahma,

in

'

have been the Sun

same character

the mighty, in the world's lib.

i.

c. 10.

Hicron.

Parkhurst's Hcb. Le.\. vox HJi.

*

Thebaid.lib.

known

is

he

:

and

as the

Greek

who is thence rightly so called by Dionysius, is anowho in his celestial capacity is undoubtedly the Sun.

Sanchon. apud Euseb. Praep. Evan.

in Arist.

he

;

an ancient inscription preserved by Martianus Capella.'

smallest of the small

ii.

Vishnou

to evenitig,

INIithras also is well

or Dionusus and

Syr. synt.

noon

is

declared to be so by Strabo, Hesychius, Suidas, Nonnus,

ther of the gentile gods,

The

Sun

in the "west, the

in the mornii/g

accordingly he

Huas

and

p. 6, 9, 13, 33,

et iufra.

lib.

i.

Comm. apud

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

Seld. de diic

285.

Symes's Einbass. to Ava. vol.

p. 10.

277, 294.

judgment, says

Asiat. Res. vol.

Ilesycb. Lc.\. Suid. Lex. Soli invicto Mithrce.

i.

p. 267. vol.

Nonni Dionys.

Inscript.

ii.

Simp, p.

v. p.

1

10.

254.

lib. xj.

Slat.

apud Mart. Capell.

lib. iii.

'^"'*'- '•

212 BOOK

IV.

Rhys Brydydd, meaning,

the bard

ible in the

we

over us, sxcift

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

THIi:

.

I

eyes of the evangelized Britons

the greatest zvhom

I

is

is

He

his car.

L ight is his

is

Beli,

to him, the

supreme

great and bountiful.

and

seas,

Let us beware

Sometimes

Baal : and,

alike celebrated as the sovereign of

lord of Britain,

manifest, that

it is

among

appears,

course

this

which the Romans wrote Belivus ; an appellation,

and the Sun, were

The name

and lord

great on land and

plainly deducible from the oriental Bel, Belus, or Beli,

the greatest

shall behold, greater than the worlds.

of offering mean indignity god was called

ytt he

:

and our god of mystery.

sincerely believe,

a particle of lucid sun-shine

:

apprehend, that he had become contempt-

Hu

since IIu,

heaven and the

or Beli was the solar deity.

the different Celtic tribes, to have been variously

expressed Beli, Belis, Belen, Belatucader or the illustrious Beli, and Abel-

father Baal the Sun ; which

lion or

same compound

may be

varied,

title

Selden rightly refers

nounces the god who bore

The same

21. its first

last,

mistake not,

its

:

is

precisely the

however

but,

it

and pro-

origin to the eastern Baal,

be the solar divinity of the Hyperboreans.'

to

it

I

if

Apollo or Apollon

as the classical

mythological ideas prevailed also in America at the period of

discovery.

The Mexicans worshipped

offspring of their principal

god

But

Vitzliputzli.

him the

the Sun, esteeming this

circumstance, by the

general analogy of Paganism, shews, that Vitzliputzli was himself the Sun.

Thus

the

Hindoos considered

their triad as the offspring of

Egyptians reckoned Horus the son of Osiris, and HeHus

Vulcan

;

Brahm and

the son of Plitha or

the solar orb.

to be the son of

the great triad, Osiris and Horus,

Apollo and Esculapius, Cronus and Jupiter, were

22.

thus the

;

and thus the Greeks feigned Esculapius to be the son of Apollo,

Apollo to be the son of Jupiter, and Jupiter again while yet

Brahin

all

Cronus

:

Phtha and Helius,

equally and severally

*

The Sun was

likewise the principal god

worship was joined with that of Virachoca

:

of the Peruvians

a junction, by which

timated, that Virachoca himself was the Sun,

when

his character

;

it

and

was

his in-

was viewed

astronomically.'

'

Dionys. Pericg. ver.

336, 562.

565—574.

Seld. de diis Syr. synt'.

*

Purch. Pilgrim,

b. viii. c.

^

Purch. Pilgrim,

b. ix. c.

ii.

11. 10, 11.

Davies's c. 1. p.

Myth, of 143.

Brit.

Druids, p. 110, 116, 117, 120,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

213

II As most of the great gods of the Gentiles are declared by the old mythological writers to be each separately the

Such accordingly

arcane theology of Paganism.

appears, as

this

we

we may

so

;

naturally expect

would be a prominent feature

to find, that their general unitual identity

name, by which

Sun

the case

is

in the

and the special

:

mystic intercommunion of deities was usually designated,

learn from Damascius, to have been in the

Greek language

Theocrasia.^

Many

are the declarations to this purpose, Avhich are

Damascius and Suidas

us,

and Adonis

assert the identity of Osiris

Dionusus and Attis

Alexandrinus teaches that of

neus, were but one and the

and Clemens

;

while Macrobius informs

Horus, and Liber, were

that Adonis, Attis, Osiris,

and Ausonius, that Bacchus,

:

Thus

extant.

still

all

equally the

Sun

;

Phanac, Dionusus, Liber, and Aido-

Osiris,

same god under

different names.

*

In a similar

manner, the Orphic poet declares, that Jupiter, Pluto, and Bacchus were only varied appellations of the Sun

and Diodorus and Suidas

:

Osiris and Bacchus were one divinity. learn from Jamblichus,

was the same as Osiris

by Diodorus, was the same as Serapis, Jupiter.*

Thus

likewise

So agiin

'

Osiris,

:

:

Vulcan or

tell

us,

Plitha, as

that

we

and Pan, as we are taught

Ammon, and

Dionusus, Pluto,

Anubis or Hermanubis, the Egyptian Thoth or Mer-

cury, was no other, we are

told,

than Cronus or Saturn;

one deity with the Molech or Baal of Palestine.

wiio himself again

With

'

the Egyptian

was

Thoth

or Taut, the oriental Tutor Buddha clearly identifies himself: and, as Brahma,

Vishnou, and Siva, are mutually the same deity; so they are severally declared to be one with Buddha.*

Nigidius, turn,

'

was the same

though the

Oirifiv

ovra,

Janus, in like manner, as

as Apollo;

nai Aowviv

xara

ri)v

learn from

and thence the same as Cronus or Sa-

was reputed to have been

latter

we

/Ai/vrocijy

his host.'

©EOKPAHIAN.

Mars

Dainas.

again, in

vit. Isid.

apud

Phot. Bibl. p. 104.9. *

Damas. ut supra. Suid.

Saturn, '

* '

stin.

lib.

i.

c.

Orph. Fragm. Gesn.

jAmb. de Mysler.

vox

p.

364.

Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 12.

'Hfa'iVxoj.

Diod. Bibl.

sect. viii. c. 3.

Plut. de Isid. p. 368. lib. ii.

Le.\.

Macrob.

Ausoii. Epig. 30.

21, IS.

lib.

i.

Diod. Bibl.

p. 13.

lib.'i.

Pcscen. Fest. apud Lactan.

Suid. Lex.

p. 22.

Instil, lib.

i.

c.

21.

Porphyr. de Ab-

§ 56.

'

Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 6, 9.

'

Nigid. apud Maciob. Saturn,

Asiat. Res. vol. lib.

i.

c. 9>

7.

i.

p.

285.

vol. v. p.

254.

CHAP.

I.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

214 MOOK

IV,

judgment of Macrobius, was one with Bacchus and Mercury; and Apollo,

the

according to the Clarian oracle,

So

Sun.' Britons

;

likewise Dionysius tells us, that Bacchus

But we

or Beli, that he had

that the national

find,

specially adored in the

immense

and Apollo, then were one god

chus and Apollo ascribed to him

worship of these two hill

a vast

Hu

and that he

Ajjollo,

Hu, Bucchus,

had the attributes both of Bac-

we

as

latter deities prevailed

in

learn from

Macrobius, the

mystic union on the sacred

Parnassus/

But, on a subject like Suffice

nus

so,

;

Hu

in

of this deity was

circle of Stone-Hengc.'

and, as

:

title

Bacchus and

the attributes of

all

and the

was the great god of the

and Diodorus, that they worshipped Apollo or the Sun

circular temple.'

was

with Horus, Osiris, JBacchus,

it

this,

to say in conclusion,

or the first-born,

it

were almost endless to multiply

authorities.

according to the Orphic poet, Protogo-

that,

Phanes, Priapus, Titan, Helius or the Sun, Jupiter,

Pan, Hercules, Cronus, Prometheus, Bacchus, Apoilo, Pean, Adonis, and Cupid, are the

same

one divinity

all

:

as that Prometheus,

according to Sophocles, Titan or the Sun

whom

is

the Orphic poet declares to be Cronus;

according to Statius, Titan, Osiris, and iMitliras, are only different names

of the solar god Phoebus or Apollo Belus,

Ammon,

Apollo, are

all

:

and, according to

Nonnus, Hercules,

Cronus, Jupiter, Scrapis, Phaethon,

Apis,

fundamentally one and the same god

;

jMithras,

and that god

and

is

Helius

p. 36-1.

Hymn,

or the Sun.* '

Macrob. Saturn,

*

Dionys. Perieg. ver. 565

*

Davies's Mythol. p. 113,

*

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

'

Orph. Hymn.

1, 8,

xxxiii.

1, 3.

v.

lib.

Iv. Ivii.

Nonni Dionys.

lib. .\I.

i.

i.

c. 19.

— 574.

c.

Orac. Vet. Opsop. Diod. Bibl.

lib.

p. 6. p. 130.

ii.

126, 562. 18.

9. vii. 2, 13. x. 1,

Soph. (Edip, Colon,

12.

xi. 1.

vcr. 57-

xii. 2, 7-

Stat.

Fragm.

Thebaid.

lib.

i.

ver

727—741.

CHAPTER

II.

Respecting certain remarkable opinions which the Gentiles entertained of the Sun.

I Hus

I.

it

sufficiently appears, that the chief

was the Sun, adored, agreeably great variety of

names both

which names,

try;

But,

gods.

in the

A\hile the

masculine deity of the Gentiles

to the mystic theocrasy of

in different countries

Paganism, under a

and even

in the

popular worship, were erected into so

Sun was

their

acknowledged principal

same coun-

many

distinct

divinity,

they

some very remarkable opinions concerning him, which are by no means applicable to the literal Sun and the origin of these opinions is in

entertained

:

by themselves

fact explained

1.

Among man

of a

the ancient Egyptians, the

sailing in a ship

upon

ed on the back of a crocodile ship,

but at

Clem. Alex. Slrom.

nymph, *

p.

in a

manner, Avhich

sufficiently in-

is

Sun was represented under the

the ocean.'

:

256.

lib. v.

Dut. dc

Clem. Alex. Strom,

Jamb. deMyster.

his vehicle,

Isid.

p.

566.

tlie

man

appeared, floating in the

the aquatic lotos

ship being omitted.'

Jamb, de

figure

Sometimes the ship was support-

sometimes the

the same time seated upon

was simply

the lotos

'

and that

;

and unambiguous.

telligible

INIyster. sect. vii.

:

and sometimes

At other times

p. 151.

Porph. de ant.

p.36i.

lib. v. p.

sect. vii. p. 151.

566. Porph. apud Euseb. Praep. E\an.

lib. iii. c. 9- p. 69..

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATIO

.

216 DooK

IV.

again he was depicted, not as a

grown man, but

full

within the calix of the mystic lotos

:

and

man

that amphibious animal the frog, which, as

it

must

lotos,

Bembine

in the

another variety; for there the place of the

as a child, yet

table

or the infant

is

we

seated

find yet

occupied by

similarly appears floating

considered as a symbol of the Sun.'

similarly be

still

on the

The

later

heathens attempted to give various refined physical reasons for such an extraordinary

mode

very easy to

mariner

;

why

of hieroglyphical representation

conceive,

why

the literal

the literal

:

but

yet remains not

it

Sun should have been esteemed a

Sun should have been placed

a ship, and set

in

why the literal Sun should use the aquatic lotos as his most proper vehicle why the literal Sun should be supported in his ship on why the literal Sun should be most aptly symbolized the back of a crocodile on the ocean

afloat

;

;

;

by a watery frog or a new-born infant

in the calix

of a lotos.

This

last part

of his character seemed so thoroughly ridiculous and unnatural to Julius Firmicus, that he could not forbear exclaiming, JVho ever beheld the

personate a boy?'' literal

How

And

Sun were intended

well indeed might he ask such a question,

but just as well might

:

it

the

be additionally asked>

can the fiery Sun be a xvatery frog, and with what propriety can he

be viewed as floating in the cup

of a

or as steering

lotos

a ship over the

waves of the ocean ? 2. Yet, however singular these notions may be, they are

lizing still prevails

among

the Hindoos

ginated from a similar train of ideas. equally declared to be the Sun

that country, either seated

:

and doubtless

:

The

but

on the lotos

still ;

far

Just the same

peculiar to the Egyptian school of theology.

all

if

Sun

in

from being

mode

of symbo-

both nations

it

ori-

three great gods of Hindostan are

we

find them, in the

mythology of

or sailing over the ocean in a ship

upon the surface of the great deep, sometimes on the leaf of a sacred tree, and sometimes on a huge sea-serpent coiled up in the form of a or floating

boat.'

So completely indeed do such speculations enter

the Brahmens, that one of the

bom •

as

an infant out of the

Plut. de Isid. p. 355.

members of

lotos,

is

said to have been

while another specially bears the * Jul.

Fig. in tab. Berab. *

their triad

into the creed of

See Plate

II.

Fig. 1.

Firm, de error, prof.

name of

rel. p. 19.

'

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Narayan

or he "who moves on the waters.

217

In exact accordance with

part of his character, their solar god, under his

of

title

Narayan,

this

repre-

is

sented upon a krge scale in the royal gardens of Cathmandu, as reclining on

a sort of bed which appears to

water of an

float in the literal

tank

artificial

or fountain.

This same floating Sun was not unknown to the Greeks, whose theology

3.

was

radically the

of Stesiciiorus

is

same

as that of Eg}'pt

yet extant, wherein he celebrates a voyage of the solar deity

over the broad expanse of the ocean story

who was

told of Hercules,

is

justly remarks, that his cup, as

These

employed

be easily traced

avowed

in

which

himself the

Sun

exactly similar

on which IVIacrobius

;

cup of Bacchus, was a

well as the

The

mythology of Greece and Egj'pt, but

in the

the ship of the solar Siva

cup or dish

An

a golden cup.

to represent the ship of the Sun.

We

that of Hindostan.

in

in

ship.

from the circumstance of the yellow or golden cup of

fables originated

the lotos being

A curious fragment

and Hindostan.

mean

fruit

the

are told, that the

same thing

;

the deities, are distinguished by one appellation

;

it is

cup of the

may

distinctly-

lotos

and

and the sacred

that this ship,

and flowers are wont to be

notion

sacrificially

offered to

and that the cup, being

thus designed to represent the ship, ought properly to be shaped like a boat,

though

it is

prevailed

sometimes made of a round or of a square form.

among

Macrobius not only

the Greeks.

Hercules, Bacchus, or the Sun, was a ship

known by navigation

name of

the

Carches'ta,

and he adds, that

:

it

;

lost, that

bius, that at

we may

collect

one period

it

Similar ideas that the

cup of

but he asserts, that the goblets,

were so called

in

reference to the art of

was one of these Carchesia, which Jupiter

gave to Alcmen^ the mother of Hercules. being

tells us,

So

far

indeed was the notion from

from a fragment of Menander cited by Macro-

was not unusual among the Greeks

to designate

much perhaps in the same manner as we are The maritime Venus-Colias, who was astronomi-

ships by the appellation of cups,

wont

to call

them

cally the jNIoon,

vessels.

had her sacred navicular goblet, no

Hercules and the Sun

though

its

than Bacchus and

place was often supplied by a large circular

within which the goddess appears standing upright

sea-shell,

'

;

less

Asiat. Res. vol.

Pag.

Idol.

viii.

p. 52. vol.ii. p. 313.

VOL.

II.

:

and wc must

Moor's Hind. Pamh. passim. i2

E

*^"'^''*

"•

'

218 BOOK

IV.

OUIGIV OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

THF.

not omit to observe, that these boat-like cups or imitative ships of the solar deity were sometimes adorned with the figures of doves perching

upon

their

covers. 4.

So strongly was

this

idea of a mariner

Sun impressed upon the minds of

the ancient pagans, that they even transferred

with making the Sun

sail

solar system as one large vessel

;

These eight

Not

to the sphere.

which the seven planets act as

in

while the Sun, as the fountain of ethereal tain.

it

content

over the ocean in a ship, they considered the whole

presides as the pilot or cap-

light,

who

mariners,

celestial

sailors,

navigate the ship of the sphere,

are clearly the astronomical representatives of the eight great gods of Egypt; of

all

whom,

including the

Sun

were wont (according to Por-

as their head,

phyry) to be depicted, not standing on dry land, but sailing over the ocean in a ship.* 5.

To

the Sun, thus steering his planetary ship through the midst of hea-

ven, the old theologists ascribed the guardianship of a gate or door, assigning

another similar door to the protection of the Moon. they placed in the two opposite tropics

These imaginary doors

and from them, they taught, that

:

human

souls were mysteriously born

deemed

the male and female principles of generation.

esteemed the creative Nous or Mind

while the

;

:

Sun and

the

Hence

and, just as the solar

all

Moon were

the former

was

Brahm of

the

Hindoos, and the solar Mithras of the Persians, were each believed to have triplicated themselves,

each of

whom was

and thus to have produced three subordinate gods,

nevertheless the

Sun

so the solar Nous,

;

who was

reck-

oned the Life or Soul of the World, was thought to have especially begotten three younger Noes,

though

all

human

were generally born from the

souls

astronomical door over which he presided with his seven planetary companions in his celestial ship.' '

Much

the

same notions respecting

Fragm. Stesich. apud Athen. Deipnos.

Apc'lod. Bibl.

lib.

ii.

c. 4.

§ 10.

lib. xi.

Asiat. Res. vol.

p.

vi.

this

birth of souls

Maciob. Saturn,

469.

p. 521.

Athen. Deipnos.

lib. v.

c.

lib. xi. p.

21.

474,

487, 490. *

Martian. Capell. Satyric.

lib.

ii.

p. 43.

Herod,

lib.

ii.

c.

145.

Porph. de ant. nymph, p.

256. '

Hence,

in reference to the birth of

Noah from

the door, he,

or Intellect of the Unncrse, was wont to be denominated

Nom

who was esteemed

from

the door.

the

Nou&

ITffi Ss rr^y

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATllY. may be

and that

;

one of these

in

which are destroyed by a deluge either of great period, are born again this

We are told,

traced in the sacred writings of the Hindoos.

are seven worlds or heavens

world of births

On

divinity, the

whence

:

fire

of the Egyptians

nounces the sacred word Om,

Om!

following meditation.

is

there

creatures,

And

called the xvorld of' births.

it is

for the

;

all living

*''**''

tiiat

or water at the close of each

Om

immediately connected with

is

219

or the triple solar

devout aspirant, whenever he pro-

employ

directed to

his thoughts

with the

earth! sky! heaven! middle region! place of

births! 7nanslo?i of the blessed! abode of truth.' II.

Sometimes we

find the

particular specification

Thus,

in the

made a road

in

is

aspirant

who

made of

closely united with the ocean, though

the regent of the waters

is

said to have

untrodden space to receive the footsteps of the Sun, whose

we

daring profligacy of the wicked

are told,

is

and

:

this

mysterious

the most proper subject of meditation for the

about to purify himself by swimming.

is

Thus, in the mytho-

logy of the old Atlantians, the Sun was thought to have been plunged

Po; which,

the Eridanus or

symbolizing the ocean nifestly

been borrowed

of the Sun, was

no

his ship.

Hindoo mythology,

office it is to restrain the

circumstance,

Sun

a

:

;

story,

whence the

classical tale of

made by

but Phaethon, though

Sun

into

Nile of Egypt, was a sacred river

like the

And

Phaethon has ma-

the poets the offspring

in the

mythology of the

ancient Mexicans which their fathers certainly brought with

them out of Asia,

Sun

the

is

III.

its

Sun was pursued by and that he

this description 1.

and when

close,

Herodotus

drowned

all living

in the sea,

when

a former

things perished by water.

*

is,

the Ocean, that he escaped by taking refuge in a finally

vanquished his aqueous enemy.

Fable*

occur in Egypt, in Greece, and even in America. that near

tells us,

Gregor. Nazianz. de Spirit. Sanct. after him, that '

thus,

Sometimes again we meet with legends, the substance of which

floating island,

of

himself.

feigned to have once been

world came to

that the

really the

Buto there was a deep and broad

Gregory unhappily

fancies,

as

many

lake,

raadcrns have don«

by the mundane Nous the pagans darkly meant the Holy Ghost.

Porphyr. de antr. nymph,

Proc. in Plat. Tim. p. 93,

9-i,

p.

95.

263

— 268.

Macrob.

in

somn. Scip.

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 348, 351.

lib,

i.

c.

20. p. 69,

Macrob. Saturn,

lib. i.

C.18. p. 201. *

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 360.

Filgriin. b. viii, c. 13. p. 8O6.

Died. Bibl.

lib. iii. p.

I90. Sophoc. Elect, ver. 826.

Purch.

"'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN' IDOLATUY.

220 BOOK

IV.

ip

which was a reputed floating

ple dedicated to the Sun,

the Greeks did tars,

Phabus

its

whom

the Egyptians

most usually called Horus as

The temple was

or Apollo.

furnished with three al-

agreeably to the prevailing opinion that the Sun triplicated himself or

produced out of it

In this island there w as a large tem-

island.

his

was not supposed

own

have been always

to

As

essence three younger divinities.

to be

but to have lost

in a floating state,

When

firmness in consequence of the following circumstance.

w hom the Egyptians acknowledged

no other

for the island,

tlian the sea,

Typhon,

was roaming

round the world in pursuit of the solar deity Horus, Latona, who was one of the primitive eight gods and w ho dwelt in the city Buto, received him in trust

from

Isis,

and concealed him from the rage of

cred island Chemmis, which then

first

began

his

adversary in the sa-

Afterwards he became

to float.

Typhon who had then commenced in the place of

suflSciently powerful to quit his place of refuge and to expel

usurped his dominions

and

:

his

own

reign

the temporary usurped domination of the ocean.' 2.

The Greeks had

specting their

Apollo

;

the solar god, that the

a story, in

main points

all

substantially the same, re-

who, as every schoolboy well knows,

names of Apollo and

The

poets convertibly and indifferently.

Sun

the

is

so decidedly

are always used by the

Hellenic fable indeed

is

palpably

nothing more than a repetition of the Egyptian one, adapted to a different country.

Python, we are

told,

was an immense serpent, the

While Latona was

by the deluge.

earth, gendered of the slime produced

offspring of the

pregnant with Apollo and Diana, or the Sun and the Moon, ster so implacably

caused the island of Delos

to

emerge out of the

sea,

Sun and

the

posed to have floated

in

therefore

order that an asy-

Moon, grasping an

At

during the pains of parturition.

in

Neptune

Here she brought

afforded to the persecuted goddess.

safety her double offspring, the

her hands

mon-

pursued her, that no place could be found upon the sur-

face of the whole earth where she might be delivered.

lum might be

this

this period

forth in

olive-tree in

Delos was sup-

an erratic state on the surface of the waters

Apollo afterwards rendered

it

stable

;

which had pursued his mother with so



Herod,

and

at length slew the serpent

much

lib. ij.c.

implacability.

156, 144.

:

but

Python,

THE

OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

ORICilN

In the present legend, Python ocean, the infant Apollo

is tlie

is

Python or Typhon

that

the flood

the

the floating island Delos oc-

infant Horus,

Chemmis, and

We additionally learn

the Egfean sea

from the

sub-

is

classical fable,

not the ocean simply, but the ocean at the time of

is

that the reason,

;

Typhon or

obviously the Eg}'ptian

cupies the place of the floating island stituted for the lake of Buto.

221

why Latona could

no resting place, was, be-

find

cause the M hole earth was subjected to the dominion of Python, or in other

w ords was the

Moon

laid

under water

were born

when

must be understood

the solar god

Chemmis, was

was that of the deluge.

the floating island,

in

since the classical tale

being the case, the latter

and that the precise period, when the Sun and

;

in a similar

Horus was obliged him

The time

manner.

consequently,

to take refuge in the floating island

that of the general flood

the agent that thus compelled

Such

palpably the same as the Egyptian,

is

:

Typhon

and, as

to conceal himself, the

or the ocean was

ocean at the epoch

of the flood must evidently have been intended.' 3.

We

find another parallel legend

among

the Peruvians

;

tends to prove, that their theology must have sprung from a

When

w ith that of Greece and Egypt.

'

Hyg. Fab. 140. Ovid. Metam.

i5ineid.

lib.

iii.

lib.

i.

ver.

all

which strongly

common

mankind were swept away by

434—440.

lib.

vi.

332—334.

ver.

Tzetz. in Lycoph. ver. 401. Callim. llyraii. ad

ver. 75.

Tzetzes says, that Asteria, the sister of Latona, was

terwards into the erratic island Delos.

origin

first

metamorphosed

Dian.

Virg.

ver. 35.

into a tjuail

and

af-

Asteria however was the same as Latona herself, as

is

evident from the circumstance of that goddess being equally said to have been changed into a quail.

Serv. in

^neid.

the floating island.

lib.

iii.

ver. 72.

Latona

th'-Ttfore

must ultimately be

identified

with

In fact, both she and Asteria (the Astoreth of the Phenicians) were

equally the great mother or receptacle of the hero-gods, here symbolized by a floating island.

As

the raven was a bird sacred to Apollo, though

deemed a messenger of

evil tidings:

suspect, that in this part of the legend a quail has been substituted for a dove. to be the case,

we

shall

have an exact inversion of the Hindoo

time of the deluge Parvati dove.

I

am

the

much

in the

same manner

i.

ver. 2.

in

my

conjecture, because

have taken the shape of a quail no

to

as Siva

vi.

we

less

which

relates, that at the

p. 523.

into the female of that bird.

ApoHod.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

find,

that Jupiter himself

than his paramour Latona,

metamorphoses himself into a dove

Argha when changed

Asiat. Res. vol.

fable,

I

this

assumed the form of the ship Argha and afterwards that of a

more confirmed

was sometimes thought

join his consort

first

so

Supposing

in order that

he

may

still

Schol. in Pind. Nera. Od.

c. 10. § 3.

*^"^''*

"'

THE OaiGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

222

named Virachoca emerged from the 'llien tfie human great lake Titiaca, and became the founder of Cuzco. multiply the of the earth. The worupon face once more to species began

the waters of the deluge, a personage

ship of this Virachoca was joined

that of the

with

Sun

viewed astronomically, he was himself the solar god.

feigned that the struction of

hid himself,

mankind by the

Chemmis and Sun

Sun

the

Greek

and the place

;

Accordingly,

same sacred lake Titiaca a small

ruvians shewed in the

we

island

where

;

Pe-

tliC

tliej

and was thus preserved during the general de-

flood.

In

was a temple dedicated

was accounted

Here

holy.

then,

tiie

to the

symbolical

Sun concealed him-

are liteially informed, that the

self in a small island, in order tiiat

Egyptian island

this island, as in the

island Delos, there

itself

serpent being omitttd,

or rather, v\hen

;

he miglit be saved from the fury of an

universal deluge.'

IV. As cup of the

the

Sun

thus set afloat by the old mythologists in a ship, in the

is

lotos, or in

a small

erratic island

expressly referred to the time of the floud

he

is

first

:

and as his eventful voyage

;

so

we may

is

further observe, that

represented as peculiarly delighting to haunt the sacred mountain, which raised

summit

the

Thus

its

head above the

retiring waters,

and which received upon

Ark of him who was preserved trom

the favourite residence of the Greek solar deity was Parnassus,

where Hellenic legends

fixed the appulse of the sliip ot

Deucalion

the solar Siva of the Hindoos, the mariner of the ship Argha,

is

or Cailasa, where the ark of :

and

thus,

in the

the world from the top of

Menu

and

his

thus

:

exhibited

as dwelling conspicuous in his eight forms on the Cashgarian peak of

deluge

its

the general destruction.

Meru

seven companions rests after the

Zend-Avesta, the Sun

mount Albordi, which

is

is

described as ruling over

have been the

said to

first

land that appeared above the waves of the retreating flood.

V. Nor yet are these the whole of the wonderful tile

mythologists

The

tell

things,

which the gen-

us of the Sun.

old Orphic poet, the priests of Egypt, and the

Brahmens of Hin-

dostan, agree in maintaining, that he was born out of an egg, which floated

on the ocean, and which had been tossed about *

Cieza apud Purch. Pilgrim, b.

ixi c. 9. p.

at the

874.

had

mercy of the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT. elements

and he was thus produced, both

:

223

simple state of unity, and

in his

become three by a mysterious act of self-multiplication.'

as he had

Certain

powerful families, both in Hellas, Hindostan, and Peru, which claimed a

proud sacerdotal and military preeminence above the subject multitude,

and

fected to trace their descent from him,

themselves Hdiadce or Sinya-bans or

whom

men, the primeval being from

who

or

of these

Ares or Horus or Helius,

of the Sun

all

yet was he

:

father both of hero-gods

and of

were equally born, the personage

Under

himself was specially the first-produced.'

Sames

an eminent manner styled

in

Cliilclreii

common

likewise acknowledged to be the

af-

as the

Greeks

the

names

either of

rightly translated the last

of which equally denote the Sun, he was claimed by the

titles all

Assyrians and the Egyptians as one of their most ancient fabulous sovereigns

and

:

and, as the latter gave him a crocodile for the vehicle of himself

his

shi[)

and as

their ancient king Meni-S

was sa\ed on the back of a

crocodile during the prevalence of an imaginary local deluge, as the Egypt-

animal Campsa and as the word

ians

denominated

tliat

fied

an ark ;

evident, that

it is

and that the

son,

mean

the

same

deity,

who

began

his devotion

is

hieroj;!

tiling

s

In

'

Menes and

Sun must be

the

crocodile and the ship of the

pliical

the

fine,

the

Campsa

Hindoo Brahmens

di.^tinguished by such various

assert,

also signi-

same per-

Sun must

that the solar

and remarkable characteristics,

immediately after the flood, and continued

it

clLring the

space of a hundred years.*

VI. Notions lief,

that,

like these

when

would

themselves be sufficirnt to induce a be-

in

the Gentiles worshipped the

Sun and the Host of Heaven,

they did not worship them simply, but associated with them certain characters

who had

performed the actions which were thence ascribed

really

Such a conclusion would be the almost inevitable

to the celestial bodies.

result of the preceding inquiry, even

'

Orpb. Hjmn,

v. 1,

Euseb. Pr«p. Evan.

ii.

Orph. Hymn.

^

Chron. Paschal,

c. 4,

69-

V. 1, 3,

8,

p. 37.

t)iod. Bibl. lib.

* Asiat. Res. toI.

iii.

if

no direct information had been

Fragm. apud Olympiod. Coiiim.

2, 8.

lib. iii. c.

»

human

1

t).

1.

Iiistit.

Instil,

of

Died. Bibl. i.

p. 157.

p. 80.

of

Menu.

Menu.

lib.

i.

Ka/x\)/«,

c.

c. 1. § i.

p. 13. fijjx^j.

§ 9,

9-

in Phileb.

Gcsn.

edit. p.

af-

410.

12.

31, 32, 33.

Palxph. Fragm. llesych. Lex.

p. C5.

llerod. lib.

'"*''• "•

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAK IDOLATRY.

2i24 BOOK

IV.

forded us on the subject

but, so far

:

is

from being the case, that the an-

this

cient mythologists have been as unreservedly communicative as could well liave

been desired.

Hesiod informs

us, that the

demon-gods were the souls of those men, who

lived in the first or golden age,

and who were afterwards worshipped by

posterity on account of their extraordinary

virtues.'

under the name of Ha'mes-Trismegistus,

asserts,

The

when he

tells us,

IMuch the same account

the fathers were

wont

to

by

after their death

effect given

by Diodorus,

and other cognate deities, were

that Osiris, Vulcan,

originally sovereigns of the people,

is in

whom

reproach the Gentiles with their adoration of what

selves

:

acknowledge, that their gods were once

fairly

men

like

and the Buddhists, though they claim the highest honours

deity, confess that after all

and

atic

coffins

were

In a similar manner, some of the more intelligent among

relics.*

the Hindoos

all

Hence

they were venerated.'

were no better than so many dead men, whose very bones and

shewn as

writes

that Esculapius, Osiris,

and Thoth, were aH holy men, whose souls were worshipped by the Egyptians.*

who

author,

their

them-

for their

he was but a mortal.* But perhaps the most system-

explicit testimony to this

purpose

found

to be

is

in

the writings of

Cicero, because he positively declares that such was the occult doctrine taught in the Mysteries.

After enumerating various instances of

men

being ele-

vated after their death to the rank of gods, What, says he to the person with

whom he is

engaged

in disputation, is not

on this detail any further, jilkd xvith the

almost all heaven, not to carry

human

race ?

But, if

search and examine antiquity, and go to the bottom of this affair things which the Greek writers have delivered, those very gods themselves,

those sepulchres belong, which are so

member, for you are

initiated,

120

Hesiod. Opcr.

*

Hcrm. Trism. apud Medc's Apost. of

»

Died. Bib),

*

Clem. Alex. Cohort,

*

Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 14.

ct dier. lib.

lib. i.

the Dii

i.

ver.

the

majorum gentium, had

into heaven.

commonly shewn

what you have been taught

'

from

would be found, that even

and ascended from hence

their 07'iginal here belozv,

whom

who are deemed

it

I should

Inquire

in Greece.

in the

to

Re-

Mysteries

— 125. latter times, parti, c. 4.

p. 13, 14, 15.

p. 29.

Arnob. adv. gent. Asial. Res.

vii.

lib. vi.

p.

Jul. Tirni. dc error, prof. lel. p. 4, 13.

31,33.

vol. viii. p.

352.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. you

will then at length understand,

Accordingly, he himself

us in another place, that such was the univer-

am

in eflFect proves the very point I

contending for

tems of pagan mythology originated from a

same

matter may be carried.^

this

Mysteries, wherever they might be celebrated

doctrine of the

sal

tells

how far

225

common

JVhat think you, says

speculative notions.

namely that

;

he,

all

which

:

the sys-

source, and taught the

of

famous or powerful men have obtained and that these are the very gods now become the

who

those,

assert,

that valiant or

divine honours after

death,

object of

Euhemerus

tion?

I forbear

ried.

when

tells us,

to

our adora-

and where they were bu-

these gods died,

speak of the sacred rites of Eleusis, into which the rnost

Ipasi by Samothrace and the Mysteries of Lemnos, whose hidden Orgies are celebrated in darkness and amidst the thick

remote nations are initiated

shades of groves andforests things, than that

of

came

to be

The

since

learn

from them rather

means

the nature

properly be esteemed gods^

Sun and

in conjunction with the

are by no

the

is,

how

they

Host of Heaven.

at a loss for the desired information.

notion, that the souls of the

celestial bodies or

we

may

Gentiles being thus mere men, the question

worshipped

Here again we

:

of beings xcho

The gods of the

1.

;

hero-gods were either translated to the

were emanations fi'om them, constituted a very prominent

part of ancient Paganism.

Thus we

find

it

be a prevailing idea, that the Sun, the Moon, and the

to

Stars,

were not mere

ligent,

and actuated by a divine

inert matter

;

on the contrary, beings wise,

but,

Posidonius

spirit.'

supposed each Star to be the body of a deity

'

Ciccr. Tusc. Disp.

1.

de nat. deor.

Warburton

to

i.

c. 12, 13.

lib.

establish

c. 42.

i.

his theory

Gentiles worshipped dead men. things,

he

reft-rs

tells us,

no doubt

that the Stoics

and Austin represents them

that the Stars were parts of Jupiter or the

as maintaining,

* Cicer.

:

intel-

See also the apocryphal book of

Sun,

Wisdom

that they xiv. 12.

These two citations from Cicero are adduced by Bp. respecting the Mysteries

When

:

they certainly prove, that the

Cicero speaks of the Orgies teaching the nature of

to that part of

them, which set forth the doctrine of a succession

of similar worlds, or which described (as Jamblichus speaks) the conturbation of the heavens, the revealing of ihc secrets of the resting of the ship Baris. *

TTUf .

Toy r{k\w,

KM

ffeXyriv, xai

Isis,

the display of the ineffable wonders of the great abyss,

Jambl. de Rlystcr.

sect. vi. c.

ruy aWiuv avT^uiv

SKaa-Toy, sivai voe^ov

xcci

pf ovijuoi' x«i

TTUgiViP

Zen. apud Stob.

I'ag. Idol.

VOL.

II.

and

51.

2

F

CHAP.

II.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

22S BOOK

IT.

^vere all living creatures,

mentions

ter also

and

tliat

to have been

it

they

all

had rational

souls.'

an established opinion,

that,

est circuit of heaven to the sphere of the IMoon, there arc

This last wrifronv the higli-

numerous ethereal

souls which ought to be worshipped as celestial gods, and that these souls

are the Stars and the Planets which

may

but even perceived by the eye.*

intellect

the Plienicians

with Cumberland,

for,

:

The

by the

same notion prevailed

I think

animals, which

the intelligent oviform

not only be comprehended

it

among

abundantly evident, that

Sanchoniatho

calls Zopheseniin

or

Overlookers of the heavens, are the Stars, and not, as Bochart imagines, the

We

angels.'

find

it

also amoi>g the ancient Babylonians

dean oraeles, the great father erratic animals,

is

:

for,

in the

Chal-

said to have constituted a septenary of living

which are the seven Worlds or seven Planets.*

Even some

of the Jewish writers did not escape the general infection, but were led to I

adopt the theologically philosophical reveries of the Gentiles. the Stars divine images his also

Philo calls

and, in what sense he calls them so, appears fi-om

:

denominating them incorruptible and inunortal

souls.'

So

likewise

^laimonides declares, that the Stars and Spheres are every one of them animated, being endued with

life,

they acknowledge him, at whose

knowledge, and understanding

command

the world was

;

made,

and that each, of

them, according to their degree and excellency, praising and honouring him as the ancrels do.*

The was

reason,

their

why

the heavenly bodies were thus

deemed

living intelligences

and, as the

Sun

was naturally thought the peculiar

resi-

This opinion was

stre-

supposed union with the souls of deceased heroes

was the brightest of those bodies,

it

dence of the parent and chief of those hero-gods.

nuously held by the Platonists of the Alexandrian school.

:

All the superior

gods they equally esteemed to be the Sun: and the inferior gods they ima'

Aff-rjov Eivai (p^cri a-uiua. Ssioy.

* August, de civ. Dei. lib. ^

vii. c.

PosiJ.

lib.

ii.

c. 2. p.

*

Fran. Palric. Orac. Zoroast.

Ayx>Ma.ra

tit.

Phil, de opif.

* Jesudc Hattorah. c.

iii. §

9-

1 1.

lib.

i,

c. 10.

Cumberland's Sanchon.

p. 21.

Bo-

706.

*

biia.

civ. Dei. lib. iv. c.

6.

Sanchon. apud Euseb. Pra;p. Evan.

chart. Chanaan.

apud Stob. August, de

Oujavoj. p. 44. edit. Stanley.

mund.

apud Cudw.

Kf^m^Tw;

xai aSavara;

Jntcll, Syst. p.

471.

•^luyjx.;,

Phil, de

somn,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

227

gined to be deified heroes, whose souls dwelt in the bodies of the Stars.'

supported by the whole tenor of ancient mytho-

this doctrine they are fully

The Egyptian

logy.

mere men

;

we

priests, as

Horus, and

that Cronus, Osiris,

Sun

;

new

other principal deities, were once

but that, after they died, their souls migrated into some one or

became

the genii or animating spirits of

Since therefore Osiris was declared to be the

mansions/

celestial

it is

learn from Plutarch, taught expressly,

all their

other of the heavenly bodies, and their

In

evident, that, according to this system, the soul of the

was thought

man, who

was distinguished by

that appellation,

into the Solar Orb.

In a similar manner we are told by Sanchoniatho, that

Ilus or Cronus was once a man, that he was his death,

and that

his soul

was believed

among

deified

to

have been translated

by the Phervicians

after

which

to have passed into the Planet

who

bears his name.'

So

were preserved

an ark with Menu-Satyavrata, now animate the seven

in

again,

Stars of the great bear

the

while the souls of their wives shine conspicuously

;

These were the gods,

in the Pleiades.*

whom

cause their residence was in the Stars.

once

illustrious

mounted

men

;

but

it

whom

the Latins called Deastri, be-

They were thought

was supposed, that

to the Constellations as a

was Julius Cesar,

Hindoos, the seven Rishis,

their

to

have been

souls after death

reward of their exalted

Such

virtue.

the flattery indeed of the Augustan court elevated

to a Star, yet a flattery perfectly accordant with the prevailing speculations of Paganism inentioned in

From

this

:

and such doubtless were the Baalim or Siddim, so frequently

Holy

Scripture.

source plainly originated the primeval disposition of the hea-

venly bodies into distinct Constellations,

some hero or of some mysterious celebrated upon earth,

still

each bearing the name either of

hieroglyphic.

They, who had been most

retained their preeminence on the sphere

omit other more obscure Catasterisms, the warrior Nimrod

to

aloft in the constellation

-•

Plot. Ennead.

*

Taj

^

Euseb. Prap. Evan.

ii.

Orion

;

lib.

i.

Plut. de Isid.p. 354.

c. 10.

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 83, 85.

and,

towers

while, in the remarkable groupe of the ship

lib. 9.

is li/u^aj Xa^irEjy affrqa..

still

:

Moor's Hind. Paiith. p. 85.

•"'*''•

"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

Q28 »ooK

IV.

Argo, the dove, the raven, the

we may

still

altar, the victim,

and the

sacrificing Centaur,

read the well-known history of the deluge.

Sometimes, by a yet further refinement, the genius of the Sun was thought

from heaven, and

to descend

the emperor Julian,

who was

become incarnate

to

deeply versed

in the

in

human

a

Thus

body.

Mysteries of that fantastic

theology which he preferred to the rational simplicity of the Gospel, maintained, that Esculapius

was manifested upon earth

generative power of the

Sun

that the fabled

Sun

for

;

by other mythologists Esculapius

And

himself.'

nature to their

Menu

Sun

to

is

the

in the

positively declared

thus the Hindoos distinctly assign a two-fold

one point of view, he was a mere man

in

:

another, he was an emanation of the Sun.*

man was

human form by

in a

to understand, I conceive,

god of healing was an emanation of the Sun incarnate

body of a man to be the

from which we are

:

but,

;

in

But, whether the soul of the

thought to be translated to the orb of the Sun, or the genius of the

animate the body of the man,

clearly traced throughout the

this notion

of a double nature

whole mythology of the pagans, and

may be

is

in fact

the history of their gods one and

necessarily required by every page in

many.

The

2.

inquiry having been conducted thus far,

man was

•what particular

it

venerated by the Gentiles

only remains to learn, in close

union with the

solar deity.

As

cribed to the

Sun

will enable us to

with him. '

*

;

have, in consequence of this union, been as-

the various remarkable opinions entertained of the

determine the man,

who was worshipped

Hence we may gather from

Sun

in conjunction

the preceding investigation, that the

Cyril, cont. Julian, lib. vi. p. 200.

WAeiierer the deity condescends to be born of woman, the person

natures.

To

this

distinction

tradictions in the Puranas;

rata,

nou

man

the attributes of the

who are acknowledged

in hit

ae

and more

;

and Satyavrata

act independently of each other, and

Res. vol.

vi. p.

479.

pagan mythology.

one, but there arc two

many seeming con-

particitlarly so with respect to Vaivaswata

The

to be but one person.

character of the Sun

is

7nust carefnlli/ attend in order to reconcile

may

is

the

exist at the

divine nature

human nature same lime

This distinction must equally be attended to

is :

and Satyav-

an emanation of Vishthese two natures often

in different places. in

evi'iy other

Asiut.

system of

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. man age

must have been one, who performed an extraordinary voya ship with seven companions represented by the seven planets who

in question in

;

was compelled sea

;

229

to hide himself in a small floating island by the violence of the

who was born from an egg or from the calix of the

by which can only be meant that sailing in his ship,

this

lotos,

who mysteriously

thence occasionally depicted as an infant;

man was

triplicated himself,

to

;

who,

human

souls

the father of three sons

presided over a gate or door, from which

were born; who delighted

and who was

all

haunt a lofty mountain, where the ark of one

preserved during an universal flood was thought to have rested

once plunged

in a

remarkable manner into the ocean

rent, not only of a powerful family that early

we

time when these circumstances occurred, was,

when

except cal

all

the world

With

manner

in

respect to the

are told very explicitly, that

was inundated by water, and when

personage and his companions

this solar

who was

claimed and acquired a decided

but even of the whole race of mankind.

superiority,

;

and who was the pa-

;

:

all

men

it

perished

and, as for the hieroglyphi-

which they are sometimes detailed, we may clearly enough

perceive, even independent of

many

positive assertions to that purpose,

that

the egg, the cup, the lotos, the crocodile, and the floating island, in whicli or

man

out of which the thing as his ship.

man,

whom

either sails or is figuratively born,

Such being the

the Gentiles have in

case,

all

it

mountain must,

Noah

through which

in the first instance,

be the same

ages and countries worshipped in con-

the Ark must be the door of the Ark elevated ;

all

sufficiently obvious, that the

is

junction with the Sun, must be the great father that tb« sidereal door,

must

all

;

that his ship

souls are

living

the sphere; that his

to

must be born,

favourite

be Ararat ; that his three sons must be

Ham, and Japhet that his seven nautical companions must be tliat his birth from the lotos or e^g or floating island the family of Noah allegorical birth of Noah from the Ark, an idea which netlie mean must Shem,

;

;

cessarily involves the fable of his infancy

;

that his

victory over the ocean

must denote the recovery of the earth from the wide domination of the that his being reputed the

first

followed from his being the

human

race

;

sovereign of every ancient

common

ants tliough tliey admitted that

all

people naturally

father and patriarchal king of the

and that the family, ^\hich peculiarly claimed

men equally

must be the family of Cush, which, under

flood

to be his

whole

descend-

derived their origin from him,

the auspices of

Nimrod,

esta-

^°*''- "•



THE onrcrN of pagan idolatry.

230 soon

IT.

blished the only real universal empire, and wliich ever since has retained the

sovereignty over the other children of Noah.'

This would be the inevitable conclusion from the preceding inquiry, even if

the old mythologists had been silent

silent

they more than once positively

who,

:

in his

human

Thus,

destruction.

that their solar god was he,

us,

tell

himself was preserved

in the

But they are not

point.

was reckoned the subordinate agent

capacity,

on the deluge, and who

upon the

Zend-Avesta, the man-bull Taschter, who with

three associates causes the whole earth to be inundated, and that earth in three forms

Thus

the

is

yet spoken of as

Hindoo Menu-Satyavrata, who

Rishis at the time of the general deluge, tion of the solar dtity

Thus

;

hieroglyphical crocodile and

who

is is

clearly be identified with the Sun,

using the crocodile for his vehicle.

who

is

ocean that has no shores when

his character

Thus, so

Vide

the Sun. first

in

is

far as I

an ark with the seven be also an emana-

to

Menu

certainly the

because the Sun

And

all

Menu,

is

exhibited as equally

Menwvdd or Menu, Menus, who is celebrated

thus the British

who

in the ship

mankind perish

is

of the Brahmens, must

Ked

sails

exce[)t himself

Menes must

over an

and seven

necessarily be

yet positively declared to be the

Sun

viewed astronomically.* can judge, no position can be more satisfactorily esta-

infra b. vi. c. 2, 3.

* Davies's

the

saved

declared

therefore like the Egyptian

identified with the Indian

'

being celestially the Sim.

described as the head of three subordinate

companions, and who

upon

exists

saved from a flood on the back of the

as the primeval author of the Mysteiies,

when

is is

who

whence he bears the additional name of I'awa.wata.

Menes, who

the Egyptian

in bringing

an ark from the general

in

Mythol.

p.

106, 110, 121, 176.

Menwydd was

Bp. Cumberland and Dr. Shucklord think, that

king of Egypt, was the scriptural Rlizraim.

It is

what the leading doctrine of Paganism was, that Mizruim,

Abraham, may have been deemed one of but the primitive Menes,

who was

the

same

Menes,

as IIu

whom

not improbable, like

:

but IIu was

Herodotus makes

when we consider

Enoch, Cush, Nimrod, and

the subordinate manifestations of the great father;

saved from drowning at the era of an inundation by a

Camp.ia, a word whirh indifferently signifies a« ark and a crocodile, must clearly have been

Noah

or the Menu-Satyavrata of Ilindcstan.

ford's

Connect,

vol.

i.

book

iv. p.

SO/.

Cumberland's Sancbou.

p,

54

60.

Shuck-

THE OaiGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr. blished than this

when

that,

:

the Gentiles worshipped the

cipal divinity, they did not worship

liiin

231

Sun

as their prin-

simply and absolutely as the mere

chief of the heavenly luminaries; but they adored in conjunction with him,

and perpetually distinguished by

name, the patriarch Noah, whose soul

have migrated into

after death they feigned to

intellectual regent of

his

orb and to have become the

his

it.

Yet, although they venerated

Noah

as

the solar deity or (to adopt the

phraseology of the Chaldfean oracles) as the one

fire

from which

were produced, they did not venerate him exclusively as such.'

things

all

Agreeably

to the doctrine of a succession of similar worlds, each of which alike

menced with an

father and three sons

universal

who had

com-

on the

floated

of a preceding deluge, the person worshipped in the Sun was not

surface

Noah Noah as

simply Noah, but

nor yvt merely

viewed as a transniigratory reappearance of a reappearance of

Adam

but

alone,

Adam; Noah consi-

dered as one of the numerous or rather innumerable manifestations of the In a^'solute strictness of speech then, according to

great father.

of the [)agan hierophants, their floating solar deity or transmigrating personage, f)f

gods and

iiitn,

that fabled

compound

they denominated the gi^eat father both

and wiiom they deemed at once the destroyer and repro-

ducer of the world.

Noah

whom

is

system

tiie

What,

in

naked truth,

does indeed largely predominate in

tributes are eminently diluvian

taining the character of

Adam.

;

we

this

properly the character of

is

personage

:

but,

though his

at-

find him, in various instances, also sus-

He may

ble of an endless succession of worlds

is

be viewed therefore, when the traced

up

to

its

real origin,

fa-

as

a

who unites \\ his own person the characters of the two great fathers of the human race. VII. There is much even in the physical character of the Sun; which mixed

being,

led the Gentiles, according to their tavourite

him

His daily descent below the horizon and exiiibited to the

god.

mode of

speculating,

to

adopt

as the best astronomical representative of their great father.

By '

this

Eiff-
his daily rising

above

it

visibly

devout aspirant the aphanism and reappearance of their chief

was

really

meant the entrance

isa.vrn tv^o; ivos

enyiyoiurx.

into,

Orac, JMagie,

and the quitting

Z«roaiit. p; 22.

Opsop.

of,

the

CHAP.

II.

;

THE ORIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

232 BOOK

IV.

Ark

the great father vanished out of one world, and manifested him-

when

;

another

self again into val, as

a

new

:

but

it

was variously described,

a deep sleep and an expergefaction, as an entrance into the birth,

shadowed out the great

rizon, he

as an

father,

coffin

Hades and

as

restored to

and

life

liberty.'

day, at his rising and setting, he displayed a lively image of his hu-

Each

associate, the diluvian patriarch,

Each year, by

the mighty ocean. his return with

allegorical

new

life

Ark

solar

;

death and revival of

float

on the surface of

his departure into the southern tropic

his

mortal antitype within the precise

days excess, of the confinement of

which the Hindoos celebrate

that period,

Brahma's sleep within the egg as

termediate deluge.* as his

by seeming to

and

and vigour into the northern, he again exhibited the

period, allowing for a few

his

his

while he was visible above the horizon, he represented the same

that,

great father as emerging from

the

infernal god, or as inclosed

which was deemed

in a state of temporary death within his ark

man

womb and

while the Sun was invisible beneath the ho-

that,

are told,

revi-

and a return from them.

as a descent into the infernal regions

Accordingly we

but

and a

as a death

And

it

lastly, as the ruler

floats

literal

Noah w ithin

as the great year of the

on the surface of the

of the seven planets with

companions he navigates the great ship of the heavens, he aftbrded

enraptured votaries the edifying astronomical spectacle of the great

ther presiding over

:

to fa-

the seven gods and with them jointly constituting that

primeval ogdoad of deities so highly venerated

pagan world

in-

whom

in

Egypt and throughout the and evening,

while, in his three altitudes of morning, noon,

he displayed himself as a mysterious

triplication of

one and the same Sun,

analogous to the generative triplication of the patriarch in the persons of his three children.' 200.

Macrob. Saturn,

The Hindoos declare, that Brahra or the Sun

lib.

i.

c. 18. p.

pears at these three altitudes first

the three sons of

:

yet, in their

Adam, and

*Macrob. Saturn,

c. 21.

'

'

lib.

i.

c.

18. p.

200,201.

is

the triad Brahma-Vishnou-Siva as he ap-

human

capacities, these three gods are evidently

afterwards those of Noah.

CHAPTER

III.

Respecting the division of the gentile mythologists into two great primeval sects.

A HOUGH

I.

all

the Gentiles in every quarter of the globe worshipped the

great father as their principal divinity, and tliough ultimately resolve themselves into that ancient

all

their various

compound and

gods

transmigrating

personage viewed as multiplying himself by a mysterious act of triplication yet

we may

distinctly trace the existence of

who

indeed to venerate the same being, but venerating him. plexity of the tility

neva

The

:

they are not

the Christian world.

in

cably blended together

:

Of

these,

we may term

Samanean.

:

are found in decided hos-

has been nearly lost between them

all distinction

their respective votaries in

other, the

Throughout India' they yet

I

Idol.

exist in a separate state,

and

XI.

their

bigotry

use the word India in the large sense of the ancients.

VOL.

Brah-

Buddhic or Thothic or Hermetic or

adherents view each other with sentiments of the most malignant

Pag.

:

common.

the one the Osiric or Bacchic or Saivic or

and the

com-

more unlike than those of Rome and GeVery frequently however they have ami-

and the two have immemorially enjoyed menical superstition

differed in the

when they

and, even

:

who agreed peculiar mode of

sects,

difference chiefly consists in the greater or less

two systems

to each other,

two principal

2G

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

234 bnoK

IV.

from the palpable similarity of the two

yet,

no doubt, as

1)6

religions in essentials, there can

has justly been observed, either that the one

it

the child

is

common

of the other, or that the two have branched off from a

original.

This has occasioned much discussion, whether of them ought to be esteemed

most ancient

the

conducted,

its

It

established

w

not

fact

in

is

is

which the discussion,

in

at all

to

bear upon

Hindoos

the

but

:

this,

At the same

latter,

without being so

in

which he

more ancient

usually posterior to that, which

respects crude, and simple, reverse.

The presumption

is

therefore

is,

original ifistitu-

somewhat

Buddhism was

finished

irrelevant

:

while Bralnnenism

that the latter

exhibition of the former; and, consequently, that

is

in the first

and elaborate

But Buddhism

less so.

and unformed

its

in

treats the subject, tends strongly

The more

instance antecedent to Brahmenism. is

legard to

propriety of the hypothesis, that

to establish the

tem

in

time, one of his arguments, though

according to the limited manner

preceded

so far as I can judge, leaves the

true question wholly undecided; for the former might be

Hindostan than the

v^as

with Mr. Joinville,

considerable reason for believing that Buddhism

Brahmenism among

tion.

two

of

them could abstractedly and from

I certainly think

priority.

has been

the real merits

which of the

a dispute,

rather

India, than which of

primeval origin claim the

that there

mode,

the

me

appears to

the question. first

but

:

is

is

in

sys-

many

the very

only a more finished

Buddhism

is

more ancient

than Brahmenism.' II. Yet, although the priority

hism, such priority can only be

ought perhaps to be conceded to Budd-

trifling.

We

find

each system existing

in

almost every part of the world, dither separately, or conjointly with the other system.

Hence, every argument, which

have originated

^^

will equally

I

all

mankind formed but one community

in

must

one region,

The

of both must be referred to a period not later than the era of

building of the tower under the auspices of

am

that the one

prove that the other cannot have had a more recent origin.

ri?e therefore tlie

hen

proves

inclined to believe, that the

Nimrod.

more simple Buddhic

On

the whole,

superstition

was

Ihe first political corruption of Patriarchism, the commc72cement of what

*

Asiat. Res. vol.

vii. p.

398

et infra.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Epiphanius

Cut hie heresy

Scythic or

the

calls

plex Brahmenical

superstition (though

many subsequent

additions)

in

:

235

while

probability

all

more com-

the

has received

it

was the completion and perfection of that

heresy, denominated in this latter

by the same writer Hellenism or

state

lonism.' III. In

Goths or Scythians

the warlike Chasas or Chusas or

ages,

all

the Buddhic

have peculiarly attached themselves to

These

superstition.

are the comparatively unmixed descendants of the original sacerdotal and

Cuthim of Nimrod.*

military castes, the genuine children of the Babylonic

On

the other hand, the various tribes,

their allotted settlement

who

retired to the several places of

under a Cuthic priesthood and nobility of an en-

race from themselves, appear to

tirely distinct

have either affected

Brahmenical superstition or to have carried off both systems which

The

were reconciled and blended together into one.'

modes of worship

all

positively declare, that the

sects, the

Germanes

in

votaries of these

two

India, separate from each other, so

of Strabo, Porphyry, and Clemens Alexandrinus

the times

early as

they

certainly existed

the

time

in

Hindoo

for

:

theologists were divided into

two

Brachmans or Brahmens and the Saman^ans or Sarmaneans or and, while

;

Clemens

specifically

mentions the god Buddha by

name, Strabo very accurately remarks that the Brachmans were more regular

and systematic

scheme of doctrine than the

in their

others.*

Clemens

further observes, that the Samant;ans were peculiarly the priests of the Bactrians

and such they continue even

:

Bokhara and Cashgar are of

Buddha

like their ancestors,

The Buddhists

or Saman.'

for the

this,

I believe

tem was not of novel

them

insist,

to speak the truth,

Vide

infra b. vj. c. 2. §

'

Vide

infra

* Strab.

b. vi. c.

Geog.

provided It is

that their re-

IV.

2. §

lib. .\v. p.

VI.

712.

*

2. c. 3.

§

Vidu

we

infra b. vi. c. 2. §

whom IV.

lib.

i.

p.

305.

I

1. c. 4.

have just $

I, II.

VL

Porpli. dc abstin. lib.

iv. §

17.

Clem. Alex. Strom,

305.

Clem. Sironi.

In

limit the begin-

evident, that their sys-

origin in the days of the authors to

'

'

Chasas of

devoted to the worship

of that country

ning of their tiieology to the era of Nimrod.

p.

;

no modern figment, but has existed from the very beginning.*

ligion is

saying

still,

day

to the present

*

Asiat. Res. vol. vi.

p.

531.

lib.

i.

"*'•

'"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

236

MOK

IT.

referred

:

and, in searching for

its

I

first institution,

sec not

how we can

reasonably stop short of the great Babylonian apostasy.

IV. By the destruction of Asia,

reigns at present over a

Buddhism

The

Brahmenism.

latter is

shares that country with island of Ceylon,

principal seat

is

idolatry throughout

it,

Europe and

the west of

larger portion of the globe than

confined to India

while the former not only

:

but prevails from the very north of Tartary to the

and from the Indus

to

Siam and China and Japan.

Thibet, Boutan, and Cashgar

countries,

:

Its

which have ever

formed one of the chief settlements of the Chasas or Scythians, and which are thence consistently

take not,

is

deemed

Yet

the cradle of Buddhism.

but a local appropriation.

this,

if

I mis-

As Paradise and mount Ararat have

been transferred from Armenia to the high land of Cashgar and Bokhara at the head of the

Ganges

exactly similar removal. in

an unmixed

state

:

so has the origin of Samanianism experienced an

When

a branch of the warlike Cuthim migrated

from the plains of Shinar to the

dian Caucasus, they brought with them

was so immediately founded on the to that peculiar form ciously adhered in all

that

lofty region of the In-

Buddhic

history of Paradise

superstition

which

and the deluge

;

and

of old mythology their house seems to have pertinaits

other settlements, until

the light of Christianity or for the imposture of

it

relinquished

Mohammedism.

it

either for

CHAPTER human

Respecting the

character of the great father, as exhibited in

the Osiric or Bacchic or Saivic or

J\ll deity, told,

IV.

Brahmenical

superstition.

the great gods of the Gentiles ultimately resolve themselves into one

known by many is

names ;

different

and that

deity,

The

character was not purely Sabian or astronomical.

the language of the Orphic poet, was but the heavenly

god Helius.'

we

are positively

Yet, though the Sun was their principal male divinity, his

the Sun.

And

this god,

under

solar orb,

to

adopt

body of the splendid

his various appellations,

is

confessed by

the Gentiles themselves to sustain a second and mortal character.

But the

character, which he thus sustains, will be found on examination to identify itself,

of

by no unequivocal tokens, with that of

Adam

mon

:

hence he

is

celebrated,

Noah viewed

as a reappearance

with perfect accuracy, as the great com-

father both of hero-gods and of men.

In

this

capacity he was equally

venerated by two sects, into which the ancient idolaters appear to have been divided as early as the building of the Babylonic tower

:

for,

whatever

differ-

ence there might be in the 7node of worshipping or describing the great father, the person

was

alike

adored by the votaries of each superstition.

I shall at present consider the

'

human

character of the great father, as ex-

Fragm. Orph. apud Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

c.

18.

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY'.

238 BOOK

IV.

countries and under various appellations, by the adhe-

hibited, in different

may be termed

rents of what

the Osiric or Bacchic or Saivic or

Brahmenical

superstition.

In Egypt, the transmigrating patriarch was denominated Osiris; and

I.

Horus was esteemed

the yotmger god

mythological

:

for,

as Osiris and

in their astronomical capacity

If

a floating island If

ark.

is

purely

is

be the Sun each

capacity, they are

by him

to enter into a floating

and afterwards

to suffer death

to

be restored to

thought to have experienced a perfectly analogous death and

If Isis wanders over the world in quest of

revival.

the

similarly compelled

is

Horus be reputed

Osiris

life;

;

Osiris

human

in their

so,

but this descent

:

alike declared to

Hence we find a very strong resemblance between Horus be constrained by Typhon to take refuge in

plainly the great father. their several legends.

;

his offspring

Horus are

same search

Horus

;

she makes exactly

If she carefully collects the scattered

for the lost Osiris.

limbs of Horus, and afterwards reanimates his at length united frame

performs also for the murdered Osiris the self-same good

be torn into seven pieces by the Titans into fourteen pieces,

enemies are the same

their

and

their final

triumph

single character it

which number

;

and

:

this

Osiris

similarly torn by the Titans

is

mere reduplicate of seven.

They

plainly, in short, constitute but a

different lights

yet one person was

;

A\as represented

ty[)ify

table) after the

manner of

the

mummies

the diluvian god, as born again from the as returning to

upon a new

life

:

or swathed (as in the

and he seems designed

Ark

like

a child from

after the period of his mystical death,

slate of existence in a

new world, and

every attack of the ocean; designed, that

is

its

to

mo-

as entering

as finally triumpliant over

to say,

more peculiarly

bit the postdiluvian, or mystically regenerated, great

to exhi-

fatlicr.

on the contrary, appears to be the same person considered more

Osiris, geiitrallij

still

as an infant, cither sailing in a ship, or floating in

the golden cup of the lotos, or seated on a crocodile,

ther,

same

out by each.

shadowed

Bembine

Thus,

character was divided between two deities, because

was viewed under two somewhat

Hoius

;

the

she

Horus

If

the calamities, which they endure, are the

the same.

is

is

ofiices.

;

:

he

is

and postdiluvian.

Noah

in

Thus,

every part of his character, in

one point of view,

Noah

Noah

both antediluvian

the antediluvian,

when

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATHY,

289

considered with reference to the second great father's existence aftei' the

him; and

flood, pixcedes

mysterious mother himseh":

he

as such,

fant Horus.

botli

is

then the parent and husband of the Ark,

Noah

another point of view,

But, in

of the great father

the consort of Isis and the sire of the in-

Osiris,

is

world and

of the renovated

that

when

the postdiluvian,

considered with reference to the great father's existence be/ore the flood, succeeds him

;

and, proceeding from the

father's consort, is

Horus or

Some

womb

of the

Ark which

displays himself in the character of their son

the younger Osiris,

is

the great

as such, he

:

the oft'spring of Isis and the elder Osiris.

refinement of this nature, which indeed was the almost inevitable

consequence of the various degrees of relationship sustained by the great

may be

father towards the great mother,

the

traced with sufficient clearness in

avowed notions of the Egyptians themselves.

esteemed Osiris as the beginning, completion

:'

and he speaks of

Isis

Isis,

Simplicius ascribes the

Derceto or Atargatis of the gods

;

for

:

and he adds,

tells us,

mundane house

the nurse of the world,

same character

when

like the

that,

Egyptian

w ith

Isis

deities.

whom

Horus

is

though, as the great father was

Adam

no

vvhich

was ever associated

World

ancient hierophants with the is

Noah

Ark

anterior

considered, must relate to the less

;

minds of the

in the

or the smaller World. to

the mythological son of Osiris and

womb

Ark

than Noah, without excluding

the deluge; yet,

Isis,

history shews,

as his

without excluding any other pait of that patriarch's character

born as an infant from the

she ought

womb, what he

Such phraseology,

'

the history of Osiris and

Osiris then

or habita-

the universal

he represents her, as being the place or habitation

proper natures of many

the Earth or the greater

as the

to the Syrian fish-goddess

doubtless to be identified, she contained, inclosed within her calls the specialities or

that they

Horus

as the receptacle, and

as being the

tion of Horus, the seat of generation, recipient.'

Plutarch

:

represents to us the

while Horus,

same person,

of the Ark, and finally prevailing over the

ravages of the ocean. 1.

Agreeably to such an arrangement, Horus, as we have seen,

as taking refuge '

in

a floating island from the fury of

rUit. dc hid. p. 37-t. ^

*

Typhon

is

or the sea,

Pint, do hid. p. 072, 374.

Simpl. in Aristot. dc auscul. phys.

lib. iv. p.

150.

described

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

240 BOOK

IV.

and as afterwards expelling his enemy and as assuming that sovereignty which

had

the overwhelming monster

have been

by the Titans, and

slain

water ; where,

him

restored

mother

his

to

left

same event

relate to the

The

manner.

different

whence Typhon, by whom Horus

by them for dead

by her divine power

floating

:

island

driven into

is

they are merely told in a

it,

shadowed out the Ark is

rightly declared to

and they are generally represented, as being

:

in the

be

In a similar manner, the Titans were the whole race

the personified ocean.

of antediluvians

have been

also said to

is

and immortality.'

life

These legends both

somewhat

to

at length finding him,

Isis,

He

a season usurped.

for

in

arms against

the navicular hero-gods, but as being finally subdued by them and as being

Yet

then plunged into the watery depths of the great central abyss.

an evident

made between the impious Titans and certain others of character who yet bore the same appellation for Horus or :

and

Apollo, Cronus or Saturn, Hercules, Prometheus,

fundamentally one person, were

all

equally called Titan

ticular family of Titans, which, with their parent

precisely to eight persons.*

gods of Egypt

:

The supposed

temporaries. is

and the distinction

closely allied to

ed a

is

coffin

and we

;

Cronus

made, because the

at

that

new

Horus

which

life,

midst of the waters

Noah

head,

death of Horus then by the hands of the Titans

Typhon's inveterate pursuit of him.

in the

their

xvhole race of ante-

it,

The Ark was esteem-

his death:

hence arose the

various fables of the death and burial of the principal ship-god. Isis finds

find a par-

as well as their irreclaimable con-

and the inclosure of Noah within

;

Helius, as being

These are doubtless the eight great

comprehended the Noetic family

diluvians

is

distinction

a very different

amounted

there

;

and forthwith bestows upon him

when he

received

Thus dead,

quitted his floating coffin the

Ark.

The

2.

fabled persecution, which Osiris experiences from Typhon,

dently the same, as the exactly parallel persecution, from Diod. Bibl.



* lib.

lib.

Orph. Hymn. i.

ver.

738.

as

Sydyk

Cabiri.

They

same,

may

same

it

i.

evi-

which Horus

is

p. "22.

xi. 1. xii. 2,

7- xxxiii. 3.

Soph. (Edip. Colon,

Sanch. apud Euseb. Proep. Evan. or the just

are the

is

man Noah,

same

lib.

i.

c. 10.

ver. 57.

As Cronus

his seven children the Titans are the

also as the seven

Stat. is

Thebaid.

certainly the

same as the seven

Heliad» and the seven Rishis of Hindostan; the

be added, as various other parallel septenaries.

:

THE

PAGAV IDOLATUr.

ORIGIN' OF

to take refuge in the floating island

compelled

ark of Osiris for the island of Horus tified.

The

tarch.

Its

Chemmis.

and the two

;

241 Substitute only the

stories are palpably iden-

very curious legend of Osiris has been detailed at large by Plu-

substance

Typhon, we are

as follows.

is,

conspired against this hero-god of the Egyptians

told,

with an intention to slay him and to usurp the whole of his dominions.

For

this purpose he contrived an ark of extraordinary workmanship, and per-

suaded him to enter

into

The

it.

credulous deity having assented,

Typhon

shut him up, and cast him into the Nile which was mystically denominated

Thus

the ocean.

deemed

inclosed in what was

waves conveyed him

as one

him

the world in search of

dead :

to Phenicia.

the winds and however rambled over all

his cofBn,

Isis

and, having at length found the lost object of

her tenderness, she succeeded in liberating him from his confinement and in

him

restoring

to

life.

Here we perceive an ancient personage driven

'

an ark by the violence of the dominions

:

and we

light of death,

which

sea,

for a time occupies the

learn, that, as his entrance into

so his liberation from

it

into

whole of

was viewed

in

his

the

was considered as a revival or as a

it

return from Hades.

The

ark of Osiris, in which he was set afloat by his adversary Typhon^

was thought by the Egyptians

to have been constructed in the

or a boat with two similar extremities.*

modern and

it

life-boat,

was adopted, because the

have entered into

entered into the festivals

same

Moon

Moon

:

in

her

first

Osiris accordingly

to

But they

inclosed

Noah

him and then

set



Plut. de Isid. p. 356.

*

Aaj yaxa

'

Plut. de Isid. p. 366, 368.

Tag.

Idol.

was sometimes said

into the

Ark

:

botli alluded to

for the

Moon,

into

the

which

have entered, was no other than the wooden lunette,

the ark (as Plutarch fairly speaks out) sha[)ed like the

Typhon

was made

and the Egyptians regularly commemorated by yearly

each of these mysterious entrances.'

was thought

or last quarter

luniform ark, and at other times was fabled to have

this

event, the entrance of

Osiris

form of a lunette

shape was in short that of the

which resembles the lunar crescent floating on the water

the astronomical symbol of the Aik. to

Its

/xr^voeiii).

him

afloat

Plut. de Isid. p. 368.

VOL.

ir.

Moon,

within which

on the water.

See Plate III. Fig.

1.

2

H

CHAF.

IV.

THE

242 BOOK

The

IV.

ORIGIN' OF

PAGAN IDOLATHr.

day, on whicli the Egyptian priesthood supposed Osiris to have been

shut up in the ark, was the seventeenth day of the month Athyr when the

Sun

is

Scorpio

in

civil

which time the overflowing of the Nile had ceased, and

become

the country had

bytlie

at

;

dry.

Now,

'

year of the Jews wliich

if

e suppose INIoses to have reckoned

v\

commenced from

the autumnal equinox",

Noah

be the precise day of the precise month on which

this will

the Ark.*

Or,

if

he reckoned by

the vernal equinox (a point, incapable perliaps of being

from

we

with absolute certainty),

though

in that

gend of

Osiris.*

shall

still

entered into

which commenced

their ecclesiastical year

now decided

have the memoi"}' of the precise day,

case not of the precise mojith, accurately preserved in the le-

improbable, that the Egyptians tlicmselves laboured

Itis not

under some degree of doubt respecting the true mode of computation they seem to have taken pains to provide against

appointment of two annual

festivals

Osiris into the

Moon, and on

two

as

festivals,

I\Ioon of Osiris perly,

it

I

error by the

all liability to

at the opposite seasons of the year,

spring and autumn; on one of which they

*

commemorated

the entrance of

But these

the other his entrance into the ark.

have just observed, related to the same event

was the

IVIoon only in a mystical sense

was not the planet, but a luniform

have floated down the Nile and

boat, in

:

festival,

for the

and pro-

literally

;

which he was feigned to

By

have crossed the sea to Phenicia.

to

expedient therefore of a double

for

:

this

they were sure to celebrate what

they called the inclosure of Osiris uithin his coffin on the very day of the

ery month of Noah's inclosure within the Ark. »

Plut. de hid. p. 356.

*

In the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the tame day

of the great deep bruhen up, and the entered '

Noah

Gen.

into (he ark.

Abp. Usher supposes Moses

vii.

to

'Jiindoxis

11,

think

it

civil year,

however more probable, that he reckoned by the

that case,

Noah would

while, in

the other case, he

approaching winter. expose him and

his

land from the

Now

Ark

would land

it is

in the spring

in the

which would make the

Usser. Annal.

with the whole

to

tough branch of a whole year's growth.

A. P.

It

summer

J.

2365,

because, in before

him;

the dismal prospect of

not likely, that the good Providence of

seems

-in

ecclesiastical year:

autumn with

family to so serious an inconvenience.

twig, plucked off by the dove,

thefountaim.

13.

have reckoned by the

tradition of the Egyptian priesthood accurate even to a day. I

iff re all

— Jn the selfsame day

of heaven were opened

may

God would

an

needlessly

be added, that the olive

have been a. young and tender vernal shoot, not »

THE ORIOIK OF PAOAM IDOLATRY. That within

vessel being

it,

when he

sumed

esteemed the

843

of Osiris, while he remained confined

coffin

he was reputed to be dead, and was bewailed accordingly quitted

he was thought to return to

it,

and the

life,

festival

but,

:

then as-

the appearance of the most extravagant mirth and exultation.

likewise,

during his inclosure in the ark, he was considered as lost; but,

Mhen he

left

festival,

this latter

he was reckoned to be found again.

it,

In the commemorative

event was celebrated on the nineteenth day of the month,

The Egyptians

or on the third day after his inclosure.

sea by night, the priests bearing the sacred vehicle. vessel in

So

tlie

down

then went

to the

This contained a golden

form of a boat, doubtless that kind of boat which the Greeks

called (wiphiprymndis, a boat with similar extremities resembling the lunar

crescent.

some of

Into the boat they poured

the river water

and then,

;

supposing Osiris to be found, they raised a shout of joy.'

The day of the egress of Osiris does not correspond with that of the egress of Noah: but I think it not difficult to ascertain the reason, why the third day

inclosure

after the

was peculiarly

selected.

In the sacred Orgies the

whole history of the deluge was designed to be represented

mained

in the

Ark

commemorative

a year and ten days

festival to

upon which they went, shut up in the

comp7xss

I take to

part: in that case, he

will

have quitted

it is

well known, were

we may

still

it

it

was necessary

in it

during the whole of another year

wont mystically

Now the

to call years days

many of the prophecies of Holy tliey could not more aptly represent

compressed form, than by making Osiris enter

teenth day of Athyr and quit

Noah

it

and he

ancients, as

Scripture.

Under

the diluvian history

into the ark

on the third day following

been related

;

a practice, which

;

behold in

the preservation of

principle then,

As Noah was if we divide the

and consider the unbroken year as the middle

at the beginning of the third year.

such circumstances,

therefore in the

The

ten additional days,

re-

have entered into the Ark at the close of one year;

have been confined

will

in a

will

:

period of time.'

have been the following.

Ark a whole year with

entire period into three parts

he

this

Noah

but

:

:

for,

on the sevenin fact,

in prophetic phraseology,

had

he would

have been said to disappear on one day and to reappear on the subsequent '

Pliit.de hid. p. 366.



Gen.

vli.

11, 13.

viii. 14..

'^'**'''

"•

THK ORIGIK OF PAGAN IDOLATttV.

844 nooK IT.

In

third day. is

unless I

this respect,

much

mistake, he, no less than Jonalj,

a most cmuicnt type of the death, burial, and resurrection, of our blessed

As Noah,

Saviour.

up

in the

tliree

Ark

days

according to the Jewish

mode

of computation, was shut

three years or three pro{)hetic days; and as

of the cctu§, that constant symbol of the

in the belly

did our Lord continue three days in the

womb of

by the same hieroglyphics as the Ship of Noali. peared on the third day after ;

Noah, on

his

disappearance

That

to avoid the fury of the deluge,

ark by Typhon, the

who

:

same

;

Osiris

is

is

sa

each reap-

to say,

Christ and Jonah, on the

Noah

enters into the

also compelled to enter into

mythology of Egypt

in the

as the ocean

:

the prophetic or mystical third day.

Since then, on the very day of the month in which

Ark

Ark

the Earth, which the an-

and which was thence constantly represented

cients considered as a vast ship,

natural third day

Jonah remained

(as Plutarch assures us)

an is

Osiris must, by the strong evidence of circumstance,

be deemed one character with Noah.

Such being the

case,

ark of Osiris, which was sometimes mystically denominated the

be the same as Noah's Ark

:

the luniform

must

Jllooti,

and the peculiar shape of a crescent must have

been adopted, and the name of the

Moon

applied to the machine so con-

structed; because, in the union of Sabianism and Diluvianism, the boat-like

horned

figure of the

Moon was

thought the best astronomical representative

of the Ship of the deluge.

Now

the luniform ark of Osiris, in which he floated on the surface of the

waters, was certainly the sacred ship of Osiris

Egyptians placed the Sun, and

that ship, in

which they depicted

in

sailing together over the ocean.

;

But

which the

their eight great

the ship of Osiris, as

we

gods

are plainly

taught by Plutarch, was that very ship, which the Greeks called Argo, and

Mhich they feigned to Colchis in

:

to

be the vehicle of Jason and his adventurous companions

for he tells us, that the

honour of

tlie

ship of Osiris.

'

Argo was placed among the

Hence it

will follow, that the

coastellations

Argo must be

the Ark, and that the whole fable of the Argonautic expedition must be a

mere romance founded on the mystic voyage of

de

Isid. p,

359,

Osiris,

that

is

to say,

on the

THE OKiaiN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. voyage of Noali.

real

have

Danaus who was reputed to Argo, and that Jason who was

It will also follow, that

from Egypt

sailed

245

thought to have sailed

to Argolis in the ship in

must each be mere

to Colchis,

it

And

character of Osiris or Noah.'

variations of the

such an opinion there

for

sufficient

is

evidence, distinct from that which arises from both of them being, like Osiris,

Some

the reputed navigators of the Argo.

Danaus an ark

:

and from others we

an ark,

in

Now,

Thcba; which

the son of

one dead,

like

since Jason

well

learn, that Jason,

known,

when

literally signifies

a child, was inclosed

he might escape the fury of Pelias.*

in order that

in

mythologists rightly esteemed

it is

and Osiris are equally said

was inclosed

since each

M'ord, as

to be the captains of the Argo,

an ark, since each was persecuted by a relentless

enemy, since each was bewailed by females as one dead, and since each

upon

quitting the ark

conclude, that

tliese

character, that the

and

counts indeed, which it

it

:

is

Greek hero

to

Various persons were reputed

out.

whether

its

mount Ossa

in ;

ac-

shew plainly enough what primeval

the Argo,

shadow

but,

The

are equally the god of the Ark.

to be

was Danaus, or Jason, or

architect

Minerva, or Typhon

Argus, or Hercules, or Melicertes, or

was framed

inevitably

both cases the Ark, and that the Egyptian deity

in

we have of

was designed

the builders of

we must

to be restored to life:

two famous Argonauts are fundamentally the very same

Argo

his transcript the

ship

was thought

whether

;

it

Egypt, or at Argos, or at Pagasae, or in Phenicia, or on

still

a constant notion prevailed, that

it

was

ihe /irst ship

which

was ever constructed, the Jirst ship that divided the waves of the hitherto impassable sea, that remarkable ship with which the science of navigation cojnmaiced, the ship in short which on that very account was thouglit worthy

of being placed '

among

the constellations.'

Schol. in Apollon. Argon,

* Tzc'tzcs

lib.

nuntions a writer,

i.

and was thought

to

the

Ark of Noah,

'

iv.

Compare

only the Jifst ship:

Egypttis, the brother of Danau.s, to be the son of

Ihis Tbeba was the mythological wife

have given her name to the Kgyptiau Thebes.

flourished at the time of (he flood;

Find. Pyth.

it

vcr. 4.

who makes

Thcba: consequently, Danaus was likewise her son. 01 Ogyges,

Nor was

and Thcba

the very name, by which

is

Tzelz. Schol. in Lycoph. vcr.

li206V 175.

But Ogyge$

Moses designates

Tzetz. Chil.

vii.

hist.

96.

ver. 197.

Schol. in Apollon. Argon,

Tzetz. in Lycoph. vcr. 883.

lib.

Ptol. Hephaest.

i.

ver. 4.

Nov,

Ovid. Metam.

Hist. lib.

li.

p. 310.

lib.

viii.

ver.

302.

Atheu. Deipnos.

lib.

^haf.

xv.

'

TUE ORICIN OF PAOAN IDOLATRY".

246 •>0K

IT.

yyag also the ship,

ij

which Danaus the son of Th^jba, who was thought

in

from the

to liave flourished synchionically with the dehige of Ogygcs, fled

rage of Egyptus his brother; the ship, into which Osiris was equally driven

by the fury of his brother Typhon or the sea;

who was similarly

When

the ship, from which Jason,

persecuted by Pelias, was believed to have sent out a dove.

to these highly characteristic circumstances

Argo of

identity of the

the Egyptian Osiris

added the manifest

is

and the Argha of the Indian

Eswara, and when we recollect that the Argha was supposed to have floated

on the surface of a dove;

and

tlie

deluge and afterwards to have been metamor|)hosed into

almost impossible not to recognize in the Argo the Ship of Noah,

it is

in Osiris the patriarch himself.*

But to be

not merely the diluvian history of Osiris, which points him out

it is

Noah

character likewise corresponds minutely with that of the

his

:

second great father of mankind, and

Noah, but Noah viewed

We learn

same time no

at the

from Plutarch, that he was a husbandman, a ;

that he

drew the Egyptians from the wildness of a savage to use the fruits of the earth,

merely

Adam.

legislator,

and a

first, who withwho taught them how

was the

life,

and who enacted laws for the preservation of

Diodorus Siculus gives much

social order.'

minutely with

to be not

as a transmigratory reappearance of

zealous advocate for the worship of the gods

tells us,

less

Hence we may pronounce him

that of the first great father.

that he did not confine himself merely to

He

same account of him.

tlic

Egypt

;

but that he travelled

over the whole world, was the universal civilizer of manners, and every

where appeared

in

the light of a general

Arabia, Ethiopia, Asia, Thrace, Greece, and

Deo-Naush, with whom he over

all

p. 296.

Tcr.

238.

'

Orph. Argon,

ver.

India,

Like the Hindoo god

clearly to be identified, he not only passed

66

— 69.

Plut. do

Eratos. Catast. A^yta. Lucan. Fliars.

ApoUon. Argon, Apoll. Bibl.

lib.

ii.

lib.

i.

the Cabiri. c.

vcr.

c. 1. § 4.

* Tlif- reader will find the

»

Italy.

in

those regions^ but penetrated to the very source of the Istcr or

vii.

403.

is

He was

benefactor.

\iii.

Plut. de Isid. p. 356.

551.

Tsiil.

lib.

iii.

p.

356.

Schol. in Apoll. Argon,

ver. 193.

Manil. Astron.

lib.

Dalib. i. i.

vcr.

Schol. in Aral. Phaen. p. 46.

ApoUon. Argon,

lib.

ii.

ver.

ioj.

Argonautic expedition treated of at great length in

my

Dissert,

on

'

THE ORIGIN' OF PAGAN IDOLATftr.

He was

nube.

247

particularly a skilful cultivator of the vine

climate did not suit the growth of that tree, he taught

tlic

:

and, wherever

men

the

method of

Though an Egyptian divinity, he was of Egypt. The Indians asserted, that he

makinc^ a vinous liquor from barley.

not always reputed to be a native

was born

at

Nusa

of Hindostan

country

in their

and modern researches

:

demonstrate

sufficiently

the accuracy

into the mytholoa;y

of this statement of

Diodorus, by shewing that Deo-Naush, whence the Greeks borrowed their

Dionusus,

is

the

same person

He was

planted the vine.

Thebes, so famous for

:

was Theba or or

I

apprehend

Arijo

Theba,

in

and he bestowed upon it

it

name

the

was called Tliehes only

in

after

Rhea or the great universal mother. It was from Greek and the Egyptian cities derived their name

that both the

Greek Dionusus or Bacchus,

been

;

to be a mistake.

Diodorus further assures

of Tliebce. the

us,

that he

was certainly the same as

that mythologists

supposed him

have

to

every quarter of the habitable globe, and that both Greeks and In-

dians equally believed him to be the original inventor of wine and the instructor of

mankind

in the art

This universality of character of those, alike

who have imagined

culturist,

who was

is

in itself sufficient to

overturn

Moses

'

Osiris to be

opinion

He, who was

the_/r>5Hnventorof wine, thejfr^Megislator, the^Vi^ navigator of civilizer

of niankind, can only be a person in ^vhom the

whole habitable globe was equally interested. applicable to him, universal father or

Diod. Bibl. 1

or Joseph.

tlie

celebrated throughout the whole world as the Jirst agri-

a ship, the Jirst great



first

of cultivating vineyards.

claimed by every nation, who was thought to have visited all parts of

the earth,

*

first

\\

;

the prototype of Isis or this

and there to have

reckoned to be the original founder of the Esj^fptian

The allegorical parent of Osiris who as likewise said to be the mother of the Araonaut Deo-Naush and the wife of the diluvian Ogyges, and who was

but this

Danaus

Arabians, on the other hand,

in their country,

Diodorus adds indeed, that

of his mother. ages

Nusa

hundred gates

its

The

as Osiris.

supposed him to be a native of

lib.

i.

whom Adam p. 13-

But such a character

is

solely

the Ci entiles venerated as the great transmicriatincr

reappearing in the person of Noah. 18. lib.

It.

Him

tach

p, 210.

allude to Gale, Huet, and Sandford,

men

taken in their views of the character of Osiris.

of great learning, but certainly

much

mis-



248 BOOK IV

TilE ORIGIN' OF in the

nation,

PAGAK

IDOLATIir.

usual spirit of local appropriation, claimed peculiarly to

as its earliest king, its earliest instructor in the arts of civil

lawgiver and

He,

benefactor.

in short,

itself,

its earliest

life,

was that primitive husbandman,

who was known in every quarter of the world as the mystic son of Nusa or Theba, who was at once the child of the Earth and of the Sliip jointly venerated under common symbols, who was thought to have lived two successive lives, and who was believed to have primitive cultivator of the vine;

tliat

been driven into an ark on the seventeenth day of the second month by the furj of the overwhelming ocean. 3.

I

have already had occasion to notice the mystic theocrasy of the old

niythologists,

by which

more singular

all

their principal deities

were ultimately resolved

In no part of heathen lore does this theocrasy appear in a

into one person.

than

light,

racters are clearly

in

the legend of Osiris and Typhon.

Their cha-

enough discriminated from each other: and, as Osiris

evidently the transmigrating

Noah, so Typhon

is

is

and indeed avowedlv

plainly

Yet, though described as open and irreconcileable

the ocean or the deluge.

enemies, they are nevertheless (such was the flexible nature of ancient de-

monolatry) sometimes strangely intermingled with each other. withstanding in his astronomical capacity he

human

withstanding in his

capacity he

is

is

said to

is

be the Sun, and not-

palpably the great father,

declared to be the same as both the ocean and

marine god of the deluge

the river Nile.

confounded with the deluge

itself:

very ocean and with that very river

identified with that

with that very ocean in short, of which his

on the character of OiTjfiv

Lex.

p.

Osiris.

He

is

the

and Osiris

is

mystically

in

his ark;

Typhon was

lib.

i.

p. 12,

17.

similarly encroaches

positively declared to be the

Tovroy CSecamvJ



sivai

ocean or the Suid.

rov NiiXov.

Isaiah expressed Sihor; which, as Selden justly re-

as Osiris or Isiris,

73—76.

Typhon, Typhon

This deity being esteemed one with the Nile, we find

name of Sim, by

same word

• Diod. Bibl.

is

Plut. de Isid. p. 364.

i^x£«vov.

Serapis was the same as Osiris.

that the Nile bore the

marks,

yet

personification.

Osiris thus invading the character of

'

arch adversary

is

Here the

'

itself

denominated the ocean,* over the waters of which he floated

deemed a

Osiris, not-

Isaiah

X.xiii. 3.

Sold, de diis Syr. synt.

i.

c.

4.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. deluge

he

is

;

he

249

represented as a being most violent and unruly in his nature ; and

is

thrown the Universe into confusion, and to have

said to have

sea and land with evils unutterable.

When

'

filled

both

added

to these particulars are

the circumstances of his having forced Osiris into an ark and of his having

we can scarcely doubt of Yet this very demon was sometimes

constrained Horusto take refuge in a floating island, his being

in the light of the great father or the principal helio-arkite divinity.

viewed

Plutarch

He

a personification of the flood.

tells us,

Typhon

that the Egyptians esteemed

rejects indeed the opinion as palpably absurd,

confusion which

Typhon

an opinion/ cal capacity

involves

it

:

then

the

same

as the Sun.

on account of the manifest

but he does not dissemble the cvistence of such

:

is

strangely blended with Osiris in his astronomi-

and, what might thence be naturally expected, he

blended with him

in

when Typhon was

his

human

Thus we have a

capacity.

born, he broke violently through the

is

equally

legend, that,

side of his

mo-

ther.' Now his mother was Rhea, who was likewise the mother of Osiris.* The birth therefore of Typhon is the same as the birth of Osiris. But Rhea is the lunar ship of the deluge, which was esteemed the receptacle of

the hero-gods and the great mother from which they were

Typhon,

quently, the birth of

Noah from

birth of

the ancients.

Rhea was

This however

no

as the god of the deluge,

less is

is

of Osiris, relates to the allegorical

not the

than the

matter, to which

sole

Ark

and, as Typhon,

:

born from the side of the Ark;

Hence he

the son of the Earth.

and Typhon

Conse-

so,

it

alludes.

when viewed

when viewed

he bursts violently from the M'omb of the Earth or the

itself,

great central abyss.

Osiris

born.

the door in the Ark's side, so famous in the Mysteries of

the Earth,

as the deluge

like that

all

:

is

sometimes

Rhea was deemed

'

literally

declared to have been

the mother of

Isis,

as well as of

but, as all the old mythological \\Titers agree, they

were

fundamentally the same character; for they were each the house or receptacle

Accordingly

of the hero-gods. '

this general

mother, considered in a different

Plut. de Isid. p. 3()3, 3/1, 36l.

* Tuiv

JgTu^cova

'ffoiovyrujv

^

Plat.de

'

Anton. Liber. Metam.

Isid. p.

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

rov 'HXiov ouJs axousiv ajiox.

Plut. de Isid. p. 372.

355. i.

p. 13. c. xxviii.

ApoU.

Bibl. lib.

i.

c. 6. § 3. '

Fag.

Idol.

VOL.

II.

2

I

'^"ap-

'

-50

THE became

point of view,

PAGAX IDOLATRY.

OllIGIV or

rent

:

and

yet,

in

Thus

the consort of the chief arkite deity.

Rhea

generally thought to be the wiie of Osiris, though as

was

Isis

she was his pa-

consequence of the mystic thcocrasy by which Osiris and

Ty[)hon were blended together, a notion also prevailed,

that she

was the

Typhon and only the adulterous paramour of Osiris. The same curious theocrasy blended Typhon with others of the iicliodiluvian gods; all of whom, as we have seen above, are mutually declared to

consort of 4.

be one character both with each other and with Osiris. Accordingly we are

Typhon was

that

told,

same

the

same

Dionusus or Bacchus

as

who was

;

who were

;

same

lastly the

who was

as Priapus,

himself the same as Protogonus and Phanes and the Sun

again the

as Osiris.'

Now

Priapus was no other than Baal-Peor the phallic god of the Moabites, both

we

as

Jerome and

learn from

Priapus

is

as the very

name

the lord of opening, under which

title

over generation or the opening of

was the same

Typhon

as

were most detestable

:

Noah was

tiie

but the origin of that

vile

and Dionusus

Osiris,

whence

;

;

for

Baal-Peor then, or

adored, as the god presiding

which again unites him

;

seems to import

'

great arkite mother

the divine vengeance on the apostate Israelites,

Typhon,

itself

probably a mere corruption of Peor-Jpis.

witli

:

Baal-Peor

this

His

Osiris.

worship, which called

rites

down

indifferently

ascribed to

their characters plainly

amalgamate

is

with each other.*

The Mysteries quity, originated

of

Typhon

from the

or Baal-Peor, like

all

the phallic Orgies of anti-

that the transmigrating

idea,

dane Ark were the two great parents of the Universe. ingly,

Peor ries

in

'

He

to the deluge.

;

the

mun-

Philo Judtus, accordr

a very curious passage, immediately refers the Mysteries of Baal-

opened

without

Noah and

their

mouths

and that by

Jul. Firm.


tells us,

this figurative action

them

was poured

all his

vota-

them from

into

they represented the plunging of

error, prof. rcl. p. 4.

*

Diod. Bibl.

^

Hicron. Comment, in Hos.

lib. iv. p.

a random guess of

St.

214.

lib.

same

* Diod. Bibl. lib.

;

Jerome.

p. 214.

p. 1

13, 15,22.

is

Orph. Hynin.

v.

1, 8, p.

xxi-v. 1, C.

think Bp. Horsley somewhat too hasty in calling this

When we when we

their identity iv.

i.

c. ix.

declared to be one character, and tally the very

that in the celebration of

to receive the water that

find the principal

find both their

surely something

gods of the Gentiles uniformly

worship and history to be fundamen-

more than a random

guess,

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Nous

the governor beneath

tiie

waters of the flood and the impelling of him

That Philo here

to the lowest abyss of Chaos.' to the deluge,

Baal-Peor that he did

is,

refers

sufficiently plain

I think,

He

consciously.

it

251

:

the Mysteries of

but

I

Nous meant

Nous does

word Menu,

it

nothing

some mystical

or Intelligence, and that the whole related to

act of mental abstraction and meditation. but, like the Sanscrit

saj-^,

himself probably might not fully understand

the term which he was using; but might imagine, that

more than JMind

do not

indeed denote

Mind

only acquired that signification, because

the

man Nous or Nus or Nuh or Noah was, in the material system, deemed Mind or Intellectual Soul of the World. The Nous in question however

was

to be plunged into a deluge of water,

the

racter: and he

evidently the

is

in their

language

in

much

cha-

Orphic or Platonic Nous, the

Noes

whose history the Greeks have

refining

;

on the

which the word acquired

sense,

consequence of the great father being esteemed the Soul

or animating principle of the Universe.

Peor were the same

his real

as 'the

same

parent of the royal triad of younger well nigh ruined, by too

which demonstrates

The

rites

of the Typhonian Baal-

as those of Osiris in yet another respect

they were not

:

only highly impure, but they were also of a funereal nature

;

whence the

Psalmist rightly connects them with what he calls sacrifices of the dead.''

The

expression

is

exactly similar to that, which the Orphic poet employs in

speaking of the doleful infernal

rites

of Osiris.

Peor, Adonis, and the Egyptian divinity, were

The

'

all

Mysteries of Baal-

the

same

:

the dead in

if used plurally as it is by the Psalmist, mean the Noetic who were regarded as dead while inclosed within their coffin the Ark, and who were thought to return to life when they quitted it. As for Priapus, who (as we have seen) was identified with Typhon, however he may by later mythologists have been degraded into a mere scarecrow,

each instance,

family ;

he was a god of high dignity and antiquity. •

OJroi Si reKsrai; rou; xvis^otf

ftyiug ayujre^tu rroua, SsfjuaTOj), Phil. Juil.

apud

'rat;

He

is

celebrated by the Orphic

'Bukfryuii reXsj-iivTe;, xai ra rou

xartxXu(r«vT8y ijy£/x9»a tJivv, xou

Seld. de diis Syr. syut.

i.

c. 5.

p. 85.

I

(rwfj.xros


STriiea-av ei; /3u5ov

«(ryaroy.

have for obvious reasons given only

the partial sense of this passage. *

Psalm

'

©fijvoL/f

cvi. 58.

r Aiyvimu/y, x«t OwfiJoj i«fa p^wrAa.

Orph. .\rgon.

ver. 33.

*^"*^*'-

'^•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKY.

252 booK

IV.

poet, as being no other than Phanes, or Dionusus, or the first-born

who was produced

male

out of the tern pest- tossed egg or ovicular arkite machine.'

Phurnutus justly supposes him

be the same as Pan; and observes, that

to

they were both accounted primeval demon-gods.*

But Pan was thought by

the JMendesians to be one of the eight great deities, and indeed the oldest

or head of them

all

and he was reckoned the same as

:

Ammon.'

or Dionusus, or Pluto, or Zeus, or

back

to

Osiris 5. find,

whence we

the point

Thus

Osiris,

we

are

or Serapis,

again brought

the mystic theocrasical identity of

set out,

and Typhon.

Their characters being blended together, we shall not be surprized to that they bore the

same appellation

likewise be plainly traced in the

The Egyptians, we

name of

the

was also a

title

Now

is

reason to believe,

was called

places

it

Balak conducted Balaam for the purpose of cursing

Baalim

the plural of

is

Sid, or Soth, rites

Baal

whom Noah, principal. To them

were the arkite gods, of

was the

Is-

the

Jerome

Sittim, or (as

hard by mount Peor; which was

one of those high places or local Ararats of the Prothyrean Baal,

plural of Seth, as

from

differing

The place, where the Moabitish women seduced them into

nefarious Orgies of that obscene deity,

He

there

of Baal-Peor.

were encamped when the

wovd) Settim.

Seth,

radically but one word, con-

same fundamental though mutable consonants, and

that Selk or Soth

writes the

Typhon by

These are

Sothi.*

each other only in the unessential vowel.

raelites

and that appellation may

;

worship of Baal-Peor.

are told, designated

and Osiris by that of Soth or taining the

also

:

which

to

Sittim

Israel.'

the

is

and these Sittim or Baalim

under the singular

name

Seth,

Sit,

the region of Sittim, where the

of Baal-Peor prevailed, seems to have been dedicated

and

:

Balaam

himself calls the RIoabites, in the generally received phraseology of Paganism, the children of Seth.^ '

Orph. Hymn.

»

Herod. Hist.

* Tov

Tvfwva

'

Numb.

Seth he meant Typhon or Baal-Peor, to *

46, 145.

lib. ii. c.

Irfi

au

oi

Typhon was XXV.

this

V.

1.

Phurn. de

Diod. Bibl.

Ibid. p. 375.

i.

p.

nat. deor. c. xxvii.

22.

Epiphanius says

likewise called Seth.

xxii. 41. x.xiii. 28.

lib.

Plut. de Isid. p. 367-

AiyuTrrio; xaXoua-i.

fairiv, «i Je ScuSi AiyuTTritrTi.

sacred ass of

By

*

Epiph. adv.

Numb.

tlic

ha;r. lib.

xxiv. 17.

O!

/xsv Ocrictv,

o'l

ie

te-

same; and adds, that the iii.

p.

1093.

;

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. whose of'

lascivious Orgies they

25:5-

were so notoriously addicted

who

Seth were the votaries of that deity,

:

and the children

truly claimed their descent

The

from him as the great universal father both of gods and men.

place of

was sometimes denominated compoundedly Abel-Sittim.^

Israel's seduction

It doubtless received the

name from

were there celebrated.

Abel-Sittim denotes the mourning of the Sittim:

and

mourning was the same,

this

the mystic death of Adonis or

the mournful Orgies of Baal-Peor, which

as that of the Syrian

Thammuz, and

similarly lamented the death of Osiris.

bewailed

as that of the Egyptians

who

was here accordingly, that the

while they joined themselves to Baal-Peor, partook of those sa-

Israelites, crifices

It

women who

of the dead, which are mentioned by the Psalmist as forming an

eminent part of his worship. 6.

But the genuine and most usual character of Typhon

mendous monster, who waged war

against Osiris and

is

that of a tre-

the hero-gods, and

M'ho involved the whole world in anarchy and confusion.

What we

He

servedly told us by Plutarch.

Typhon

assures us, as

we have

is

unre-

already seen, that

abundance of circumstantial evidence to ocean was meant the deluge. Typhon was thought to be

the ocean: and there

is

demon

are literally to understand by this mythological

prove, that by this

is

the son of the Earth, because the waters of the flood issued from the great central abyss

:

and,

in

a

hymn

ascribed to

Homer, he

produced from the vapours which Juno caused His bulk was his shoulders

terrific :

He

serpents.

and

:

his

his

heads were

many

in

said to have been

is

to exhale

number

:

from

tlie

earth.

he had wings on

thighs terminated in the volumes of

not only inclosed Osiris within an ark, drove

two enormous

Horus

into the

Chemmis, and (under the name of Python) constrained Latake refuge in the floatmg island Delos where she became the parent

floating island

tona to

of Ajwllo and Diana flee into

:

but he likewise compelled

all

the arkite divinities to

Egypt, where they assumed the forms of the various sacred animals

At

of that countiy. with mount Etna the Arimi

;

;

length, Jupiter

overwhelmed

submerged him, according to

hini;

others,

according to some, in

the country of

confined him, according to others again, in a cavern of Cilicia

'

Numb,

xxxiii. 49.

<^"'^''-

'"•

THE ORIGIN OK PAOAN IDOLATRT.

2.54 BOOK

IV,

plunged him thunderstruck, according to others, beneath the lake Ser-

0,.

bonis.'

All this wild superstructure of romantic incident, which mytholoijists have

erected on the allegorical character of Typhon, will require tion,

we

if

steadily

keep

mind

in

For a time he

diluvian ocean.

themselves by a precipitate

that that poetical monster

prevails,

flight

Accordingly, the scene of his overthrow luvian legend,

nations

:

in

whatever different countries

by which they severally Thus, he

of the Ark.

name of Python, is

submerged

Syrians

:

di-

similar to

the

that

a[)pulse

over« helmed with Etna: but some imagined, that

is

upon that moimtain

in the skirts

of Parnassus

:

lie

but the

under the

slain,

is

Greek mythologists

was the mountain on which Deucalion's ark

that this

us,

some

might be laid by different

it

local appropriation,

localized the history of the deluge and

the ark of Deucalion rested

tell

of which he originally issued.

usually connected with

is

was the mere vanity of

for this

subdued himself, and

is finally

womb

plunged beneath that eirth from the

avozvcd/y the

is

and constrains the hero-gods to save

but he

:

explana-

little

He

rested.

land of the Arimi, vUiom Strabo pronounces to be the

in the

but the ark of Deucalion was also thought to have grounded on a

mountain of Syria

and

;

in that country,

wc

as

learn from Lucian,

dition of his

voyage was preserved with yet greater minuteness of

elsewhere.

He

plunged

is

immediately connects him with the deluge, as

detail than

his

Egyptian history

sufficiently

appears from the

lake Serbonis

in the

the tra-

but

:

part which he acts against Osiris and Horus.

Typhon

when

in short,

which blended him with

his legend

Osiris,

is

is

not obscured by that mystic theocrasy

the ocean at the time of the flood, as the

Egyptian priests themselves acknowledged

Moses

accurately the language of tion of Apollodorus.

"

lies. Thcot;. ver.

xwiii. lib. ii. c.

820—868.

Ovid. Metam. 30.

Moses

tells us,

784.

Herod,

p.

in the lake Serbonis

lib.

i.

c. 6. §

321—331, 346—355.

lib. ii. c. ;

it is

curious to observe,

how

that the waters of the deluge prevailed

Apoll. Bibl.

lib. r. ver.

phon lay hid

and

coincides with the hieroglyphical descrip-

jEschyl. Prom. Vinct. ver. 3al

Geog.lib. -wi.

:

144.

— 355. lib.

iii.

Homer. c. 5.

3.

Anton. Liber. Mctam.

Ilyg. Fab. 197. Iliad, lib.

c.

Hyg. Poet. Astron. ii.

ver.

783.

fetrab.

Herodotus indeed says, that Ty-

an expression, which seems rather

to relate to

him

character of the arkitc deity: but Stephanas says, that he was thunderstruck thero.

in

his

THE OKI GIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY. exceedingly upon the earth, that

the high

all

were covered, and that the waters rose loftiest

under the whole heaven

hills

fitteen cubits

Apoliodorus says, that

mountains."

955

above the tops of the

arms of Typhon reached

tlie

from the utmost boundaries of the west to the extremity of the east, that height he surpassed the summits of the tallest

Nor

to strike the stars/

is

the very

name

7.

am

it:

the Arabs

Typhon

inclined to suspect, that even

e\ iciently

a strong

deluge,

I

express the general

mystic intercommunion with that of

its

am

led

has been carried.

it

the

atiinity to

From

destroying Siva of Hindostan.

Zend-Avesta,

the

relates thus chiefly to the flood, I

Osiris does not exhibit the full extent to which

tlie

in

al Tiifan.^

Yet, while the character of

Typhon has

still

in

head seemed

his

word Typhon even yet obsolete

sense which the Egyptians ascribed to

deluge by the

and that

hills,

Ahriman of Persia and the

the former therefore, as he appears in

to conjecture,

that

Typhon was not simply

but the deluge viewed as the work of the evil principle

a remarkable part of

tlie

legend of Siva,

am

I

the

and, from

:

further induced

to

think,

agreeably to the prevalent doctrine of a succession of similar worlds, that in

Typhon, viewed

as the brother

and murderer of

Osiris,

ultimate reference to the primeval fratricide Cain. that fratricide

of

Adima

;

w hen he

or the

a memorable sacrifice

hence,

:

Hindoo and Egyptian

Siva at least

trace

an

certainly

is

manilested upon earth, as one of the three sons

is

Menu, and as

first

we may

the murderer of his brother

when we consider

superstitions,

and when we

scribed as the murderer of his brother Osiris

;

Dacsha

at

the palpable identity of the

Typhon

find

the presumption

similarly deis,

that a

si-

milar ultimate reference was intended, though the death of Osiris chiefly related to the entrance of the great father into the Ark.

Various other pa-

may be mentioned, all of which ought, I think, to be ascribed same origin. Thus there was a notion, that one of the Corybantes

rallel stories

to tlie

or Cabiri was slain

by the hand of

his

two brothers

Dardanus

17-20.

'

Gen.

'

Anc. Univ.

vii.

by

his brother

Hist. vol.

:

» i.

p.

200. note E.

:

thus lasion

and thus the

life

Apollod. BibL

lib.

is

of

i.

said to

have fallen

Danaus c. 6.

§ 3.

is

feigned

^"''^''- '*•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

256 BOOK

IV.

to

have been sought by his brother Egyptus.'

we have as

Siva,

but a repetition of the murder of Osiris by is

Argo

in

or

or of

Dacsha by

were eminently diluvian gods, Dardanus

for the Cabiri

:

Typhon

instances

by every one of the agents being immediately connected

plain

with the deluge

caped

In each of these

es-

a ship at the time of a flood, and Danaus was the navigator of the

Argha no

The Hindoo a member both of the

less than Osiris or Siva.

the double manifestation of Siva as

Menu

and of the seventh

distinctly set

is

which

in

first

serve as an expla-

will best

forth,

legend,

family of the

nation of those other fables, which have so clearly sprung from the same source.

The

II.

drifted cian,

which Typhon inclosed

ark, within

on shore

in

Phenicia

:

Osiris,

connects with the Mysteries of Adonis or

was, that the god was found again.

and

its

Then,

after

arrival put

account of his reinvention.' lost,

and then recovered

:

Now

the

It

i.

us, that, the

the

Alexan-

the purport of which

the due performance of to drift sponfor the

joy on

only supposed to have been

he was also annually bewailed with funereal ;

rites,

and he was afterwards welcomed with loud

fictitious return to life.*

celebrated in honour of Osiris, were of an exactly similar

rites,

lib.

;

tells

Adonis,

was reported

Jul. Firm, de error, prof. rel. p. 23. Serv. in ^Eneid. lib.

Apoll. Argon,

seven days to

in

frantic expressions of

Nor was Adonis

as a person that had been slain

acclamations, on his

form represented

an end to the lamentations

Adonis, and changed them into the most

lost

*

weep

for

earthen vessel

into the sea.

it

He

Thammuz.

the Byblians began to

drians inclosed a sealed letter in an

:

in

This ceremony Procopius immediately

Byblos by a supernatural impulse.'

taneously to Byblos

;

which

and which was feigned to be wafted

certain mystic rites, they cast

have

supposed event by com-

this

mitting to the winds and waves a papyrine vessel

same day on which

to

and the Egyptians, as we are informed by Lu-

had a custom of yearly commemorating

the head of the deity,

was thought

ver. 4.

*

Luc. de dea Syra.

'

Procop. in Esai.

*

Luc. dedea Syra. § 6.

§ 7.

c. xviii.

Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 12. See pTale

I.

Fig. 12.

apud Selden. Phurn. de

nat. deor. c. xxviii.

iii.

ver.

l63

— 17O.

Schol. in

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. nature

;

257

the god was for a time bewailed, as one lost or

murdered

after-

;

wards he was thought to be found or to be reanimated, and the wild sorrow of his votaries was exchanged for yet wilder joy.'

Thus

it

appears then, that the Mysteries of the two deities were

points substantially the

same

and

:

it

in

all

further appears, that they were avowedly

connected with each other, both by the imaginary drifting of the ark of Osiris to the

Phenician coast, and by the annual voyage of the papyrine or earthen

Hence we maybe sure,

vessel to Byblos.

and Adonis are equally

that, as Osiris

human

the Sun, so they are equally one character likewise in their

Accordingly Lucian

was buried

some of

that

tells us,

and that

in their country,

the Byblians maintained, that Osiris

their Orgies

was undoubtedly

tory to assert, that

the hero of their

names of one

deity,

gloomily funereal and

first

Such being the

in

honour

ISIysteries

:

yet

it

right,

was nuga-

Adonis was therefore not the hero of them. Adonis and

Osiris were in fact one person ferent

were instituted not

Their opinion was so far

of Adonis but of the Egyptian divinity.' that Osiris

capacity.

or rather Adonis

:

and Osiris were but

venerated alike in Egj'pt and Phenicia with

dif-

rites

afterwards tumultuously joyful.

case, as the Mysteries of Osiris

were the same as those

of Seth or Typhon or Baal-Peor, the Mysteries of Adonis must also be identified with the Orgies of that god.

which the

Israelites

To

up

to

him during the time of

of the rites

:

of the dead,

to be

for Ezekiel speaks

many abominations

of Adonis were well

memorials of the deluge;

his

supposed death or

of idolatry, which prevailed alike in Egypt

this species

and Phenicia, they continued days of Moses

sacrifices therefore

partook of in the worship of Baal-Peor, must have been

those that were offered

disappearance.

The

pertinaciously attached long after the

of

women weeping

Thammuz, as one The mournful famous for its many

for

of his degenerate countrymen.'

known hkewise in

at Argos, so

which place, as elsewhere,

bewailed by the females.*

He

prus, where, if I mistake

not, he

his loss

was

statedly

was equally venerated in the island of Cy-

was known by

Jul. Firm, de error, prof. rcl. p. 4, 5, 6.

Ovid. Metara.

his

lib.

scriptural

ix. ver.

692.

name of lib. x.

ver,

725—727. *

Luc. de dca Syra. §

Pag.

Idol.

7.

^

Ezek.

viii.

14.

vol.. II.

Paus. Corinth, p. 121.

2

K

'^'^

^*'-

THE ORIGIN

258 nooK

IV.

Thammuz

:

for the sacred

that country to

l)is

peculium of

tlio

temple, wliicb was dedicated in

paramour Venus, was denominated Tamascum.^

Adonis being the same as

1.

PAGAN lUOLATUV.

01-

and

Osiris,

sponding with those of the Egyptian deity,

Mysteries perfectly corre-

his

we

shall find that their respective

legends have a considerable degree of resemblance to each other.

Adonis was thought

to have been

by a wild boar or (according

slain

tlie

to

lover of Venus, and to have been

Nonnus) by Mars

shape of a

in the

Typhon was said to have been in pursuit of a boar at the time of the Moon, when he found and rent asunder the wooden ark which contained

boar. full

When

the body of Osiris.*

Adonis was

by the boar, he

slain

at

the

same

time disappeared : in consequence of which he was sought for by Venus io various countries, and at length found in Argos a city of Cyprus.'

milar manner, the lost Osiris was sought for by

Isis

the

:

and mythologists accordingly inform

Each was equally

same goddess.

born Veaus, just as Osiris Avas

us,

is

is

the

summit of Lebanon,

scripts of the true lunar

is

be omitted

in the legend of Adonis.

beauty while he was yet a

worshipped with the sea-

we

find

:

and, as the

them

Moon

peculiarly ve-

many

tran-

circumstance however in the history

child,

ark

:

this,

accordingly, could not

But here he sustains the additional

Venus, we are

told,

being struck with his

concealed him from the other gods in an ark,

That goddess became

which she committed to the care of Proserpine. equally enamoured, and refused to restore him. lie

one and

the hero-gods,

which was one of the

certainly his inclosure in an

character of the infant Horus.

to Jupiter,

the part of

mountain Ararat or Luban.*

Tlie most prominent and definite

of Osiris

si-

mangled body

they were

that

with the navicular Isis

the astronomical symbol of the Ark,

nerated on

his

the receptacle of

Hence Adonis

or the ship of the deluge.

and

Isis,

Venus here performs

at last discovered by her in Phenicia.

In a

The matter

being referred

decreed, that Adonis should spend four months with him,

'

Ovid. Mctam.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

'

Ptol. llcph.

lib.

x. ver. 6-ii.

lib.

i.

Nov, Hist.

c.

21.

Nonni

lib. vii. p.

Dioiiys. lib. xli. Plut.

336.

*


Macrob. Saturn,

354.

lib. c.

2\^

THE ORIGiy OF PAGAN" IDOLATRY. four with Proserpine, and four witli Venus.'

gorical death

and,

:

have also

to

In

was

self

as the arkite divinity

under whatever name was gener-

these cases the inclosure within the

was supposed

to

in safety

Ark was meant,

from

ivhich

Noah remained

therefore consistently esteemed a coffin.

somewhat more than a year and

really the time of his alle-

and to have returned

visited the infernal regions

all

the ark, as

in

have experienced such a death, we usually find him reputed

ally feigned to

them.

This inclosure

from the parallel fable of Osiris, was

as appears

259

it-

shut up

hence Adonis, as we learn from Theocritus,

:

have continued a year in Hades before he emerged to

light

liberty.*

2.

Hesiod represents Adonis as being the son of Phenix and Alphesib^a

common

but the more

opinion

that he

is,

was born from the incestuous

own daughter Myrrha. Babylonia, who in a state of

course with his daughter.

The consequence

of

it

was the son of Belus

or Thoth,

;

and he

tells us,

had

intoxication

was the

But, according to Antoninus Liberalis, this Cinyras,

in-

Cinyras was said to

tercourse of Cinyras with his

be a king of Assyria or

:

inter-

birth of Adonis.

whom

he

calls

Theias

Myrrha was born

that

in

mount Lebanon.'

The whole

legend curiously connects

itself

both with the preceding his-

tory of Adonis, and with other parts of ancient mythology which I have al-

ready had occasion to notice. equally the

Ark

Moon of

the

Alphesib^a and iNIyrrha are both, I believe,

or the great mother

:

name

and, as the

of the latter denotes

the water; so that of the former, which

is

a compound of

two synonymous words, Phenician and Greek, the one apparently added to explain the other, signifies the heifer, an animal, which, from bol of the Ark, the Syrians were

same arose



as

the

notion of her being peculiarly born

*

lib. iii. c.

lib. iii. c.

Anton. Liber. Mctam.

Murrha seems

to

*

13. § i.

Hesiod. apud Apoll. Bibl.

l54, 24!3.

also to call Theba.*

being a sym-

She was the

the horned Astartc or bovine Venus of the Phenicians

Apoll. Bibl.

'

wont

its

bu Mou-Rha.

Thcoc.

13. J 4.

:

whence

on the summit of Le-

Idyll, xv. Ter.

Fulgent. Mythol.

101—103.

lib.

iii.

c. 8.

Hyg. Fab.

c. xx.xiii. 'I

lie

word Rha or Ira equally

signifies the

Moon

in tlie

Cbaldoc and iheoldCclto-Scylhic -.and such an etymology perfectly accords with her supposed birth

on Lebaoon or the mountain of ihc Moon.

Alphaibia

is

compounded

of Alcph and Bous.

chap,

iv.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

260 BOOK

IV.

banon, which was their local mountain of the Moon, and Architis the

paramour of Adonis was

to

Phanac

divinity.

Bacchus

:

of the principal arkite

title

or Pheriij; was an appellation of Osiris, Adonis, or

Adonis was the very same character as

for

and the whole fable of

his mythological father;

his incestuous birth originated

But the legend

bear to the Ark.^

is

thfit in

a manner not a

little

curious

Semiramis,

Now

The

or canoe, such as was used in the

the birth of

it,

like the revival

Noah from

in

tree,

which condition she

the

same

as Rhea, Venus, Atargato have

been metamor-

tree alluded to was an excavated tree

and the birth of

:

of Attis from the hollowed trunk, means only

the Ark.

Argha which answers

and a notion prevailed,

;

Mysteries of Cybel^

In the Hindoo mythology, Parvati, during

the period of the deluge, similarly ship

Adonis

a remarkable circumstance, that

was variously feigned

phosed into a tree and a dove.

Adonis from

it is

who by many was esteemed

or the Syrian goddess,

tis,

thought to

for the reputed father of

:

fabulous mother was changed into a

brought him into the world.

re-

carries us also into Assyria or Babylonia,

said to have been the son of the Assyrian Bclus

that his

from the complex

Noah was

lationship of father and son, which the intoxicated

and

consort or

but which

Phenicians,

the

all

they themselves seem to have assumed from a

which Vemis-

Her

specially venerated.'

name common

lover Phenix bears a

in

assumes the forms of a dove and of the

to the excavated tree.

;

III. Throughout Phrygia, Osiris or Adonis was worshipped under the

name

of Jitis or Alys: and he was there supposed to be the favourite of

Cybel^

;

who,

like

Venus

or

Isis,

was the great universal mother.

The

rites

of Attis were of the same alternately melancholy and joyful description as those of Adonis and Osiris

by

Cybelfe, just as his

and he was supposed

two kindred

deities

Attis Avas slain by

cording to Diodorus, belfe:

:

to

have been bewailed

were by Venus and

Meon

or

Menes

upon which the goddess wandered over the whole world,

velled hair like one insane,

on account of the murder of her

'

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.e. 21.

Diod. Bibl. Hb.

iii.

c.

21.

p. 191, 192.

*

Ac-

Isis.'

the father of

Auson. Epig. xxx,

Jul. Firm, de error, prof. rcl. p. 20.

Cy-

Avith

dishe-

lover.*

This

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATHV. is

Menes

is

plainly a

legend

Sun

mere variation of the fables of Obiris and Adonis

the primeval Alenes or

tan and Britain

261

Menu

or

Menwyd

for

:

Egypt and Hindos-

of

and the imagined shepherd Attis was astronomically the

;

of the classical Apollo-Nomius and the Indian pastoral

in his character

Crishna, while in his

human

character (as

we

Ma-

are specially informed by

same person with Bacchus and Ado-

crobius and Clemens) he was the very

Accordingly, the frantic Bacchantes were wont to exclaim, in honour

nis.'

of their god, Evoe, Sabui, Hues, Attes, Attes,

Hue.s.^

Attis being the great arkite father, Catullus justly describes

him

as sailing

over the ocean in a swift ship before he took up Lis abode in Phrygia.'

This voyage was the same as the imagined voyage of Cronus to of Osiris to Phenicia: they were

all

the voyage of

and

Italy,

The

Noah.

propriety

of such an opinion will appear from the manner, in which this navigation of Attis was introduced into the rites of Cybelfe. at the annual celebration of the

fast in the

was dexterously excavated

made from within a

the cuttings of the

coffin.'^

of Egypt

Thus

it is

same mythological

Argo

inclosed within

it

as a dead

Cybele of Phrygia

evident, that the

the inclosure of Attis in the boat

:

made out

allusion, as the inclosure

and the imaginary death, and

that in

the trunk of

a.

canoe, and an image of Osiris

like a

wood was

for

;

and the Attis of Phrygia, the Osiris of Egypt.

;

that

These Mys-

it.

and he adds,

:

was observed

the Orgies of Isis a similar ceremony

ship

middle of

he says, were sacred to the mother of the gods

pine-tree

tells us,

Phrygian Mysteries a pine-tree was cut down,

and the image of a young man bound teries,

Julius Firmicus

is

body

is

the Isis

Consequently,

of the pine-tree must have the of Osiris within the aik or the

burial,

and

revival, of Attis

must

be the imaginary death, and burial, and revival, of Osiiis.

The

son of the Phrygian Attis,

cient personage as the

whom

I believe to bo the very

god Attis or Menes, was feigned

of Lydians and Pelasgi into Tyrrhenia.

They

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

c.

have led a colony

seated themselves on the banks

of the lake Cotyl^, which had a floating island like that

'

to

named Chemmis

21. Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 12.

* Evoi, "La-^oi, "Trjs, Arrrjs, Arrvjj, 'Ti;?. '

CatuU, Eleg. 60.

Jul. Firm,

di;

same an-

error, prof. rd. p. 53, 5^.

in

<^"'""- '"•

'

th£ origin of pagan idolatry.

262 nooK

IV.

ti,g

sacred Egyptian lake near Buto.

Sometimes however Hercules was

who sailed over the sea in a golden cup; and sometimes, Telephus, who when an infant was exposed with his mother in The meaning of the legend is sufficiently plain. Hercules, Attis, an ark. thouglit to have been their captain,

and the ark-exposed Telephus, are

all

one person: and, under the supposed

guidance of the ancient deity who was venerated by these different appellations, the

new colony

carried with

Attis or Adonis or

them

Italy their paternal diluvian rites of

into

of the consecrated lake, and of the symbolical

Osiris,

floating island.

IV. The if

identity of Attis

we once more return

and Adonis

We

into Phenicia.

the

Greeks and Romans under the name

ing

whom

and

a story

thus, while

it

be shewn in a yet stronger

light,

there find a deity, worshipped by

of Asclepius or Esculapim, respect-

which blends together the fables of those two gods,

told,

is

will

proves them to be mutually the same, proves also that

they are each the same as Esculapius.

According to Sanchoniatho, Sydyk or patriarch

of the

Noah, was

first

tfie

the father of the seven Cabiri,

Argo

ship or the ship

:

and

to

who is clearly the who were the builders

just man,

them an eighth brother was added,

Esmimi, but properly called Asclepius.

tlience deirominuted

Respecting

him Damascius relates, that, although worshipped by the Greeks, he was really neither

Greek nor Egyptian, but a Phenician god

peculiarly adored at

Berytus or the city of the Baris, where the Cabiri had consecrated the of the ocean or tlte

tiic

deluge

:

that he

was a youth

ot such beauty as to

the mother of the gods

affections of the goddess Astrono^,

:

relics

engage

and

that,

finding himself perpetually followed by her while engaged in the chase, he at length, to avoid her importunities, castrated himself with a hatchet.*

Every thing as

tlie

in this

legend combines to shew, that Asclepius

is

the

same

emasculated or hermaphroditic Attis and Adonis, and that Astrono^ or

Astoreth

is

the

a diluvian god

same :

as

Venus and Cybcl^.

and the whole of

Hence

it

will follow,

that he

is

mythological history will confirm the

his

opinion. Dionys. Malic. Ant.

274. *

Rom.

lib.

i.

c.

15, 19.

Plin. Nat. Hist. lib.

iii.

c. 12.

Hyg. Fab.

Tzctz. in Lycoph. vcr. 1237, 1242, 13J1.

Eusib. Prap. Evan.

lib.

i.

c. 10.

Dainas.

\it. Isid.

apud Phot.

Bibl. p. 1073.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

He

was the great healer and

263

human

restorer of the

race:

and, in his

astronomical character of the Sun, he was worshipped in conjunction with Salus or the

Moon;

was a symbol of that Ark, which

for the lunar boat

forded health or safety to the Noetic fl^mily.

He

'

af-

was curiously connected

both with the dove and the raven, which are introduced so conspicuously into

He

the Mosaical account of the flood.*

was thought to have returned from

the infernal regions, and to have possessed the

from the same place to

nis,

Argo

he was supposed,

to say,

And

;

and Ado-

and which

Osiris,

is tiie

conveyed the Indian Siva over the waters of

safely

Rome

In reference to this part of his character, his temple at

*

built in

tliat

like Osiris

he was one of the navigators of

which was also the ship or Baris of

Argha

as the

the deluge.

was

is

have died and to have revived.*

the ship

same

that

:

power of bringing back others

an island of the Tiber; and the island

been commensurate with the temple

in point

of

which seems to have

itself,

size,

was curiously fashioned

with a breast-work of marble into the form of a ship, the higher part of imitating the stern, and the lower part the prow.

god peculiarly delighted

was that of a serpent

to assume,

was one of the chief emblems of the great father

Thus Macrobius lapius

tells us,

that a serpent

as the universal

V.

We are

name

it

shape, which this :

but the serpent

in every quarter of the globe.

was subjoined

and Salus, considered as the Sun and Moon.*

poet invokes the former by the ter,

The

^

Escu-

to the statues of

Of

these the

Orphic

of the Saviour ; and celebrates the lat-

queen and the great mother of

all.'

assured by Clemens Alexandrinus, that Attis was the same as

Bacchus or Dionusus Bacchus, were

all

;

one

'

Macrob. Saturn,

*

Paus. Corinth, p. 133.

lib.

i.

and by Macrobius, that deity.*

c.

Attis,

and

Osiris, Adonis,

Diodorus likewise concurs

in asserting the

20.

Arcad.

p.

Lactan.

496.

Iiisiit. lib. 1. c.

10.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

c. 10..

jii.

* Hyg. Fab. 251.

Diod. Bibl.

*

Hyg. Fab.

'

Liv. Hist. Epit. lib. xi.

Plin.

Nat. Hist.

lib. iv. p.

273.

ApoUod.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

c. 10. § 3.

14.

lib.

xxix.

"

Macrob. Saturn,

'

Orph.'

'

Clem. Cohort,

Hymn.

c.

lib.

i.

i.

c.

Ovid. Metara.

lib.

xv. ver. 739.

Dion. Halic. in excerpt, a Vales. 20.

Ixvi. Ixvii.

p. 12.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib. i.'c.

21, 18..

Valer.

Maxim,

lib.

i.

c. 8.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

264 BOOK

IV.

:

identity of the classical

we examine

Bacchus and the Egyptian

the fabulous history of Bacchus,

we

Osiris.'

Accordingly,

if

shall plainly see, that the old

mythologists were not mistaken in entertaining such opinions respecting him.

The same enemies,

1.

that assailed the Egyptian deity, were thought also

He

to have turned their fury against Bacchus.

who

Cabiri his

was attacked by the Titans,

obtained him through a stratagem from his guardians the Curetes or

was

;

by them

slain

mangled carcase,

mountain Parnassus

;

and was divided

like that of the elder :

Caspian

Corybas, was buried

members were Nonnus says, that

but at length his

Rhea, and joined together again. * the vicinity of

into seven pieces.

mount Parnassus, but

in the region

Afterwards in the arkite

carefully collected this

by

happened, not in

of Bactriana near the

or in that very tract of country where the Hindoos place the

sea,

garden of Eden and suppose the Ark to have grounded cus lays the scene of the tragedy in Crete,

:

while Julius Firmi-

and represents Juno as being the

instigator of the Titans. 2.

Such varying

tales are built

upon mere

local appropriations, similar to

own

that by which the Egyptians placed the sufferings of Osiris in their

country

:

and they

all

fabled to have occurred, were the

was meant

that descent,

The death

equally relate to the events of the deluge.

and dilaceration and burial of the ship-god,

same

in

whatever region they were

as his descent into

his entrance into the

Ark.

supposed to have been slain and torn in pieces wise feigned to have visited the world of

and

spirits.

Hades

:

and,

by

Hence, as Bacchus was interred

;

so was he

The Greeks

like-

believed this

event to have taken place at Lerna in Argolis, doubtless because the comniehiorative Mysteries of the infernal Ceres situated near the sea ;

lo or pine.

Isis into the

Here

also

and

it

was

were there celebrated.

It

symbolical heifer, and of the mythological rape of Proser-

Danaus was thought

to have landed

from the ship Argo

and here was a temple dedicated to Bacchus the Preserver and Venus •

*

Diod. Bibl.

Clem.

lib.

'

i.

Nonni Dionys.

float-

p. 13.

Cohort, p. 12.

apud Proc. inTim.

was

at once the scene of the metamorphosis of

Phurn. de nat. deer.

lib. iii. p.

lib. vi.

c.

xxx.

Plut, de Isid. p. 368. Orph. Fragm.

184.

Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p, 521. Jul, Firm, de error, prof. reJt p. 13, 14.

PAGAN IDOLATUr.

ORIGIIJ OF

THE

Noah and

ing on the sea, or, in other words, to

^65

The

the Ark.

reason,

on

account of nliith Bacchus descended into the infernal regions, was, that he

might fetch

his

This he accomplished, and was

mother from thence.

after-

wards translated with her to heaven.' Tiie Lernean Orgies, in which the history of the great father and

3.

tlie

great mother was scenically represented, are said to have been instituted by * and they were the same as those at Eieusis.

the hierophant Philammon:

Like Adonis,

wards -on

Osiris,

and

Attis,

tells us,

Minerva preserved in plaister

his heart,

joy

Julius

torn in pieces by the Titans, his sister

and afterwards made a representation of him

within Mhich she inclosed

Cretans had an annual

after-

:

frantic exclamations of riotous

Similar rites prevailed in Crete.

revival.'

when he was

that,

lamented as one dead

v^•as first

the most

broke out into

his votaries

account of his supposed

Firnncus

Bacchus

festival,

in

In commemoration of

it.

which

all

that

this the

Bacchus had done and

They made

fered was regularly exhibited by proper actors.

the

woods

suf-

re-

sound with loud lamentations, and studiously assumed the character of In their phrenzy they tore a living bull with their teeth, and bran-

maniacs.

Above

dished serpents in their hands.

all,

with the sound of pipes and the

which Minerva was sup-

tinkling of cymbals, they carried about the ark in

posed

have concealed

to

4. This ark of

his heart.*

Bacchus

Amnion, which Diodorus Egypt

navicular gods. that

it

;

a number which

Schol. in Apoli. .Argon,

*

Pans. Corinth,

*

Lugc'te

p.

same ship,

as the

ark of Osiris or

and which was similarly

the decuple of their ogdoad of great

is

however, that Firmicus

was the heart of the god which

Paus. Corintli. p. 155, 156.

'

674.

a

pretended impulse of the deity by eighty of the

I greatly fear

'

the

certainly

expressly calls

carried about under the priests of

is

lib.

it

contained

Strab. Geog. lib. i.

vcr. i.

viii. p.

:

371.

Apollod. Bibl.

is

for

mistaken in saying

we

learn from Cle-

.Eschyl. Prom. Vinct. ver.

lib. iii. c. 5.

§ 3.

155.

Libtrum, lugete Proserpinam, iugcte Attin, lugete Osjrin. Jul. Firm, de

prof. rcl. p. 20. * Jut. '

Firm, de

Diod. Bibl.

Pag.

Idol.

err. prof. rcl. p. 14, 15.

lib. xvii. p.

Arnob, adv. gent.

lib. v.

528.

VOL.

II.

21L

error,

'"*''•

"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRl'.

266 IIOOK IV.

mens, that

was no

it

on the contrary,

heart, but,

that disgraceful hieroglyphic

of the great father, which was so very generally introduced into the ancient

Yet Bacchus was sometimes represented

Mysteries.'

more decorously.

Pausanias mentions a sacred ark, which, at the capture of

Troy, was thought to have fallen to the lot of Eurypylus. have been the Mork of Vulcan, and the it

was placed a

was carried

in

same manner

and therefore

literally,

gift

solemn procession by the

as that of

Ammon who

Orgies of the Hetruscans,

from Phrygia; likewise

of Jupiter to Dardanus.

Bacchus-Esymnetes

ligure of

in the

was

It

and

priests

A

or Osiris.'

Within

at a stated festival,

and,

:

said to

similar ark

it

much

in the

was used

in the

priestesses

are supposed to have received their theology

Mysteries of the Samothracian Cabiri

:

and

it

contained the same hieroglyphic of the great father, to which I have just alluded.'

That by the ark of Bacchus we are

to understand a ship,

is

sufficiently

plain from his legendary history, even independent of that ark being palpably

the

same

told,

as the

Argo of

Osiris.

When

an

he was inclosed, we are

infant,

with his mother Semel^ in an ark, and thus cast into the sea.

ark, floating

on the surface of the waters, bore him

Epidaurus.

Here he landed

:

and Ino or

Isis,

in safety to Brasiae near

having come in the course of

The

her wanderings to the same place, became his nurse.

which she performed her Ark, was in

still

shewn

office,

and which

itself

in the days of Pausanias.*

as sailing in a ship decked with vine-leaves and ivy that once,

when he was performing a voyage

sacred cave, in

symbolized the mundane

Nor

He is

which that deity appears as a navigator.

The

is

this the

only instance,

represented by Philostratus :

and there was a

to Hetruria (by

tradition,

which was meant

the introduction of the Bacchic Mysteries into that country), and was in dan-

ger from the treachery of the mariners '

Clem. Alex. Cohort,

p. 12.

;

he changed the mast and the oars of

Diodoius justly deduces the impious

from the allegorical calamities which

befell Osiris

and Bacchus.

To

equal propriety refers the worship of Priapus, Typhon, or Baal-Peor.

214.

lib. i.p. 19.

*

Paus. Achaic. p. 435, 436.

'

Clem. Alex. Cohort, Paus. Lacon. p. 209.

p. 12.

Euseb. Pra;p. Evan.

lib. ii. c. 3.

the

rites

of the phallus

same source he with

Died. Bibl.

lib. iv.

p.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

267

the vessel into serpents, the vessel itself into a stone rising out of the sea,

and the mariner

As an

5.

sinto dolphins.

was highly venerated at Thebes, and was some-

arkite god, he

times thought to have Ijeen born there

whence he was

;

but the Theba of his real second nativity was not the

which the

city received its

who,

Ino or

like

Theba was

name.

was feigned

Isis,

have received him into her

womb

called Tkebegtnes

but the

city,

same as Hippa;

certainly the

have been the nurse of Bacchus and to

to

second birth from what the Greeks

at his

by an odd misprision of terms called the thigh of Jupiter.' which

to be the first oblique case of the word,

thigh

but

:

name of

also the

it is

from which Deo-Naush proceeded on is

same

certainly the

Dionusus

arkite

no

is

observes,

lently

a

conveyed

to

common

in

a Greek

strangely transformed into a thigh

and

Now

of victory.

Greeks

and the

;

The Meru

the Arghanath Siva.

then,

with the thigh of Jupiter

As Diodorus

ear.

was the Indian mountain so

it

signifies

after the deluge,

his celebrated career

whence Bacchus was born^ has nothing it

language

in their

as the Dionusus of the

less evidently

beyond the sound which

Me?'u happens

the famous sacred mountain of the Hindoos,

which was the favourite abode of the mariner-god Siva

Deo-Naush

:

Ark from

excel-

which the poets

called,

but of that mountain Ararat was the true

:

prototype, for there the real Bacchus experienced his second birth from the

womb of '

629

Philost. Icon. lib.

—700.

c. Ip.

Nonni Dionys.

*

'O

'

Diod. Bibl.

tion,

i.

ii.i

p.

ApoU.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

Meru,

us that

tells is

Aio; Tf^tsKTiv

123.

mount

really the

are equally

titles

same

Ovid. Metam.

c. 5. § 3.

Strab.

lib. iii.

lib.

xv. p. 687.

It is

Argillus was the place of his nativity.

Meru:

as

for the

word

is

not unworthy of observa-

Plut. de flumin.

compounded of Argha and

Argillus

Ila,

The

which the divines of Thibet

bestow upon mount Meiu.

With

the

still

propriety of this opinion

transposition ot Arghiel,

same reference

were called ^rg-jfe. the British

name

which

of the ship-goddess that delights to haunt the summit of the holy mountain.

lla-vratta or the circle of Ila.

literal

ver.

Dionusus was born on mount

Accordingly, the top of Meru, where the ship Argha rested at the closeof the deluge,

mere

is

Proc. in Tim. apud Gesn. Orph. p. 401.

si; avrr^v.

Geog.

that Sosthencs, as cited by Plutarch, instead of saying that

however

second birth

this

lib. xlvii.

ii aita Tov iJ-r^^ou rov lib.

What was meant by

mother.'

his allegorical

lo the

of Argyle

;

lib.

v. p.

They caW

'\t

their

From

styled

Righiel, which

is

a

Argil or Argillus.

the sacred caverns of the old

244.

is

manifest from the appellation,

whence the Greeks formed

mystic ship,

Strab. Geog.

is

Cimmerii

in Italy

a similar source likewise proceeded

which the Cimmerian Druids have bestowed upon a

district in

Scotland, abounding in holy lakes, and in the immediate vicinity of their sacred islands.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

258 BOOK

IV.

sufficiently evident

pressly refers

means

it

:

yet

it is

wortliy of observation,

epoch of the deluge

to the

;

so that

tliat

Diodonis even ex-

true import

its

was by no

though obscured by the humour of physical

lost in the gentile world,

Considering Bacchus as a personification of the vine, he

allesorizins.

tells

us, that the god died at the period of the flood of Deucalion Avhen the whole

earth was ravaged by the waters

and that he revived with other natural

;

productions when the inundation retired. deity

same

who had vanished

who was

daughter of Danaus,

but, according to the

or Cybelfe.

Hippa

*

She was

some

Greece

feigned to have sailed to

Orphic poet, she was the same

same

doubtless the

men,

the

is

also as Isis

;

to be the

in the ship

as Proserpine

for that goddess

and

are indifferently said to have been the nuise or recipient of Bacchus.

of the Universe, and ascribes to her the characaccordingly, in the mythology both of Greece and of

Proclus styles her the of Ceres

teristics

Britain

to the eyes of

the

birth.

respect to his nurse Hippa, she was thought by

With

Argo:

appeared again

as his second

he asserts,

thing,

6.

for a season

when

Tiiis restoration to life,

:

life

and of Hindostan, Ceres or Ceridwen or

was supposed

Sri

assumed the form of a Hippa or mare, and thus

to

Hippa,

Bacchus, was the same say, she

in short, the

who had taken fabled nurse of

Ceridwen or Argo or Argha

as the ship

have

have received the em-

braces either of the ruler of the ocean or of the navicular Sun, the corresponding shape of ahorse.'

to

:

that

is

to

was the same as Theba or the Ark, that mythological goddess, who

common receptacle of all the hero-deities. Sometimes she was called Nusa ; as Bacchus himself was denominated Nusus or DioNusus, by the Hindoos expressed Deo-Naush. Dio-Nus is evidently the divine Nus or Noah ; and Nusa is but the feminine form of the same ^\ord. The appellation Niisa was no less famous than Theba or Argha and from this imaginary nurse of Bacchus many different places were thought to have Thus there was a mount Nusa in Beotia, in Thrace, received their names. was esteemed

the

:

in Arabia, in India, '

Diod. Bibl.

lib. iii. p.

Lex.

* Proc. in

Tim. apud Gosn. Orph.

Mytbol.

p. 2jr»

258.

in

Naxus

;

a

city

Nusa,

in

Caria, in

196.

Orph. Hymn,

* Ilesych.

'iTTTrfioy.

and

in Lybia,

p.

Asiat. Res. vol.

xlviii.

401

iii.

.

Ptol. lleph.

p. I68.

Nov, Hist.

lib. iii>

p.

312. Davies's

;;

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATllY. mount Caucasus, and polis

India ; and an island Nusa, in the Nile.

in

was once called Nusa

thearkite Parnassus

;

and there was a Nusa in Ediiopia, where the Mysteries

was the fancied scene of Jupiter's

put to

flight

and

:

much

ith

was over the

was thought

Nusa, that

plains of

dismay from Lycurgus, ere he plunged into

not,

one of the sacred

mundane Ark

the

islands, which, like

the several cities of that

:

likewise

to have

been

this deity fled in

wild

Erythrtan sea where he was

tlie

protected by Thetis from the rage of his enemy.'

doubt

Nusa

devotion.

triumph over Typhon or the ocean

final

as well as the other hero-gods,

it

Scytho-

such also was the name of one of the peaks of

:

of Bacchus were formerly celebrated w

by whom Bacchus,

36^

Nusa

Tlie island

was, I

Dclos and Chemmis, typified

name were

so called in honour

of the great universal mother Nusa, Theba, Argha, or Baris: and the various

which were similarly designated, were each a high place of the transmi-

hills,

grating diluvian god, each a copy of Ararat where the primeval

and where the deity Nusus experienced the old mythologists.

As

for the flight of

plunging into the Erythr^an sea, I take

from Typhon

:

that

each relates to the

it

second

rested

famous among

Bacchus from Lycurgus and

same event

to be the

his

as his flight

Noah underwent

which

perils,

birth so

Nusa

during the

prevalence of the deluge. Diflferent accounts are given of the birth of

7.

was

said to be the son of Jupiter

himself,

Bacchus.

was reckoned a Cabiric deity

;

in

like

which case, allusively to

descent into Hades, he was esteemed an infernal god

and Scmelfe:

Sometimes he

and Proserpine, each of whom,

sometimes, of Cabitus, which

is

:

Bacchus

his

mystic

sometimes, of Jupiter

clearly

an erroneous reading

for Cabh'us: sometimes, of an Asiatic or Indian prince named Caprius this

was Bacchus-Sabazius, the Siva or Seba of Hindoo mythology

times, of Nilus or river),

Oceanus

who was thought

to

have built one of the ;

'

c. 4.

Nonui Dionys.

lib. x.\.

iii.

denominated Kusa

:

in the

form of the sinp Argha on the

and sometimes, of Jupiter and the Moon; by which

Scliol. in Iliad, lib. vi. vcr. 134. Ilc'iod. Hist. lib.

cities

the Di-Youi or female principle of the

Brahmenical superstition, which floated :

some-

(as the Egvptians called their sacred symbolical

sometimes, of Nusus and Thyone

waves of the deluge

:

c. *)".

Plir. Nat. Hist. lib. v.

Apollod, Bibl.

lib.

Strab. Geog. lib. xiv. p. 6^^.

i.

c. 6.

c. IS.

Apollod. Bibl.

Horn.

Iliad, lib. vi. vcr.

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi. p.

lib. iii.

500, 501.

130.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Q70 BOOK

IV.

was meant the Ark symbolized by the lunar fundamentally the same

crescent.

and they equally serve

;

These

'

fables are all

to teach us, that, in

whatever

countiy he might be worshipped, he was a Cabiric god born from the Ark.

We

8.

Noah was

are told by the sacred historian, that

the

first

man

of

the renovated world, that he was a cultivator of the ground, that he was the original postdiluvian planter of the vine,

and that he was unhappily betrayed

into drunkeness.

The Though

character of Bacchus here again corresponds with that of Noah. the Greeks so far corrupted his real history, as to represent

one of the younger gods

;

He

day from the

was the oldest then of

floating

all

the

first

first-

who came

forth

egg within which he had been inclosed. *

the divinities

:

and, immediately after his mystic

which he was supposed

have

birth

from the egg, previous

after

an ineffable manner, he became the inventor of wine.

to

to

Semel^ herself was sometimes fabled to have been a vine legend

is

Setting out from

Thebes

Thebaor Ark from which he was thought, world

;

to the planting of the

full of allusions ;

by which was

the city received

like Osiris,

really its

first

name

and

:

his

whole

vineyard by Noah.*

setting out

:

hidden

lain

His mother

'

meant, not the

city,

but the

from Thebes,

have travelled with an army over the whole

to

mankind

and, in his progress, he was supposed to have taught

and of receiving

art of cultivating the vine, of expressing the juice,

Wherever he went, he was attended by a host of

vats.

him as

was the

that he

tells us,

name of Diomisus he was

born, and that under the to the light of

yet the Orphic poet

Satyrs,

it

Sileni,

the into

and

Bacchantes, inflamed with wine, and infuriated with enthusiastic devotion.

He first

himself at their head, driven to a state of phrenzy by Juno, wandered

over Syria and Egypt; in the latter of which countries he was hospitably

Thence he went

received by king Proteus. initiated into the

'

*

Mysteries of Rhea or Cybel^.

Arrian. de exp. Alex.

Ampel.

c, ix.

C.23. ApoUod. Bibl.

lib.

*

Orph. Hymn.

^

Orph. Hymn. xxix.

* Schol. in

lib.

Nonni Dion.

iii.

v. 1, 2.

ii.

c.

lib. v.

c. 4.

xxix. 2.

l6.

Diod. Bibl.

Orph. Hymn,

From

lib. v.

p.

xxviii. xxix.

Athen. Legat.

c. xix.

Ciccr, de Nat. deor.

lib. iii,

342.

Fragm. apud Macrob. Saturn,

Athen. Legat.

c.

xix.

he was

Phrygia he proceeded

Etym. Magn. Zayffuj.

3.

Hes. Theog. ver. 940.

Phrygia, where

into

lib.

i.

c. 18.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Wherever he went, he erected upright

whole of India. symbols of

his disgraceful

Thebes and Argos

to

regions,

was

made a

passing through Scythia, he

into Thrace; and,

:

commence,

the traditions of every country,

the constant

length he returned

These

'

either

grounded, or from some

Ark was thought

was feigned

region where the god

travels, which, in

from some place denomi-

nated after the Ark, from some mountain where the

afloat in

pillars,

and, having brought back his mother from the infernal

with her translated to heaven.

finally

progress through the

At

worship from east to west.

271

to have

to

hare

been set

an Ark, relate very evidently to the origination of mankind from

mount Ararat and

the ship of the deluge and to their subsequent dispersion

As demonolatry was

over the face of the whole earth.

wherever the degenerate children of

dispersion,

Noah

introduced before the

migrated, they carried

with them the ark of their deity, and believed themselves to travel under his

immediate influence and protection. visited every part of the globe

have

:

the special ancestor, and the tutelary

On

this principle,

doos at of

all

Nusa

;

of

all

the nations of the earth.

cities

claimed the honour of

though the Cretans believed him to have been

Egypt or

the Egyptians in

in Crete,

divinity,

though many different Greek

having given birth to Bacchus

born

Hence Noah himself was feigned to and hence he was made the first king,

near mount IMeru

:

at

Nusa

yet, since he

in

Arabia, and the Hin-

was the common progenitor

mankind, with the sole exception of the Armenian Ararat we are not to

seek his true origin in any one country rather than another.*

With

the character of

Noah, Bacchus

likewise sustains that of

the Gentiles esteemed the one patriarch a

Hence, as the he

is

first

man, as the

first

mere reappearance of the

agriculturist,

not more the former of these than the

double character, which

may be

Adam

and as the universal

latter.

;

for

other. father,

In conformity with

this

traced throughout the whole of ancient Pa-

ganism, his Mysteries seem to have been purposely contrived.

They, who

celebrated them, were crowned with snakes; a serpent was the peculiar symbol of initiation; and the votaries of the god, as '

Diod. Bibl.

Instit. lib. *

i.

c.

iii.

p.

197-

Oiph. Hymn.

xli.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib. iii.

c. 5.

Lactan.

10.

Diod. Bibl.

c. 144, 145.

lib.

Clemens remarks, perpetu-

lib.

iii.

p.

195— 20G.

Jul. Firm, de err. prof. rel. p. 13. Herod. Hist. lib.

Strab. Geog. lib. xv. p. 1008.

ii.

THE ORIGIN Of PAGAK IDOLATRV.

272 jjooK IV.

upon the name of

ally called

that Eva,

Wlien

entered into the world.'

by

whom

the pristine error of

man

I consider the prevalent doctrine of heathen

mytholoiiy relative to the successive manifestations of the great father in difterent

though similar worlds,

Eva

respecting the word

VI. Diodorus

cannot esteem the conjecture of Clemens

I

by any means improbable. that the Egyptians considered their

tells us,

god Osiris to

be the same as the Greek Dionusus, and that the Indians similarly supposed

him

to

latter

have appeared

Hence,

in their country.

in the

people ascribed those identical actions to their

the former did to Osiris and the Greeks to Bacchus.

together into communities, gave them

He

making wine.

was

worship of the gods

own Dionusus,

He

laws, and taught

likewise their instructor in

and he was the

;

days of Arrian, the

first

person,

first

vviiich

brought

them the

men of

art

agriculture and

in

who yoked oxen

to the

the

plough.*

Such being the

case,

the

name of Dionus

Dco-Naush;

with the Hindoo

clearly leads us to identify

him

though the legend of that personage does not

at present coincide so minutely with the classical and Egyptian accounts of

Bacchus and

Osiris,

flourished.'

Still

lizing the

as

it

however he

little

is

described, as similarly subduing and civi-

Descending, according to the Puranas, from the

whole world.

elevated plains of

appears to have done at the time when Arrian

Bokhara, the arkite and Paradisiacal

inenical theology, he invaded with a

Mcru

of Brah-

numerous army the countries of Samar-

cand, Bahlac, and Cabul, then inhabited by the Sacas and Sacasenas, the

Saxons of our western part of the globe. Egypt, and Ethiopia or Chusistan

:

Afterwards he conquered Iran,

and then, proceeding through Varaha-

dwip or Europe, he subdued Cliandra-dwip or the rite

abode of the god Lunus or Chandra.

British isles,

Next he advanced

the favouinto

which includes the northern parts of Europe and the whole of Siberia at length,

having

'

Clem. Cohort,

*

Diod. Bibl.

'

This

!>od

made himself master

all

:

and

the countries which

lie

p. 9.

lib. iv. p.

210.

Arrian. Hist. Ind. p. 321.

was styled by the old

of their idolatry to

of China,

Cum,

th;it

Irish Bac/i

and Dia-Nos, a clear proof of the cloie

of Greece and Ilindoitan.

Vallaucey's Vindic.

p. '266.

afliuity

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. and the whole of Hindostan, he returned

to the south of it,

Meru through the Naush are evidently

same

the

same

certainly relate to the

god equally

his expedition

all

the

Greek and

the Egyptian

the

Ark

so the

:

Hindoo

from mount Meru, where by the vanity of

was said

to

and a mythological

;

really

com-

deity

local appro-

have grounded as the waters retired

Meru

For Thebes and

from off the face of the earth.

and they

Osiris,

denominated Theba, by which was

men from

priation the ship of the deluge

and mount Ararat

Dionusus and

As both

events.

to the high plains

These fabulous conquests of Deo-

as those of

out from a city

sets

the origination of

mences

Hard war.'

pass of

of

meant

S73

tale is

Ark

substitute the

changed into authentic

history.

What own

the

Brahmens say of Deo-Naush throws much and on the

particular character

Naush, we are

told,

was

became a Deva or god: the vulgar dialects.

Like the

light

both on his

of demonolatry.

mere mortal; but on mount Meru he

at first a

hence he

general principles

called

is

Deva-Naush

spiritual rulers of

or

Deo-Naush

in

Tartary and Tibet, which

countries include the holy mountains of Meru, Deo-Naush did not properly

speaking die; but his soul shifted

its

habitation and entered into a

new body,

whenever the old one was worn out either through age or sickness. ^ transmigrating Deo-Naush, siacal

and

and, as he

arkite is

Meru,

This

who became a god on the summit of the Paradisame as Menu or the great father

evidently the

is

ultimately no other than Buddha, the

Lama

of Tibet

is

his

imagined living representative. Doctrines of such a description were not altogether unknown in the west.

The

soul of Osiris

was thought successively

to

animate each living bull Apis

;

and, even at a comparatively late period, Cleopatra and her brother affected

what the Hindoos would

to be

call

Avatars of

Isis

and Dionusus. '

This

claim of transmigratoiy godhead perfectly accorded with the old theological

system of Eg\'pt.

Diodorus has preserved a curious account of the birth of

Bacchus, in his character of a descendant from Cadmus.

Cadmus and '

his

daughter Semele lived at Thebes ia Egypt;

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi. p.

Idol.

*

503. '

Pag.

He

Pint, in

vit.

tells us,

that

Semel6

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 292.

Anton.

VOL.

II.

2

that

M

f"'^*"-'*-

THE ORIGIN OK PAGAN IDOLATRY.

274 iwoK

IV.

who hore

a son,

and

that at the

all

the

marks which are attributed

by advice of an

this,

end of seven months she was delivered of

;

pioved with child

new-born god, and

gave him out to be a manifestation of Osiris among men. tation

is

plainly no other than

Cadmus upon

to Osiris.

sacrifices to the

instituteil

oracle,

Siicii

'

a manifes-

what the Hindoos denominate an Avatar

and

:

the story seems to prove not unequivocally, that the ancient Egyptians some-

times produced a living child and asserted that

in liim their favourite divinity

had become incarnate.

VII. Deo-Naush then on the top of

must certainly be the Greek

jNIeru

Nusa

Dionus, who was supposed to have been born at

But Siva or Ishuren

same mount Meru.

in the region

of the

equally described as the chief

is

"od of Meru, where he appears with all the attributes of Dionus. Hence it will follow, that, as Deo-Naush and Siva are alike the classical Diunus, they must be mutually the same as each other

common humour

accordinsi to the

persons

up

and

:

I

though the single hero-deity,

;

of the Hindoos, has been divided into two

make

strongly suspect, as the characters of the two exactly

that of Bacchus,

and as we are

told by Arrian that the

Indian legend

respecting that deity perfectly corresponded with the Grecian, that the division in (juestion had not taken place in his days,

then a mere

title

of Siva.

Cicero informs us, that

1.

it

was specially the Indian Bacchus who was

name was

called Sabazius or Sabazi, though the

west.

His intelligence was accurate

*

:

for,

Hindostan, united in composition with the

equally well

in the Seva,

title

hi

trace the nanje of the Egyptian

or Iswara, which

is

Osiris or Isiris in the

one of the most

was supposed

to

common

We

identification,

with what refer the

'

is

the

we may not may similarly

appellations of Siva.

have penetrated into India no

Greek and

in

Brahmenical Isluiroi

less

and as Osiris and Bacchus are confessedly the same god, wc in Siva or Ishuren both the

known

Siva, or Seba, of

or Isani,

obscurely recognize the Sabazi of Thrace and Hellas.

as Osiris

Deo-Naush was

but that

the Egyptian deity.

Now,

than Bacchus,

at once recognize

Agreeably to

this

the most prominent parts of his history will be found to agree related of

human

Died. Bibl.

Bacchus and Osiris

;

and they similarly teach us to

part of his character to the great transmigrating father.

lib.

i.

p. 20,

* Ciccr.

de nat. deor.

lib.

iii.

c.

?3.

THE According

was born

at

tic stature,

with wine.

ORrGI>r OF PAGAN- IDOIATRr.

Tamuli of Tranquebar, Maidashuren or

to the

Nisadabura

in the vicinity

had the horns of a

of

He was of a gigan-

mount Meru.

and was accustomed

bull,

who

drawn by leopards or

we have

the

bore the

name

of Kobaler

to intoxicate himself

Nusa and

and he rode

:

Meru, where many even of the western

the

have been born

to

horns, and the precise vehicle, of the classical god

of intoxication, the same attendant Kobali

Tamuli speak, are doubtless the same

:

The

complete the fable of ancient Greece.'

:

:

we have the bovine we have the same love

nothing in short

the Indo-Scythic Palli, is,

and Egyptian

As

first

Osiris

called themselves

Cai-PalU or Co-PaUi, of the Greek

was inclosed within an ark and was the

was likewise inclosed within mighty deep; so did Siva

Nor is this The same indecorous mode of

in the mysterious ship

the only point of resemblance between them.

Argha.

symbolizing the great father and the great mother, which prevailed the

Greeks and Egyptians,

seen, that

is

and

the deity

*

to the waters of the

on the surface of the deluge

the

while the pastoral Kobali are

ship Argo, and as Bacchus

an ark and thus comnjitted

whom

tell us,

in other particulars is his character to that

divinity.

navigator of the

float

:

the Illustrious or Royal Shepherds.

Equally analogous

wanting to

as the eight great gods of Egypt,

summit of Meru

who proudly

is

of

eight attendants,

as those eight forms of Siva in which, as the Brahmens shines conspicuous on the

in a chariot,

Here, as professor Bayer justly re-

lions or tigers.

mythologists supposed Bacchus

that

great Ishuren

tlie

His attendants were eight demons of the race of those Indian or

Scythic shepherds,

marks,

275

familiar likewise to the Hindoos.

among

We

have

Bacchus or Osiris sometimes contained a figure of

the ark of

the deity, and sometimes only an ineffable hieroglyphic of him

;

for

so the

symbols, adopted into the diluvian worship, were with reason called by the votaries themselves. •

'

We

have moreover seen, that the ancient my-

Bayer. Hist. Bactr. p. 2, 3.

A

branch of

tlicse,

herd-kings, of Egypt.

The

festival,

as

we

Vide

shall hereafter see,

flie

during which the sacred arks were carried

rofc^iu, as the author of the Etymologicuui or, as

were

Suidas informs

us,

Philitim, or IIuc-Sos, or Shep-

infra b. Ti. c. 5.

Magnum

einiSr) roc mifiriTix sy

in procession,

was called

Appij-

says, Sia ro appijTa xa< juvrrri^ta, fsoety,

xttrTMs ef tfoy tj Ssm

a,i

Tta^iyoi,

chap.

iv.

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

276 BOOK

IV.

thologists agree in deriving the

base superstition, to which

the fabled sufferings of Bacchus and Osiris

Now

diately connected with the deluge.

prevalent

among

find exactly the

the Hindoos, with respect to their

They

the ship Argha.

same notions

god Siva and

his consort

sailed indeed conjointly over the waters of the flood,

and each of them subsequently assumed the form of a dove

:

but their spe-

cial symbols are the generative powers of nature, male and female

when

at the period of that eventful voyage, dissolved,

from

which sufferings are imme-

;

we

I allude,

were reduced, we are

;

which

mundane system was Other

their simplest elements.'

to

told,

the whole

hieroglyphics of a less offensive description, which arc conspicuously intro-

duced into the worship of with Bacchus and Osiris. der,

is

not less famous in

this eastern divinity,

equally serve to identify

the tauric form of Bacchus are in the recondite lore of

Egypt and Greece

the serpents of the Dionysiaca yield not, in point of celebrity,

with which Siva infernal gods

;

is

adorned

:

and,

if

in the character

Siva,

him

The sacred bull Nandi, of which Siva is the riHindoo mythology, than the Apis of Osiris and to

those

Bacchus, Adonis, and Osiris, are

Yama,

of

is

all

equally the sovereign lord

of Patala or Hades.' Siva

is

esteemed not only the god of generation, but likewise the avenging

deity of destruction

and the eastern sages,

:

in

a manner not much unlike

that of Plutarch and Macrobius, have indulged in

on

this contrariety

of attributes.

much

It certainly originated

a successive destruction and reproduction of worlds

:

Noah

from the doctrine of

and the diluvian cha-

racter of Siva clearly points out the manner, in which stood.

refined speculation

it

ought to be under-

beheld the ruin of one world, and the production of another

out of the wreck which was

left

behind

:

he was no

less the universal father

of the present race of men, than he was in a subordinate sense the destroyer of the

first

race.

Hence, when he was erected into a

divinity,

he was con-

sidered at once as the tremendous agent of destruction, and as the prolific

author of generation.'

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi. p.

This

pjart

of the character of Siva coincides with the

523.

-

Moor's Hind. Pamh. p. 3G6.

'

To

destroy, according to the

Asiat. Res. vol.

Vedantu of India,

i.

p.

230.

the Sqfis of Persia,

and many philosophers

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. fable of Saturn devouring

The Orphic

general father of the hero-gods. the very spirit of a

and reproduced

Hindoo

Cailasa or Meru,

not

it is

is

evidently the

:

but, since the fa-

whence the idea

life,

as

was the case with

his successive manifestations

of deaths and revivals

is

summit of the sacred mountain

the

is

:

thought by the Hindoos

I cannot find, that Siva is

any more than

hence, as Siva

:

disfigured this curious

MateriaUsm

difficult to perceive,

afterwards to have returned to

eight

They have indeed

vourite abode of the eight forms

gions, he

Ark was

in the

arbitrary refinements of

tradition by the

ries

successively destroyed

Hindoos have a notion that he multiplied

himself into eight different forms.

;

who

all things."

the god of the ship Argha, the

Bacchus

poet indeed celebrates him, in

divine, as the god

The number of persons preserved

a.

to

originated.*

have died and

Osiris, Adonis,

may be deemed

and

a se-

considered as the god of the infernal re-

but,

same as the Pluto or Hades of the Greeks, the

Stygian Osiris of the Egyptians, and the

and indeed by the

Muth

or

Death of

the Pheni-

of these names, he

spo-

cians.

In

this character,

ken of

in

a very remarkable manner by the

tell us,

that the Universe was once incircled by Death eager to devour

and yet that Death himself was an or a Menu,

Here self

«"*•'•>''•

except three, and yet being the

his children

all

377

who sprang from

with Brahma, agreeably

Hindoo

mundane

to the Indian

is

Nous

to say a

triad,

identifies

him-

that the three great gods

dogma

same

They

egg.'

and not as one of a

are but a triplication of one and the

is

mythologists.

intellectual being, that

the golden

Siva, viewed individually

last

great

father

:*

for,

as Death,

or Siva in his character of the infernal destroying power, was born out of the golden

mundane egg subsequent

of our European schools, is

only to generate and reproduce in another form.

is

holden in this country to preside over generation.

'

Orph. Hymn.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Asiat.

having devoured the whole world

i.

* Asiat.

xii. 3.

Res. vol.

Asiat. Res. vol.

is

;

styled

His production also succeeded one of the great mundane

the first tnale.

destruction

to his

same egg was produced Brahma, who thence

so likewise out of the

p.

viii. p. viii.

Res. vol.

i.

p.

Hence

Asiat. Res. vol.

253. vol.

viii.

i.

ike

p.

god of

250.

p. 369.

439, 440.

p.

396, S97.

241, 267.

Moors Hind.

Panth. p. 13, 33, 7, 44, 277, 294-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY,

27§ COOK

IV.

revolutions

for tlie egg

:

said to have

is

on the waters of the vast

floated

abyss, whicli always overspread the face of the globe between the destruc-

and reproduction of each two successive worlds, antecedent

tion

same account of

the

whom

The Orphic

inclosed god."

birth to the

the ancient personage,

driven about

mercy of

whom

who was

he represents as

identifies

with Plianes and Pria-

e^g.*

are to understand by this egg,

both of the World and of

floated

mundane

period between two successive

and Dionusus are equally thought

The reason

must be the Ark.

is

Ark, which

tlie

But that egg, which

miniature

whom

he makes the universal pa-

long concealed in impenetrable darkness, was produced,

Death and Bralima, from an

What we

the Jii'st-born,

calls

This mysterious being, »ho uas twice-

pus and therefore with Diunusus. born and

he

he

bull,

whom

winds,

tlie

rent both of gods and men, and

like

whom

he describes as bearing the form of a at the

an ark, has been shewn to be

sufficiently plain. itself

It

is

of the flood.

upon a boundless ocean during the systems, and from which

to have been

tlie

Agreeably to

Hindoos

produced by a second

Noah; and

Siva, ^^ho floated on the waters

s

the

which he floated

said to have

If

an of

Menu.

'

Instit.

Asiat. Res. >ol

* Asiat. Res. vol.

deep

Nor

c.

this all

is

is

birth

we

is

Noah

:

but

:

cradle,

308.

likewise re-

of the lotos

is

;

which,

undoubtedly the

be the cradle

no

less

;

of Brahma,

and he himself tlian

Orph. Hymn.

Moor's Hind. Pantli. p. 9.

be v.

is

from the egg.*

Brahma himself must be

also declared to *

i.

Brahma

the ship

in singular coincidence with the

supposed to

from that flower,

is

Noah from

once a symbol of the World

at

on the surface of the ocean

But he

p.

find

in the calix

.p. 243. viii.

of

therefore in the lotos

be esteemed a

infant.

^

this interpretation, niigiity

lotos

been born

then the lotos

teemed

must be the

Brahma

as Siva in the ship.

theology of Egypt, in

birth,

Diunusus, who was exposed in

obvio

as with the Egyptians,

and of the ship Argha.'

same

Brahma

:

is

the navicular egg

presented as sailing on the with

in

only a moditicaiinn of the character of Siva: therefore the birth

Brahma from

of

was a type

was esteemed a World

of the deluge in the ship Argha, has also been shewn to be

Brahuja

to its giving

poet has furnished us with exactly

the Sun.

es-

Therefore

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

279

Sun

the Hindoos, as well as the Egyptians, represent the

as an infant sail-

ing over the sea in a lotos.

which the former

said

is

Brahma and Bacchus from an

birth of

Tiie similar allegorical

have remained shut up

to

the time of Noah's confinement within the Ark, their

to say nothing of their

identity,

and as the universal parent: hence or Brumius, which was one of the

Brahma

as

gan

or Bruluiia, as

which

Irish,

it IS

Brahma:

not unreasonable to conjecture,

Bacchus and the Bagis, which is

what

is

rejected at jileasure

Hindoo

titles

the

without at

the

Tiie

same appellation

Broum

illustrious

of

pa-

tlie

Bacchus, ap-

and, in a similar manner, appellation of the classical

in the Sanscrit

word

Vao-'is

or

such etymologies may be accepted or

:

affecting

all

is

But the circumstantial evidence

of Siva.

wish to dwell upon

I chiefly

that

Bacche may be traced

Irish

one of the

shew

not improbable, that Bromius

it

Ce-Bacche or

pears to be another slight variation of

in itself sufficient to

of Bacchus,

titles

their

egg, in

complete year,

each being described as the first-born

I think

sometimes wiitten.

it is

name of

a

is

is

a

the general

argument.

The

Vaishnavas or special worshi[)pers of ^'^ishnou say, that

sect of the

Bralima was born from a lotos which sprang from the navel of Vishnou This however

is

a mere variation of the

genuine legend, which indifteiently exhibits him as

being produced from a

while sleeping in

lotos or

The

is

equally typified by botli those svmbols.

character of

same almost

Each of floated

vast abyss.'

an egg, and therefore by a necessary consequence from the ship

Argha which 3.

tlie

insensible

Brahma melts into that of Vislinou, much manner as Siva identifies himself with Brahma.

the two gods,

whom

I

have

upon the surface of the ocean

other in the calix of the lotos which

The same

striking circumstance

Vishnou.

He

and he

is

is

called

Xarayan

considered,

The

'

Abiat. IVs. vol.

viii. p.

-

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

o2.

p.2t'2.

occurs also repeatedly in the history of or the being that moves on

reason of his bearing

Sec

Pl.-itc [I.

Jnstit.

of

thought to have

declared to be a type of the Ar^ha.

likewise denominated the first male

long to Brahma.^'

is

the one in the ship Aroha, and the

;

is

last

in the

Fig. 1.

Menu.

c.

i.

;

both which

the xcaters,

titles

such appellations

equally beis

clearlv

^hap.

iv.

THE ORtGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

280 COOK

IV.

shewn by the mode

in

which he

represented, and by the fables which are

is

Sometimes, as in the great reservoir at Catmandu, he

told respecting him.

appears, fashioned of blue marble, in a recumbent posture on a sort of bed or cradle

by the

which

;

literal

is

so placed, as to exhibit the semblance of a boat upborne

water which surrounds

sculptured rock in the

Ganges and

it.

Sometimes, as on a remarkable

in various

Hindoo

him sleeping on

the folds of the great sea-serpent

into the precise

form of a boat, wafts the deity

the boundless ocean.'

Sometimes he

lies in

we behold

paintings,

Ananta; which, in safety

coiled

up

over the waves of

a posture of deep meditation,

with his foot inserted in his mouth so as to shadow out the circle of eternity as exemplified in an endless succession of similar worlds, on leaf of the Indian fig-tree

And sometimes,

deep.

which similarly

;

floats

the naviform

on the surface of the great

with his consort Lacshiui, he sleeps secure in his buoy-

ant paradise of Vaicontha

;

which favoured abode and the summit of Meru are

the only places that remain free from water, while the wholeearth If such

modes of representing

inundated.'

is

the great father required any explanation,

we might receive it from the Hindoos themselves. On the death of Brahma, we are told, all the worlds are overflowed by a deluge and Cailasa and Vaicontha, or the summit of Meru and a certain floating Paradise, alone remain amidst the universal devastation. At that time Vishnou places himself on the leaf of the Banian tree, or (as some say) on that of the lotos or tlie :

betel

;

and

in this navicular cradle,

on the sea of milk with the toe of this

posture he remains, until

springs forth from his navel.

under the figure of a

his right foot placed in his

who

a

floats in

he

floats

mouth.

In

Brahma is born again from a lotos which Thus it is, that the ages and worlds succeed

each other, and are perpetually renewed.' is he,

little child,

Vishnou then or the great

symbolized by a serpent, a

ship, variously

or a lotos, during that period of universal inundation, which intervene between each two worlds

;

in other

words he

is

is

Noah

leaf,

father

an egg,

supposed to :

but,

since

a deluge equally precedes the old world and the new worjd, and since the great father equally floats upon the surface of every deluge, he '

Sec Plate

^

Asiat. Res. vol.

not more

II. Fig. 1. i.

p. 26l.

p. 23, 26, 27, 82, 103, '

is

Maurice's Hist, of Hind. vol.

418, 429- plate

Moor's Hind. Panth.p. 103, 104.

7, 8, 20, 75.

i.

p.

401. Moor's Hiud. I'antb.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Noah

The

Adam.

than

Vishnou

sleep of

281

doubtless

is

death-like repose of Osiris in the ark, and as that rest of

egg or

floating

lotos-cradle, which

his

the great father

is

supposed

periences a second tliat birth,

in

he

is

deep repose

when he

:

and men, the Ark

is

Ark

mother

his

Ark

the

infant,

in his

is

is his

coffin

:

when he

ex-

when, in consequence of

:

his cradle

when he

:

sleeps

venerated as the universal parent both of gods

is

his consort.

is

account, which the Hindoos give us of Vishnou-Narayan,

The

When

he awakes into a new world, the Ark serves him for a

until

couch or a bed

Ark

birth, the

Brahma

be born again into another.

to die, then the

esteemed an

as the

sometimes expressly described as

is

may

his death in one world only that he

same

the

diately connected with chaos

and darkness

and, as

:

is

commonly

imme-

is

the case in

ancient mythology which was specially built on the doctrine of a succession

of similar

mundane

systems,

which we deem that of

the primeval state of the world at the period

creation,

its

and

disorganized condition during

its

They

the prevalence of the deluge, are intimately blended together.

present the

first

in the

the

him moving, as male and

Thamas of

implies, on the waters, in the character of

the principle of all nature

Tamas

beginning by

Greek

name

his

or darkness,

mythologists, the

re-

Thammuz

which was wholly surrounded

;

Chaos and primordial night of

the

of Scripture, and the

Thaumaz

or

This name Tamas, under all its various may probably be deduced from Theom or Thaum, which, in

the old Egyptians.'

modifications,

the language of the

of dark waters. by them exactly

It in

Hebrews and equally a

is

the

same

the Babylonians, denotes the great abyss

title

of Adonis and

sense, as the ocean is

Typhon

wara, as Osiris no less than his adversary with the sea, as Janus

is

Buddha

said to be the

the tears of Saturti, and as Saturn

same

:

and

it is

deemed a form of is

is

Is-

sometimes identified

as Chaos, as the sea

himself

borne

is

cfdled

esteemed the element of

water.^ 4.

In the Avatar of Crishna, the fabled

suff'erings

and ultimate triumph

of Vishnou are precisely those of the Egyptian Horus and the '

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

Strom,

lib. v. p.

Pag.

Idol.

iii. i.

Greek Apollo.

p. 126.

p.

255. Plut. dc Isid. p. 364. Ovid. Fast.

571- SiiUust. dediis

et

muiul.

c. iv.

VOL.

II.

Macrob.

iii

lib.

i.

ver. 103.

somn. Scip.

lib.

Clem. Alex. i;

c.

aN

11.

<>"*p- 'v-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

282 BOOK

IV.

jjg ^pgg

an infant

\fQj-n

whom it He was him.

had been predicted that a child born

tyrant Cansa, to

would destroy and

his wife

and he spent

:

fostered therefore in

his

borne over the sacred

upon

his

sea-nymphs

ject to this persecution, he

in his behalf;

pose.'

is

Me

herdsman

dancing away the

womb

but he afterwards

:

and, at a more advanced age, that he

all his

flocks

was sub-

Moon

said to have hid himself in the

;

and

and herds, to have

of a vast serpent which he created for the pur-

rescued the children of his preceptor from an inundation of the

which had carried them down

sea,

in

During the period

also fabled, with three companions and

taken refuge in the

a

the midst of the waters, notwithstanding the

he put to death his cruel enemy Cansa.

is

and

flute,

serpent Calya following him with inveterate malice

fought and slew the monster in

he

Mathura by

When conveyed from the fury of Cansa, he was river Yamuna in a navicular cradle or Argha, the

aaily revolving hours.

intercession of the

time

at that

youth in sporting with nine rural damsels of

in playing

extraordinary beauty,

(Treat

but his birth was concealed through fear of the

;

supported a mountain upon

to

the infernal dominions of

his finger during the prevalence of

Yama: he

a deluge

:

and

he appears as the tutelary genius of an Argha, which equally bore him away from the rage of his enemy and is thought to have been filled with all kinds of animals.*

In

this

legend

it

easy to perceive, that Crishna's escape in the Argha

is

from Cansa and Calya

is

island from the serpent

the place of the final victory

Egean

of Crishna

and Egyptian

deities.

the

same

as that of Apollo

Python or Typhon

;

sea and the sacred is

no other than the

The

and Horus

that the river

in the floating

Yamuna occupies

lake near Buto

;

and that the

parallel final victory of the

outline in short of

all

the three fables

Greek is this.

The great father is exhibited as an infant, in allusion to the mystic birth of Noah from the Ark. A monster, which the Egyptians plainly tell us is the ocean, which the Greeks ascribe to the epoch of the deluge, and which the

Hindoos represent

as being slain in the midst of the waters, seeks his

For a season he

constrained to hide himself from his

'

*

64.

See Plate

II.

is

enemy

:

and

life.

this

he

Fig. 5.

Moor's Hind. Panth. Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

p.

197, 199, 201, 202, 213, 280, 287, 394. plates 38, 59, 6l, 62,

259—262.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Argha which

does, either in the ship island,

Moon, or

or in the

Here he spends

purpose.

him

in a large serpent his

him

are inclosed along with

serves

time

in

who

is

the

;

and remains

5. rally,

But at length he prevails over

himself with the

identifies

his

enemy;

inveterate

and,

by the retiring

de-^

effects his total destruction.

Thus

it

appears, that the great gods of Hindostan,

are mutually the

universal father:

older divinity

same

conjointly,

while yet he remains but one, each

equally the

they exhibit a somewhat

member

which has most unhappily been thought

to

becomes three

self-triplication,

of the triad being ultimately re-

Whfit we are to understand by

monad.

solvable into the

all

seve-

then constitute a triad emanating from a fourth yet

who, by a mysterious act of

;

when viewed

and that they are

as each other,

when viewed

but,

They

different aspect.

tional

under

safe

same person as himself viewed

either in the midst of the great waters or in the slime left luge,

in a floating

the midst of flocks and herds, which

under a different aspect, just as Osiris ultimately infant Horus.

a cradle, or

which he constructed for that

same machine

in the

the care of an ancient shepherd,

for

283

this

phraseology,

have originated from some

knowledge of the doctrine of the Holy Trinity,

is

tradi-

best ascertained by

the declarations of the Hindoos themselves and by the legendary histories of their three great gods.

Their doctrine

is,

Brahm and

system,

a human

that,

at

commencement of every new mundane

the

the three subordinate divinities, appear

form, in the persons of

Menu

and his three sons

gration regularly takes place at certain great intervals

every revolving period, the world and flood of water

'

;

all its

that the universal father,

;

;

on

earth,

under

that this transmi-

that,

at the

end of

inhabitants are destroyed by a

comprehending within himself a

Since the knowledge of Christianity has been diffused over Asia, the legend of Crishna has

been interpolated by the Brahmens with various circumstances taken from the gospels, so that the whole exhibits a tolerably accurate account of the escape of Jesus from

more simple

narrative,

spuriousand what probably

to the

p.

273.

genuine.

time of

teration, with the

palpably

is

which

is

This narrative existed long anterior

Homer; nor have

Greek and Egyptian

refers us to the era

Herod

:

but the

here given, enables us easily to distinguish between what

I

the least

fables of

of the deluge.

to the birth of Christ,

doubt of its identity, previous

Apollo and Horus.

See Sir

W.

to its

is

and

adul-

Every particular in

Jones's Dissert, in Asiat. Res. vol.

it i.

"*^''

'^*

; ;

284 BOOK

IV.

PAGAN IDOLATUY.

THE' ORIGIN OF

tpjad

and existing

in eight forms,

then alone remains, floating in a state of

deep meditation or death-like sleep on the boundless ocean; and the deluge retires and a

awakes from

his

the father

systenij

new world emerges from beneath

slumber, and manifests himself as the first

Menu

that,

when

the waves, he

of the renovated

of three sons and afterwards through them of the

whole human race.

One might

that so plain an account as this could scarcely be misap-

think,

The evident purport of it is, that the triplicated god of HinNoah at the head of his three sons viewed as the parent of the

prehended. dostan

is

Adam

present generation of men, and

similarly at the

head of

Of these,

viewed as the parent of the antediluvian race of mortals.

sons

his three

the for-

mer monad and triad is deemed a transmigratory reappearance of the latter monad and triad and, as the succession of worlds is fancifully maintained :

to be endless, because one world has really been succeeded by another

same monad and triad is exhibited, and mencement of each new system. Such

is

the doctrine of the

not the slightest allusion to

Hindoos

tlie

god

will

monad

:

at the

scriptural doctrine of the Trinity,

human

and with

triads

their doctrine the

When

be found exactly to correspond.

or Menu-Satyavrata, who (we are

Noah

same events occur,

the

com-

which, so far as I can judge, contains

;

wholly relates to a succession of mere yet anterior

the

;

but which

each springing from a

history of their triplicated

viewed as the three sons of

was preserved with

literally told)

seven companions in an ark at ihe time of the general deluge, Brahma,

Vishnou, and Siva, are declared to

be

Shama, Cliama, and Pra-Japati

and are each severally represented,- as having waters, either in a ship, or in certain vehicles to be

symbols of that ship.

Adima

or

mencement of and Seth.

doomed

tiie

surface of the

as the three sons of

same three

deities

Adam

or

appear at the com-

the antediluvian world with every characteristic of Abel, Cain,

One

to be a

event, the

the

on

which are positively asserted

when viewed

But,

Menu-Swayambhuva,

floated

first

of

them murders

his

brother at a solemn sacrifice, and

wanderer upon the face of the earth. race of

men

is

described as springing only from two brethren

the third, although fabled to be half restored to to be incapable of

is

In consequence of this

producing children,

until

life,

being so debilitated as

he appears again in renovated

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. vigour at the beginning of the present

mundane

285

On

system.

the whole,

nothin" can well be less ambiguous than the origination of the Brahmenical triad

and I cannot hut lament, that learned and ingenious men should have

:

advocated the groundless conceit of

having sprung from a corrupted

its

primeval tradition of the Holy Trinity.

VIII. The Hindoo

triad of

Brahma, Vishnou, and

suaded, fundamentally the same

and Pluto.

I

mean

to

each

same manner

:

Hindoo

deities

the belief of their having originated from a Jupiter, Neptune,

Saturn

;

I

am

each shall distinctly

;

and, notwithstanding

common

is

some

such, as to vvarrant

source.

Brahm

Siva,

when viewed

or as the three sons of

conjointly as the

Menu

;

are certainly

the triple offspring of the great transmigrating universal father of gods

whom

va-

and Pluto, when viewed conjointly as the three sons of

and Brahma, Vishnou, and

three emanations from

men, by

per-

Neptune,

but the three classical gods melt into one another just in the

as the three

the general resemblance beUveen the two triads

rieties,

is,

not to say, that every person of the one can be perfectly

identified with a corresponding person of the other, so that

answer

Siva,

as the classical triad of Jupiter,

the Gentiles

meant

Adam

and

reappearing in the person of Noah.

Yet, by a species of genealogical confusion which pervades the whole of ancient mythology, the three are other and with the parent from race

may

whom

they sprang

;

the

same both with each the whole

for, as

human

be resolved genethliacally into the triad, so the triad ultimately re-

solves itself into the

In

deemed mutually

this point

monad whence

mankind derived

all

their

common

origin.

of view therefore, the three, when beheld separately, are alike

the great father; and, as such, are considered as being essentially but one character, acting as

it

were in the three different capacities of the renovator,

the preserver, and the destroyer, of the eternally mutable Universe.

The

ancient pagan sages delighted to express themselves mysteriously, and thus to

throw a shade of awful obscurity over the simplest matters.

Instead of

merely saying that their principal hero-god was the father of three sons, they

were wont to speak of him as a being who had wonderfully

Thus

triplicated,

he had three forms

fundamentally but one deity.

;

triplicated himself.

which yet were esteemed, as being

Hence wc sometimes have an account of only

a single god springing from the egg, which during the space of a year was

*^"*^*

"^•

::

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

285 HOOK

IV.

tempest-tossed on the surface of the ocean

same

told of three gods being born out of the this studied darkness,

mystery

the truth

occasionally dropt

is

is

and we are

;

hierophant, that the self-triplicating deity

of

mankind, who

all

father of three sons. literal

mode

only the

we

means only

the primeval ancestor

commencement of every world is always The Hindoos have retained both the mystical and :

This circumstance

a right understanding of the Hindoo

cation of

Brahm

same

the

is

:

among whom he

highly useful in leading us to

for,

:

Saturn

self-triplication of

as the three classical gods

gods, the mysterious self-tripli-

nothing more at the bottom than the birth of three sons

is

And

from Saturn.

triad

Hindoo

the three

as

the

discarding the former, have used

the Greeks,

are simply told, that he was the father of three sons,

divided the whole world.

are certainly the

for the veil of

:

by the interpreting

explicitly told

Hence we hear nothing of any

latter.

apparent

at the

of expression

are

In the midst however of

egg.

sufficiently

still

we

at other times,

while,

:

accordingly the Brahmenical divines themselves

that the self-triplicating

Brahm

parent of a triple offspring, from

Menu

no other than

really

is

whom

tell us,

viewed as the

after every deluge all

mankind are

descended.

The

1.

character of Jupiter

but a more ancient and a

we meet with a more

is

evidently not that of a single individual

ancient god of that

less

ancient and a less ancient

name

spoken

is

Menu

of,

or Buddha.

just as

This

arose from the universally prevalent doctrine of transmigratory reappearances

and

I think

father

who

clear, that Jupiter,

it

is

manifested at the

of that triad of sons which is

Adam

same

as

Ham

;

for

have mutilated '

Noah

:

at

once the great

world, and a

as the latter, he

member

As

the former, he

is

apparently the

he was worshipped by the Egyptians, themselves of the

under the appellation of Hamnion, and

his father

The most

same person

is

successively born from him.

Saturn after

ancient Jupiter

Cronus or Saturn

as

first

;

him

who

throned, and whose glory was eclipsed by '

intoxicating

Avas thought to

him with honey-

mentioned by Diodorus, as anterior to

is

the other in time, though surpassed by the

thus considered,

commencement of every

reviving in the person of

line of that patriarch,

mead.

is

when

Orph, apud Porph. de

in point is

of celebrity

himself said to

his oftspring the

ant. nyraph. p.

Sfiip.

:

and he

is

have been de-

younger or Ham-'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. monian jhabits

Probably the

Jupiter.

from the retired and devotional

fiction arose

more

of Noah, and from the

veneration of his posterity, usurped as this,

it

Cush

:

when Ham,

were the regal honours of

the old Chaldean oracles

mistake not,

if I

Ham

enterprizing temper of his son

his descendants, particularly those of the line of

To

287

and

in the

his parent.

when they speak,

refer,

agreeably to the notions respecting a mortal demiurge, of the great father

having created

Nous whom the Nous, by whom

and of having afterwards given them

things,

all

tribes

of

men

agree to venerate as the

to the

first.

the world was reproduced after the deluge,

is

second

The elder he who was '

;

younger Noes, who with them was born from a declared to be the same as the arkite Dio-Nus or

said to be the parent of tluee

and who

floating egg,

Jupiter or Cronus that

is

is

and the second Nous,

:

younger Jove or

Hammon, who

to

whom

he resigned his sceptre,

similarly represented as acquirino-

is

the sovereignty of his father. (1.)

Diodorus informs

us,

that the

first

Jupiter was the king of the whole

world, though the Cretans pretended that their island was peculiarly the

He

place of his residence.

Id^a

by

;

Cabiri.

was the brother of Uranus and the husband of

whom he was the father of the Curetes, the Id^i Dactyli, He bestowed the name of his wife upon his favourite island, and the same appellation, with a

from her he called Idea

:

was applied

mountain of Crete.

in Crete, It

is

to the sacred

and that the ruins of

evident,

dane sovereign

many was

that that part of the legend, in Crete,

sacred islands

that,

his sepulchre

:

is

religion of

its

tlie

Avhich

slight variety,

Diodorus adds, that he died might

which

still

be traced.*

fixes this universal

a mere local appropriation.

and the

or

mun-

Crete was one of the

inhabitants, originating at Babel,

which was carried to every quarter of the globe by them of the

dispersion.

.

When

a branch of these colonists fixed themselves in Crete,

though they were conscious that the god

whom

they worshipped had really

been the king of the whole world, yet they made that island the peculiar seat of their great father and of his consort the great Idtan mother, just as their

brethren in

all

other parts of the earth similarly localized the

The Cretan Id^a '

is

the Phrygian Idfea, for such was the

Oiac. Zoroast. Fr. Patric. § Pater

et

Mens.

^

Diod. Bibl.

same

deities.

name of Cybel^

lib. iii. p.

104.

chap. iv.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

£88 BOOK

IV.

no

less

than of

Phrygian mount Ida have received

and the

mount Ida

fabled consort of Jupiter; just as the Cretan

this

common

a

prevalence of the same theological notions.

appellation from the

Both the goddess and the

mountain of these two countries, as well as the sacred mount Ida of Gothic

may be

or Scythic superstition,

traced to the Ida or Ila and the Ida-Vratta

The goddess was w here the Ark rested,

or Ila-Vratta of the Hindoos and the Buddhic Chasas. the

Ark

:

and the mountain was a copy of Ararat

and where

in

consequence the great father and moiher were fabled

Hence

been born or exposed or educated. having been once a boy, and of cave of mount Ida.

him

to

;

be viewed

The

'

his

and thence the Ark

Noah from

a child

on which account

;

originated the stories of Jupiter

having been nursed in the sacred Dictfean

birth of

in the light of

have

to

:

the

Ark

necessarily caused

and a cave represented the World

the diluvian

god was often thought

to

have been born out of a cave or a rock, and the imitative aspirants in the Mysteries were deemed to experience a new birth by issuing forth from the

door either of a stone

The

cell

pretended nurses of Jupiter have

more or

less

obvious as being more or

after his birth

mundane

new-born souls

Mysteries.

in the

Venus

'

Cic'jr.

The

de div.

lib.

ii.

for a hive

is

described as

from the circumstance of

was one of the many

sa-

and bees were thought to represent the The great mother herself was styled a bet :

Ship,

is

borrowed from Melissa or

who was

the

same

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

:

because

'

all

those animals, like the cow, the

Giuter. Inscrip. Ixxvi. n. 6, 7.

subject of the mystic cave c. 1. § 3.

vfill

lib. iv. ver.

149.

Lactan.

v. c. 7.

J

Instit. lib.

I- 2. i.

c.

22.

26 1, 262.

Porph. de ant. nymph,

'

Agathoc. apud Athen. Deipnos.

p.

be discussed hereafter at large, book

Virg. Georg.

*

337.

said

and the nymphs Adrastca

of the Babylonian CuthiteS;

sow, a she-goat, or she-bears

*

is

At other times, he was reported to have been nursed by a

as Ida or Ila.*

lib. V. p.

:

Dict^an cave, he

and sometimes he

the Greek, the name of that animal

Melitta the generative

in the

Tliis originated

'

the arkite priestesses being called bees

cred symbols of the

;

Sometimes,

or symbolical.

to the care of the Curetes

having been nourished by bees.

*

a similar respect to the deluge,

less literal

and Ida, the daughters of the Melissae

and, in

all

from Rhea or the great mother

have been consigned

to

or of a rocky grotto temple.^

lib. ix.

p. 375.

Arat. Phaenom. p. 8, 23.

Died. Bibl.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. So

mare, and the ceto, were employed to typify the Ark. sion to the Noetic dove and to the priestesses doves, he

who from

likewise, in allu-

took the

it

further said to have received his infant nourishment

is

that species, which carried ambrosia to the sacred

mighty streams of the ocean.

Odyssey

the

289

We

'

find

a reference to

He

voyage of the Argo.

tells us, that the doves,

name of

from birds of

Cretan grotto from the this

curious fable in ^

and the scholiast remarkably and justly connects

:

'^"^^^^^^

when employed

with the

it

in carrying

ambrosia to Jove, flew between the tremendous Symplegades; through which the

Argo was barely navigated

the

tail

Nor

way of experiment.*

of a dove that had been sent out of the ship by

only fable, in which we find doves introduced into the mythic

this the

is

and which had previously lopped

in safety,

In prosecuting an amour with Phthia he

history of Jupiter.

changed himself into a dove, just as the Hindoo Siva and

is

his consort

assume the form of doves when the waters of the deluge begin

As

for the

tomb of

Jupiter,

tombs of Buddha, Argus,

it

was an

Osiris,

edifice of the

same

and other cognate

said to have

to abate.'

an arkite temple

Buddha

within which he

is

Like the

deities.

feigned to be buried,

like the it

was

where Mysteries of a funereal description, such as the

;

rites

of Baal-Peor and Osiris, were wont in old times to

That

the edifice really existed and

certain,

»

nature, as the

pyramids of Egypt which were similarly esteemed sepulchres, and raontiform pagodas of

Argha

be celebrated.

was shewn by the Cretans as a tomb,

is

both from the testimony of Diodorus, and from that of Callimachus,

Cicero, and Julius Firmicus, not to mention other writers

pointed out

the real sense in

which

it

was

:*

called a tomb,

and, that I have

may,

I think,

be

not unequivocally collected from what the last-mentioned author says of the

tomb of

He

Osiris.

intimates, that the mournful

by the hand of Typhon was annually lamented, were cele-

M'hich his death

brated at his tomb which was

'

Moero apud Athen. Deipnos.

^

Horn. Odyss.

'

Athen. Deipnos.

* Callim.

lib. ix. p.

in Jov.

i.

still

lib. xi. p.

to be seen in

Egypt.'

Now,

since the

491.

63. Schol. in loc.

lib. xii.ver.

Hymn,

Orgies of that deity, in

395.

ver. 8.

Cicer. de nat.deor.

lib. iii. c.

21.

Jul. Firm, de error,

prof. rel. p. 19. '

Jul. Firm. p. 4, 5.

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

II.

20

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

290 BOOK

IV,

rites

of Osiris were thus connected with his tomh, and since those

related to the deluge, the reason

why

lected from the nature of the rites

:

tomb was

the

and, since the

rites clearly

so called must be col-

tomb of

Obiris was thus

connected with the diluvian Mysteries, and since the theology of Crete and

Egypt was fundamentally

the same,

it

seems necessarily

to follow

from ana-

logy that the tomb of Jupiter must be understood in the same manner. Jupiter in fact was no other person than Adonis and Osiris

Crete was but a repetition of that find, that at

in the

in

and the tomb

;

in

Accordingly we

Egypt and Phenicia.

Argos the supposed death of Adonis was bewailed by the women

temple of Jupiter the Preserver

;

so called,

apprehend, from the

I

wonderful preservation of the Noetic family in the Ark.' (2.)

Though

Jupiter

thus fabled to have been born and to have reigned

is

he was equally the local god of many other countries

in Crete,

observe some curious traces of a close intercommunion

The

we have

Cretans, as

and they had a

:

ed the god to have been born and not equally laid claim to Jupiter,

him one of their ancient kings So

Arcadia.*

Nous

in reality the

and they had a

city,

the Phenicians had their agricultural Jupiter

Dagon

or

whence

II us

and we

:

Astartfe or the Phenician

Thammuz

also put in

country denominated

same to

The Egyptians

'

as Osiris,

making

which they gave the

likewise, in reference to the agricultural character of

Noah,

Cronus or

and

:

or Noah, where they assert-

in the island of Crete.

who was :

The Arcadians

*

district in their

Cretea, through M'hich flowed the river of

n^xiiQ oi

worshippers,-

just seen, claimed Jupiter to themselves

they had a city in their island called Arcades. their claim to Jupiter

and we may-

:

among his

find in

who was

mount Lebanon a

Venus, who was adored

or Adonis, received the

title

of Architis ;

the

same as

city called

in

we also

Area,

conjunction with find in the

same

country a race of Crethim or Cretans (as the Seventy well express the name),

Paus. Corinth, p. 121.

'

The

subject of tomb-worship will be resumed hereafter, b.

v. c. 7-

III.

§

'^

Steph. Byzant. de urb. p. \66.

^

Paus. Arcad. p. 517, 518.

all

This river Nous was one of the

many

sacred western streams,

of which, according to the Hindoos, received their names from the god Deo-Naush. *

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

p. 12.

Steph. Byzant. de urb. p. 167.

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. who

391

with their brethren the Pelethim or Palli submitted to the rule of the

^hap.

Israelites.

Some

writers adopt, as a literal historical matter of fact, the account of

Jupiter being an ancient sovereign of Crete trary to reason

and evidence.

It

is

but this seems to

:

incredible, that

me

aliite

con-

a petty Cretan prince

should at the same time be king of the whole world, and that he should be venerated as the chief of gods in so

many

different countries

:

for

it

is

well

known, that he was claimed as a local deity, not only by the Cretans, but by the inhabitants of

all

those different regions where he was worshipped.

To

say nothing of Arcadia, Egypt, and Pheuicia, which I have just mentioned,

Pausanias informs

that

us,

it

would be almost impossible

nation, which pretended that Jupiter was born within

Why

then should the claim of the Cretans

limachus

calls

them when speaking of

tion of the pretended

this

its

enumerate every

to

particular territory.

the Cretans ever liars,

;

*

as Cal-

very claim urged from the exhibi-

tomb of the god-king

why should

:

the claim of the

Cretans be specially allowed to the exclusion of the parallel claim of almost every other people?'

The

truth of the matter

was

this

wherever the arkite priests and nobility

:

with their idolatrous adherents were scattered from the tower of Babel, or

wherever they might migrate

them

traditions of the

the mountain Ida or deluge.

subsequent ages, they carried along with

in

polyonymous great

father,

Argo or Theba,

the ship

Meru, the Titans and Typhon, the sacred dove and the

These, though they equally concerned

all

mankind, the vanity of

each people, apparently warranted by local commemorative ordinances, constantly appropriated to their

own

Agreeably

country.

such an opinion,

to

Jupiter was both thought to have been king of the whole world,

Cretans pretended that he fixed

his seat

though the

of empire in their island

;

and was

likewise supposed to have travelled over every part of the earth, destroying

robbers and giants, and establishing just and equal laws.* '

de

Sanchon.apiut Euscb.Pia^p. Evan.

bell.

Jud.

lib. vii. c.

21.

c.

10.

Bochart. Chanaan.

lib.

lib.

i.

In

Joseph. Ant. Jud. i.

c. 15. p.

422.

this particular

lib. v. c. 1.

C. 21. *

Paus. IMessen. p. 278.

Diod. Bibl.

lib. iii. p.

^

194.

lib. v. p.

338.

Callim.

Hymn,

Joseph,

Macrob. Saturn,

in Jov.

i.

ver. 8.

lib. i,

'

iv.

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN TDOLATRV.

'292.

BOOK

IT.

he coincides with Hercules, Deo-Naush, Bacchus, Osiris, and Buddha nor

is

without reason that he does so

it

;

for

these various deities, under

may be arranged, are all equally and fundamentally universal sovereign, who reappearing after the flood became

whatever superstition they the

same primeval

the

common

parent of the second race of mankind,

Considered then as Noah, we find Jupiter both esteemed the father

(3.)

of the three most ancient Cabiri, and himself also reckoned the primitive Cabiri, Bacchus being associated with

however son

of

in the

to

have been joined together

same manner as

Osiris

Hence Jupiter bore

Isis.

of the two

This

a mere reduplication, for Jupiter and Bacchus are the same per-

is

and they seem

:

much

first

him as the younger.'

the

in the Samotiiracian Orgies,

and Horus are connected

in the

Hebrew Sabaoth as some have * a name of the Indian Iswara.

word, not derived from the

from Siva or Seba which

That such

is

is

Mysteries

of Sabazius as well as Bacchus

title

:

a

imagined, but

the real origin of the word, as I have already had occasion to

me

intimate, appears to

be traced to Greece.

sufficiently evident

Cicero

from the manner

of Asia; by which was meant the large

which

it

may

Bacchus was a kins

that the Sabazian

tells us,

in

tract of country that the

ancients

called India or Indian Ethiopia, for the Asiatic Bacchus was doubtless the

far-famed Indian Deo-Naush.'

But,

deity, then his foreign title Sabazius

not surely Sabazius

among

is

same

names Bagis and

the Thracians, from

logy '

:

Macrobius

for

Schol. in

* Valer.

A poll.

Maxim,

2a/3a?ioj.

The

srisen, partly

Argon,

lib.

in this case, since the

the Hindoos,

god Bacchus-

how we can respectively

very same appellation was in use

among

the Greeks borrowed a large part of their theo-

tells us,

lib. i.e. 3.

among

names Bacchus and Sabazius are

The

Siva.

whom

for

as the god Bagis-Siva, I see not

well avoid concluding, that the

the

Bacchus-Sabazius were an Indian

must be sought

And,

the Israelites.

clearly the

if

i.

that they venerated

vcr.

917.

Diod. Bibl.

opinion, that Sabazius

Bacchus under the name

is

lib. iv. p.

212.

derived from thu

Orph. Hymn,

xlvii.

Etym. Magn.

Hebrew Sabaoth, appears

from the similarity of the words, and partly from

to

the circumstance

have

of the

Rabbins and some of the early heretics bestowing the name of Sabaoth upon an eastern demongod. '

What

they hebraized into Sabaoth was,

Cicer. de nat. door.

lib. iii. c.

23.

I

believe,

no other than the Indian Seba.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. ofSebadius; and

writers agree, that the

all

Now

Saboi, are of barbaric origin.'

Scuths are

words Sabazius,

known by

tliere

Sabizo,

and

the Thracians were a branch of the

whose grand settlement was on the northern

;

293

the denomination of

frontier of India,

who

Chasas or Chusas or Lido-Scythce,

and who thence spread themselves into many

different regions of the earth.

Greeks received the name Sabazius from the Thracians, since they brought it from India into Europe, the word must obviously be of InBut,

the

if

dian extraction.

As

Jupiter and Bacchus each bore the that each of

dition,

By

terate enemy.*

(4.) Perhaps

Thetis, the goddess of the ocean,

bull of Siva

:

inasmuch as

it,

was meant

his invetlie

is

there

is

it

tion

;

is

I'reat

and therefore, although the coincidence it

does not peculiarly

equally proves the ultimate and fundamental identity

another point, which must by no means be omitted it

:

feigned to have carried off Europa,

of Jupiter, Siva, Bacchus, Osiris, Molech, Baal, Mithras, and Hu.

arbitrary nature,

Ark

Astart^, Derceto, Theba, or A'rgha.

Isis,

serve to prove the identity of Jupiter and Siva,

prove

so there was a tra-

because that animal was the symbol of the

fkther in every part of the globe;

may

;

scarcely necessary to point out the coincidence between

it is

the taurine form under which Jupiter

and the white

of Sabazius

them was preserved by Thetis from the rage of

was the same as Venus,

for Thetis

title

curiously decisive of the matter

:

since,

now under

and likewise serves to shew, that the three persons of the

But

from

its

considera-

classical triad

melt into each other just in the same manner as the three persons of the

Hindoo think,

triad.

The god

Siva

is

represented with three eyes; doubtless, I

from the circumstance of

his virtually containing within himself the

essence of the triple Indian divinity, whose three persons imperceptibly (as

were) are blended

in one.

'

Now

there

the native Jupiter of the Trojans; similarly depicted with three eyes

as Siva '

tfog.

*

is

Macrob. Saturn,

Horn.

'

according to Pausanias,

whence he bore the

title

was

of Triophthalmus,

lib.

i.

c. 18.

Etym. Magn.

2a/3a?iOf.

Hesych. Lex. Sa^a^sic, lafia-

2a/3a?iof.

Iliad, lib.

p. 437, 458.

who,

Jupiter, called

same reason denominated Trilochan.

for the

8uid. Lex.

:

was a very ancient

it

ver.

i.

394.

Nonni Dionys.

Asiat. Kes. vol.

i.

p. 248.

lib.

Phurn. de nat. deor. xx.

c.

17-

Heraclid. Pont. Alleg. Horn.

chap.it.

'

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

2y4 BOOK

IV.

Greek

Ti^e cause, assigned by the is

highly worthy of notice

says, that three eyes

is

is

it

therefore the

whom

on the following account.

All

to Jupiter

same

as

but he also reigns

:

in

whence Homer speaks of the

;

he connects with Proserpine

therefore the

calls the

as Pluto

of representation,

He

were assigned

same

mode

certainly appears to be the true one.

agree, that Jupiter reigns in heaven

men " ter,

and

;

writer for this

:

he moreover reigns

Hades, and

infernal Jupi-

and

in the sea,

Neptune; whence Eschylus the son of Euphorion

god who presides over the ocean by the name of Jupiter.

Such

being the case, says Pausanias, the artist gave three eyes to the deity, by

way

of shewing, that

it is

one and the same person, who

supreme

in

right; because the fact

on

is

alike

those three great divisions of the world.

In

this conjecture,

which like

it is

built,

I

have no doubt that he

namely that Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, melt into each other,

Brahma, Vishnou, and

They were wont,

as

we

mode

are told by Plutarch, to represent Osiris,

hieroglyphic of an eye and a

Hence, when the world was divided into three

the great father

was thought

to

conjecture

of symbolizing used by the Egyp-

the sovereign lord of the world, under the sceptre.'

The

and indisputable.

Siva, is clear

also perfectly corresponds with the tians.

is

parts,

and when

have multiplied himself into three sons who

were yet esteemed only variations of one primeval Nous, the obvious mode of representing the triplicated deity would be by the image of a sceptred prince having three eyes.

to this mystic theocrasy, Pluto

and Jupiter himself

the infernal Jupiter, again, while Jupiter

Agreeably

is

declared to

is

identified

with

is

Hades

called :

and

be the primeval Nous, who (according

the Platonic and Orphic theology) produced from himself

Noes; he

is

to

three younger

yet represented, as presiding over the sea in the character of

Neptune. 2. tlie

From

the figurative

entrance of

Noah

mode, adopted

into the

Ark, and

in

the

Mysteries, of describing

subsequent egress to

his

of

tlie Jiglit

heaven, the chief deity of the Gentiles, as I have often had occasion to »

Paus. Corinth, p. 129.

*

Plut. dc Isid. p. 354.

'

Orph. Hymn.

xvii.

Ptssert. xxix.]p.290.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

c.

21.

Orph. Fragm. apud Macrob. Saturn,

Cicer. de nat. deor.

lib. iii. c.

25.

lib.

August, de

i.

c.

18.

civ. Dei.

Ma.\.

Tyr.

lib. iv. c.

1

1,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

295

observe, was either esteemed an infernal god, or was thought to have de-

scended into Hades and afterwards to have returned from

may

conclude, that Pluto, or the Stygian Jupiter,

Hence we

it.

the great father while

is

mystically dead, or, in plain terms, while concealed within the ship of the

deluge

;

to light

and that the and

life

same person, when he returns

celestial Jupiter is the

by quitting the place of

which the hierophant was wont

his

dark temporary confinement,

to style bis floating

With

coffii^.

this

sup-

position the whole character of Pluto will be found to agree. (1.)

The

Cabiric gods, whose

number

variously represented according to

is

the various lights in which they were viewed, mily, sometimes including sufficiently

are certainly the diluvian fa-

and sometimes excluding the Ark

appears from the whole of their fabulous history.

This

itself.

Now

the

Ca-

biri of Samothrace are said by Mnaseas to have been called Axieros, Axio-

cersa,

and Axiocersus ; and he severally

serpine,

To

and Pluto.

identifies

these he adds a fourth,

nister or officiating priest of the other three

tion of Casmilus,

which

is

dostan

Yama

is :

exhibited in the very for I

must

and applies

;

he makes the mito

him the appellaPluto

as such be also a diluvian god.

same character by the mythologists of Hin-

hesitate not to identify the

We

or infernal Siva.

whom

equivalent to the infernal jMercury.^

therefore, being a Cabiric god,

He

them with Ceres, Pro-

are

told,

sovereign queen of the serpents, by

Ocean she bore a daughter,

classical

Pluto with the

that in Patala or

name

Asyoriica.

Hades

Indian

resides the

To Samudr

called Asyotcersha or Asyotcrishta

;

or the

who

is

who like a jewel remains concealed in the sea. With these are associated Dharma-Rajah or the king of justice and his servant Carmala or Cashmala. The former is the sovereign of the Pitris or beautiful as the day,

seven patriarchal called Atcersa,

but

and the prince of the infernal regions.

spirits,

which

is

He

a word of the same import as Asyotcersa

holds a court of justice, with certain

:

is

also

and he

kings for his assessors, to determine

the fate of the departed.^

Here '

"^

avc

have obviously the prototypes of the Samothracian Cabiri, as

Mnas. apud Schol.

in

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p.

ApoU. Argon,

297—299.

lib.

i.

ver.

917.

CHAF.

ir.

: ;

the origin of pagan IDOLATay.

2Q6 BOOK

IV.

enumerated by Mnaseas Axiocersa

:

for

Axieros or Ceres

is

Asyotcersha the

Proserpine

or

Axiocersus or Pluto

is

Atcersa or Asyotcersa

Mercury

is

Carmala or Cashmala.

or infernal

the Hindoo Dharma- Rajah

;

Asyoruca or Asyorus

is

daughter

Asyoruca

of

and the ministering Casmilus

The

Pluto then

classical

is

but Dharma-Rajah, the Sydi/k of Sanchoniatho

:

and the just man of Moses, who is described as the sovereign of the seven Pitris or Rishis, is palpably the same as Buddha or Menu, considered in his

who

character of the god of obsequies; for the identical seven personages,

companions of the other when he was

are the associates of the one, were the

preserved in the

Ark

Pluto therefore, as an infernal god,

:

is

in fact

on that

very account an arkite god.

Such being

we can

his character,

racters of his

entertain

little

doubt respecting the cha-

The mother and

two female companions.

Ceres and Proserpine, are one reduplicated person intimated to

Hades

:

us,

who

that person

Ark is made an

logies both of

:

;

infernal god, the judge of the dead,

Greece and Egypt and Hindostan) the

the daughter

made

is

mixed character of claration, that

:

consort of Vishnou,

is

who

is

Rama-Devi

one of the

is

who

floated

tliree

who

forms of the

no other than

the ship

She

in the

Argha or

Argha

or the

is

is

Baris.

So

said to

have

removed by the de-

Now

triple is

Lacshmi, the

Devi or

Isi

:

and,

same as Argha and af-

in fact the

form of the

therefore,

evidently the Cabiric

is

mytho-

of the souls of

ferrier

or Lacshmi.

on the deluge

terwards changed herself into a dove. the ocean and

(in the

in

a personification at once of the

as the three jointly constitute but one goddess, she

Parvati or Sita,

interior

This can only correspond with the

but any doubt on that point

Asyotcersha

and

the offspring of the Ocean, and

that goddess,

Earth and of the Ark

enough

whence the primeval character preserved

lain concealed like a jewel in the sea.

is

plainly

the queen of Patala or

is

the defunct over the sacred lake of hell in the ship

again

it is

but the Hades of the ancient Mysteries was conjointly the

of the Ark and of the Earth the

The mother

is.

and

:

the daughter, like

who

lay concealed

Proserpine of Samolhrace,

mundane Ark

;

while

iii

is

Dharma-Rajah

Menu, or Noah, or the god of the Ark. Hence,

the

in classical

mythology, Pluto, as the great father,

husband of Proserpine

:

is

feigned to be

and, since the astronomical symbol of the

Ark

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. was the lunar

Proserpine or Axiocersa, notwithstanding she

crescent,

said to have lain concealed in the ocean

as the ship Argha,

Moon.

pronounced

yet

is

QQT

and

is

have sailed over the deluge

to

same

to be the

Libera and the

as

This circumstance, when connected with the fable of Pluto's rape

of Proserpine, led Julius Firmicus to ridicule the mythology of the pagans

by asking

Who

IF/io ever ravished the

:

ever made her the wife

meant was

initiated

crescent in the heavens

The

of'

Moon? Who god of hell?

who supposed

unnaturally put by one,

what the

the

at

the literal

any time

Moon

that primeval ship, of

was the astronomical

coficealed her ?

Such questions were not

'

to

be intended: but

which the boat-like

representative.

rape of Proserpine, and the mournful search for her by Ceres over

the whole world,

but the converse of the descent of Osiris into

is

made

of the similar search

for

him by

Ceres and

Isis.

the

same

as the Indian Sree or Isi or

the

same

event, the temporary

Devi

laid in Sicily near

there,

into vvhich Pluto

blooming prize down

Enna

the city of

was thought

to the

their Mysteries related to

The

to

:

sometimes

artificially

made

have plunged when he carried

This was

;

\^hilc

to float,

his

in

exact accord-

whom

lakes were es-

small islands, sometimes natural and

were deemed apt representations of the

Tlie Orphic poet however alludes to the story with a

Earth and the Ark. curious variation

;

com-

is

and a sacred lake was shewn

regions.^

infernal

scene of the rape

ance with the notions of the old mythologists, among

teemed symbols of the deluge

were one person,

aphanism of the mundane arkite god and

goddess and their subsequent reappearance.

monly

and

;

Isis

Hades and

both because

curious,

it

what we are

points out

to

un-

derstand by the lake, and connects the Sicilian goddess with the Eleusinian

worship of Ceres.

He

describes Pluto as bearing

away Proserpine

in his

chariot over the sea, as conveying her to Eleusis in Attica, and as tliere car-

rying her

down

to the infernal regions through a sacred cave.'

of the two accounts is

somewhat

the former •

precisely the same, though the

different.

Firm, de error,

Orph. H^mn.

Pag.

The

mode of

rel. p.

p. 17.

relating

is

equally meant, on

19.

Ovid. Metam.

lib. v. ver.

385

— 437.

xvii.

Idol.

them

sea in the latter supplies the place of the lake in

but both by the sea and the lake the deluge

Jul. Firm, dc error, prof.

* Jul. '

:

is

The purport

VOL.

II.

2

P

^"*''-

'*'•

THE OniGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATllY.

298 ijooiiiv.

surface of which the arkite god and goddess floated in mysterious union.

i^j^g

likewise, in the latter, the place of descent

So

descent

through a cave

is

and the god

;

while, in the former,

sometimes thought

is

sometimes through a chasm

to

Eleusis,

is

the scene

is

Enna,

laid at

have descended through the lake, and

made when he The fact was, that The cave where a

the earth which he himself

in

found that he was opposed by the river-nymph Cyane. the

and the mode of

same worship prevailed both

in Sicily

and

Attica.

road to Hades was shewn, and the chasm through which Pluto was feigned to

have descended, were equally sacred grottos devoted to the celebration

of the Mysteries. of the

Ark

the

;

They represented the gloomy interior of the Earth and Hades of old mythology, ^vhence the great father was sup-

posed to have been born or to have returned to (2.)

As Pluto

or the infernal Jupiter

Noah

is

from the nether world.

light

during the period of his

aphanism or inclosure within the Ark, and as the kingdom over which he presides

is

mundane Ark

the

lative to the

we

itself,

shall find almost every particular re-

pagan Hades borrowed from the history of the deluge.

The door of

which was shewn at the entrance of every Mithratic ca-

hell,

vern, and through which the aspirants were variously said to be born again

or to return from the infernal regions, was no other than the door of the

Ark; a

Menu

conclusion, which necessarily follows from Pluto, like the infernal

Yama

or

of the Hindoos, being the god of the Ark.

The

three

judges of hell, ^vho are described as the assessors of Pluto, are the triple offspring of

accordingly

Noah is

a doubt, that

with the patriarch himself at their head.

feigned to be the this ancient

Minos of Crete

personage

the

is

same

:

One

of them

but there can scarcely be

as the

Menu

of Hindostan,

the Manes or Menes of Phrygia and Egypt, the Minuas of Greece, the

Menu

So again in the

the

Menwyd

or :

of Britain, and the

the infernal river Styx

same

Ganges

light is

is

the deluge

;

of the Goths or Scythians.

and

it

was viewed precisely

by the Greeks, as the Nile was by the Egyptians, and as

by the Hindoos.

of Hades or Patala

who

is

Mannus

;

Each of

and each has

its

those celebrated streams

Noah

a river

sacred boat and ferryman of the dead,

evidently the prototype of the classical Charon, but

evidently the scriptural

is

floating in the

Ark.

under the name of Salivahana and Narava/iana,

who

Thus Buddha is

is

no

or

Menu,

less

described as the con-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. veyer of souls in the larger boat over the river of hell

doo

infernal river

is

which he exercises person, tlie

who was

deluge

:

But

imaginary occupation."

and, since the Hin-

must be the water on

the Ganges, that sacred stream his

:

299

this

Menu

preserved in an ark with seven companions at the time of

and he doubtless discharges

his function

of ferryman of the dead

Thus

character of Sraddadeva or the god of obsequies.

in his

the very

is

Egyptian Charon was similarly "thought

ferry the souls of the

to

also

the

deceased

over the Acherusian pool, which was formed by the overflowing of the Nile.

The

which he employed

vessel,

for this purpose,

was no other than the Ba-

or Argo; and the Nile was esteemed by the Egyptians a type of the ocean

ris

But the Baris or Argo was the ship of

or deluge. set afloat

on the

which he was

river during the period of his allegorical death

trance into that vessel,

which was formed

symbolized by the heifer Isis called scent into the infernal regions.^ Osiris, just as the

he

Osiris, in

Menu

is

his en-

a lunette, and which was

like

Theba or the Ark, was

Charon therefore

Hindoo ferryman

and

:

or

is

Buddha

fabled de-

his

same person

the

as

in other words,

:

Pluto or the diluvian Noah, considered in his infernal character of the

is

god of obsequies. (3.)

The

allegorical death of

aphanism or disappearance

the patriarch

he was

:

first

was sometimes

bewailed as one

On

wards rejoiced over as being found again.

styled his

and

lost,

after-

Greeks seem

this idea the

to have constructed the fable of Pluto's wonderful helmet, which under different modifications has tales

for that

;

been adopted into so

war or

fairy-

god was undoubtedly and avowedly the same person as the

Osiris or Serapis of Egypt. tanic

many romances and

(in other

Tliey

tell

us,

that,

at the

epoch of the Ti-

words) of the general deluge, the Cyclopes forged a

helmet for Pluto, which possessed the faculty of rendering

wearer

its

in-

visible.

Heraclitus reasonably enough remarks, that this

which a man '

is

no longer seen by

Asiat. Res, vol. ix. p. 173.

his kindred.

Ramayuii.

fancied Christ to have been an incarnation of title

*

and character. Diod. Bibl.

lib.

j.

p. 82, 83, 86, 87.

b.

i.

sect. 5.

Buddha

helmet

is

death, after

His observation When

is

just in

the Manich^ans strangely

or Manes, they applied to

him

the

same

^^*^^'

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

300 HOOK

IV.

main

ti)e

but the death or disappearance denoted hy the helmet, as

:

mav

be collected from the whole mythological history of the Cabiric Pluto, was tlie

mystic death or aphanism of Osiris when he was shut up in the ark

and the helmet

itself, if

was a symbol of that

cap and

which produced the fabled

vessel

the sacred shield,

invisibility.'

Such being the apparatus and import of the pagan Hades, we

(4.)

shall

to find the character of Proserpine perfectly harmonizing with

not wonder

said respecting Pluto, the three infernal judges, Charon,

what has been

his

or Argo, and the sacred stream whether denominated Styx or

Baris

ship

I mistake not, like tbe^

Nile or Gattges.

The Orphic poet speaks of mortals

her, as being the mother,

course with Jupiter, of Eubulcus or Bacchus, his infancy

exposed

in

thologists tell

us, that she

lay concealed within

its

with Maia or the great

Ocean

;

is

said to have

Homer

sea.'

just as the ;

been

Hindoo my-

and that she

And Porphyry, while he identifies mother whom the Hindoos make the parent of

cumstance of her feeding that sacred

or wood-pigeon

that the dove

name of Pherephatta from

bird.*

This fable

is

of a

in

represents

recesses.'

cred to her, and that she received the

with the Indian

and the death ineffable inter-

was the daughter of the Ocean

Buddha or Menu, remarks,

diluvian

who

an ark on the surface of the

the daughters of the

her, as sporting with

life

by an

of her, as being at once the

and celebrates

;

her

was

the sa-

the cir-

common

origin

which describes the great mother as assuming the form

tale,

of the Argha during the prevalence of the deluge, and as afterwards flying

away

in the

shape of a dove while the waters were

was the Muth of the Piienicians and the

(5.) Pluto

ther of the ancient Celts,

whom say,

retiring.

whom

infernal great fa-

they claimed as their progenitor, and upon

Cesar bestows the name of Dis ; though perhaps we ouglit rather to

that they themselves designated

other than the '

ApoUod.

*

Orph.

Bibl. lib.

i.

Htrac.de Incred.

c. 2. f 1.

'

*

Porphyr. de Abstin.

'

This

infer

this appellation,

which

is

no

Hindoo or Indo-Scythic Deva, Deus, or DeoJ

Hymn, xxviii. xxix. Homer. Hymn, in Cerer. apvid I

him by

c. xxvii.

Paus. Messen. p. 273.

lib. iv. § l6.

from the circumstance of one of the sacred rivers of the British Celts being

THE ORIGIN" OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. The word Miilh

Death

signifies

said by Sanchoniatho to have

nounced by taken,

his translator

if this

:

301

and the person, who bore the

been the son of Cronus by Rhea, and

Philo to be the same as Pluto.

I

am

title, is

pro-

is

greatly mis-

Mutli be not the same also as the ]Mot mentioned at the be-

ginning of the Phenician history, in which the process of the original crea-

and

tion of the world

the usual

manner of

its

renovation after the deluge are mingled together in

Mot

the old mythologists.

is

described, as the chaotic

mixture produced by the union of the primeval Cupid with the wind Kol-

Now,

pias.

according to the system of ancient IMaterialism by which the

various parts of universal nature were esteemed but the different the great father, the original or, in the

deities,

language of the Hindoos,

Osiris

was confounded with

Janus,

who

is

Chaos was accounted the same

certainly the

his

same

adversary as

Noah,

was one of

it

Typhon is

members of

as that oldest of

Thus

his forms.

or the ocean

:

and thus

introduced by Ovid declaring

himself to be the primitive Chaos out of which the world was framed.

Si-

milar ideas appear to have been entertained by the Phenicians

the

various conjectures that have been

Mot,

I think

teemed the clude,

most agreeable

it

original

that the

;

Mot

Muth

and

for, after

respecting the import of the

to the genius

Chaos and the diluvian or

names

word

of old mythology, which infernal

god the same,

are also the same.

The

es-

to con-

Celts

of

Ceridwen or the great navicular mother the goddess of

Britain esteemed

death

made

:

consequently, like their brethren of Gaul, they must have venerated

the great father as

manner,

Death

personified."

a god,

vvorsl>ipped

whom

The

Celts of Gades, in a similar

Death

Philostratus calls

:

and the

Hindoos, as we have already seen, equally venerated their egg-bom divinity

under the same appellation.

and the

This Gadetanic

Muth mentioned by Cesar and

of the infernal Baal-Peor before

whom

Death

evidently the Dis

is

His

Sanchoniatho.

rites, like

those

the Israelites eat the offerings

the dead, appear to have been mingled with obscenity

;^

of

a circumstance,

systematically universal throughout the gentile world, and arising from the called

Dee or Deva

in

honour of the great mother and from

Hu

himself being styled Deun.

Sec Davics's Mythol. of Brii. Druid, p. 152, 153, 119, 121.

Myth.

'

Davies's

*

They were

p.

231.

the origin,

1

suspect, of the Spanish dance Fandango.

*^"*'' "'•

;

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

302 BOOS

IV,

notion entertained of

The

ation.

Noah and

Ark being

the

two presidents of gener-

the

god Mantiis ; which

old Etruscans called this

is

but a compound

Menu, Manes, and Mannus, of the Hindoos, Egyptians, and Mantus is equivalent to the god Manu. He was the infernal

variation of the

Goths

for

:

same time the diluvian Menu

Pluto, and at the

in his character of the

god

of obsequies.' 3,

Pluto, driving Proserpine in his chariot over the sea, melts into the

Neptune again melts

character of the oceanic god Neptune, as that of the marine Jupiter

Hence we

find

He

(1.)

and the fabulous regent of the sea

:

specially viewed as floating

great father,

is

him throughout

said to have brought a flood over Attica at the time

t auric god and

to

and he

:

is

still

when

Theba or

surrounding them on

earth,

the

the Ark.'

have shut up the Titans or impious antediluvians

cavity of the

the

denominated by Hesiod the

celebrated as the peculiar defender of

also feigned to

central

is

on the surface of the mighty deep.

closely connected with the deluge.

mystic olive-branch was produced

He is

similarly into

in the

sides with the ocean

all

have overwhelmed the island and the whole wicked race of the Phlegyae

beneath the waves of the sea

have been the

to

;

himself to the boundless deep

mariner that ever trusted

have brought a flood over the land of

to

;

first

Ethiopia together with a ceto, which

is

a well-known symbol of the

have similarly inundated, and similarly sent a ceto tlie

Iliensians

horse,

;

and

to

first

'

c. 2. p. *

The reluctant into a

i.

711.

Asiat. Res. vol.viii. p.

Bibl. lib.

^Hesiod. Theog.

ApoUod.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

ver.

ii.

lib.

Bochart. Chanaan.

ver. 103.

ApoUod.

mare

:

goddess, vainly wishing to escape

and, afterwards beholding her

Arcadian fountain of Styx, near which

Sanchon. apud Euseb. Prasp. Evan.

Fast. lib.

the territories of

of these forms he had intercourse with Ceres, while in search

from him, changed herself form

to

bull.'

of her daughter Proserpine.

in the

;

have assumed the various symbolical arkite forms of a

a dolphin, and a

In the

into,

Ark

c. 13.

811

c^i.

i.

lib.

c. 10. i.

439,440.

c.

this

amour was

new

carried

Caes. de bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 18. Ovid,

33. p. 584.

c.

34.

p. 609, 6lO. lib.

ApoUon.

Philost. in vit.

p.

ii.

211.

Hesiod. Scut. Here. ver. 104.

— 819.

Nonni Dionys.

^ 3. c. 4. § 9-

lib. xviii.

Ovid. Metara.

Diod. Bibl.

lib. vi. ver.

US,

lib. v. p.

120, 115,

337.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

303

on, she in disgust miraculously tinged the water with black.' says, that she received

or Fury

ought

:

but there

is

tlie

no

embraces of Neptune in the shape of an Erinnys

real discrepance

between the two accounts, which

be joined together in one fable.*

in fact to

Ceres-Hippa was the nurse

of Bacchus, and was certainly the goddess of the Ark.

mother

Apollodorus

She was the great

form of a mare, while Neptune was the great father

in the

In

form of a horse. Parvati, one of

this particular

whose numerous

as a ship on the surface of the

in the

she coincides with the Hindoo Devi or

figures

was a mare, though she

deluge.'

also floated

But, viewed as a fiend-mare, she

more remarkably with Ceridwen, the Ceres of the ancient Briwho, like herself, is evidently the same as the Sree or Devi of the tons One of the forms of Ceridwen was a mare, or rather a monstrous Hindoos. coincides yet ;

animal compounded of a mare and a hen

been likewise a ship well stored with corn,

:

yet she was supposed to have

in

which an ancient personage was In the first of these

preserved during the period of a great inundation.

shapes, she was esteemed a fiend-mare and an infernal exactly corresponds with the classical Ceres,

who

is

mare

:

and thus she

indifferently feigned to

have received the embraces of Neptune as a mare and as a fury; for

two be (2.)

united,

As

the

and we have the British fiend-mare Ceridwen.*

the consort of Ceres and

Neptune

is

the sea

and much the same story

:

let

said to

therefore as the great diluvian father,

have been plunged is

in his infancy

beneath the waves of

from him transferred to

his

son Eu-

molpus.

This person was the

oflfspring

of the oceanic god by Chion^

;

who, to

avoid detection by her father, threw the child, as soon as he was born,

Neptune however preserved him from destruction and, bearing him safely away to Ethiopia, committed him to the nurture of Ben-

into

the

sea.

:

thesicyna and Amphitritfe.'^ It is

easy to

Ptol. lleph.

Nov. Hist,

*

ApoUod.

^

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Davies's '

perceive,

Bibl. lib. iii.

Mythol.

iii.

p.

whence these kindred

lib. iii.

c. G.

l68.

-vol. viii. p.

4U.

p. 229, 260, 256.

Hyg. Fab. 139. Apollod. Bibl,

lib.

iii.

c.

14. § 4.

fables

have originated.

I

*^''*'' '^'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

304 nooK

IV.

need only observe, that the

many

latter, like

connected with Ethiopia or Cusha-dwip

was

;

Greek

other of the

legends,

is

which, whether African or Asiatic,

a principal settlement of the daring tribe that appears to have been the

grand corrupter of religion after the deluge.

IX. The

and Dionysius, that Ceres and Proserpine and Bacchus were worshipped by the Celts of Britain with rites assertion of Artemidorus

similar to those of Samothrace, has been

most amply confirmed by a recent

inquiry into the theological system of the British Druids,' instituted from original

native documents with equal learning and

ingenuity.'

thence

It

appears, that their Orgies had just the same relation to the deluge as those of the Samothracians, and that they worshipped a triad consisting of the god

Hu

and the two goddesses Ceridwen and Creirwy

;

who,

like

the classical

Now

Ceres and Proserpine, were viewed as a mother and a daughter. character of

Hu

is

thus generally

summed up by Mr. Davies from

which are denominated triads

thological compositions of the bards, like

that of Osiris or

those

Bacchus or Siva,

it

palpably the

is

:

the

myand,

character of

Noah.

He

lived in the time of the flood

and with

:

his

oxen he performed some

He was

achievement, which prevented the repetition of that calamity.

doubly symbolized by a the primitive race

;

bull

and formed them

gave traditional laws

He

and by a serpent.

collected together

first

for the regulation

and government of

society.

He

eminently distinguished for his regard to peace and justice. the several families of the

first

bandry previous

With

this

to their

conducted

race to their respective settlements in the va-

But he had instructed

rious regions of the earth.

He first He was

into communities or families.

this race in the art

of hus-

removal and separation.'

character of

Hu, every

thing that

is

him

said of

will

be found

exactly to correspond.

He of

was called the mighty, the sovereign, the ready protector, the giver

wine, the emperor of the land

the world.

plough.

and

He was said to have held He was denominated Dylan, apud Strab. Geog.

'

Artcraid.

*

Mythol.of

Brit.

lib. iv. p.

198.

the seas,

the

life

of

after the deluge the

the son of the sea. Cion. Perieg.

Druid, p. 106, 107, 136, 56l, 562.

ver.

565.

all that

are in

strong-beamed

He was

thought

THE

PAGAN IDOLATUY.

ORIffIN OF

when

to have sailed in a wonderful ship,

the floods

reason assigned for

its

being so styled

that

is,

by the violently convulsive throes of

it

the lofty cause, as the

and

name

when with thundering din

He

was

to

have been saved

in

a ship without

He

the waters of lake Llion inundated the whole world. title

or

which are evidently those of the great father

in these characters,

sented, under the

Dwyvan

called

of his mystic consort was Dxvyvach or the lesser

and mother, they were supposed

when

heaven

was a day rendered dreadful

nature,

all

the billows forth proceeded against the shore.

:

forth from

His peculiar day was styled a day of vengeance: and the

to the great deep.

cause

came

505

sails,

was repre-

of Noe, as presiding with his consort Eseye or Isi in

that stupendous temple, which

is

indifferently called the

great stonefence of

common sanctua)y, the A7-k of the World, the circle of the JVorld, mundane circle of stones, the mound constructed of stone-tcorli iypfying JVorld, the mundane rampart, thestallqf the cow.^ As venerated in this

their

the the

bovine

he was denominated Beo'-Lled or the bull of fame

stall,

say, the solar bull or the great father worshipped in the Sun.'' lar reference to his tauric character, he to the

yoke for

had no

my afiiction, were

existence,

it

is

my

that

is

to

described as saying, I'xcas subjected

but commensurate was

not for

;

With a simi-

my confidence ;

progeny: and,

the JVorld

in allusion to

an

attri-

bute specially ascribed by Moses to Noah, an ancient bard apostrophizes him, The heavy blue chain didst thou, spoils

circle

of stones was not the only temple of

and an island

in the sea or in a lake, equally

the Ark; so his sanctuary tide,

endure; and for the

of the deep doleful is thy song.^

But the cle,

O just man,

is

Hu



Ibid, p, 100, 101,

*

Mythol. of

said to have been in an island surrounded by the

Brit.

billow,

described as the rock of the supreme pro-

105, 108, 109, 113, 114,

Druid, p. 120, 137-

121, 562, 568.

Air. Davics observes, that this title has

ing in the British language: but he conjectures from the context, that at a very remote period, of two Babylonic words

have retained '

as both that cir-

or on a wide lake, or on the surface of the ocean, or on the ninth wave,

or on a rock beyond the

I

:

symbolized the World and

his

explanation: yet Btcr-Llud

it

Beer and Let, which import

may

no roean>

has been compounded, the bull ufjiume.

perhaps rather denote the generative

Ibid. p. 137.

Pag.

Idol.

VOL. n.

2

Q

bull.

^"^^'

•^•

30(5

HOOK

IV.

TKr,

prietor

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

and as the chief place of

Here he dwells

tranquillity.'

the rainbow for his girdle, and presiding over the

which once

summit of a

toiled to the

secure, having

ship with the iron door

mountain.^

lofty

In reference to the same primeval vessel so particularly described by Moses,

he

is

further celebrated as the door-keeper of the partial covering, as the

god

of the door or gate, as a protector in darkness, and as the defender of his seagirt sanctuary.

He is

'

a reaper; as the

also represented as a

ploughman

cow

sacrificer of the mystic

or

husbandman

after the deluge;

;

as

and, though

astronomically revered in the Sun, as being able to protect his chair of pre-

He

sidency in the midst of a general flood. giants or antediluvian Titans; Osiris,

and Jupiter

affliction,

who

and we are

:

he became the father of

Sometimes

this tauric

was like« ise the conqueror of the

are similarly overcome by Bacchus, Siva,

he had been patient

that, after

told, all

in

the tribes of the earth.*

and ophite deity

is

described, as seated on the covered

mount which shadowed out mount Ararat, and as refulgent with expanded wings. ' Here he is evidently the same character as the primeval Eros or Cupid, as the Orphic winged and ox-headed first-born Dionusus, and as the

winged serpent Cneph of the Egyptian theology or Deofi, which

is

— Sometimes he

equivalent to the divine On.^

is

:

for

On

was the Egyptian name

great father venerated in the

Om or Awm,

doo is

which

is

Sun

;

and

it is

Egypt and

of the Sun, or rather of the

clearly the

same

title

as the

called the sacred triliteral monosyllable,

a special appellation of the solar Trimurti

On

Here again we may ob-

serve the close connection of the British mythology with that of

Hindostan

styled

Hin-

and which



Brahma Vishnou Siva SomeHere likewise we

times he was supposed to have had two origins or births.'

may

trace his clear identity with the Orphic Bacchus or Protogonus

as the son of the Ark,

is

said to

have been born a second time from the

;

who,

womb

of his nurse Hippa or Ceres. Lasltly,

was almost

as

universally the case with the great father in every

quarter of the globe, he was venerated as an infernal deity, and was thought '

Mythol. of



Ibirl. p.

'

Ibid. p. 120,

*

Ibid. p.

Brit.

Druid,

p.

120, 507, 508, 509, 537. '

leo.

121, 122.

526— 531,

562.

Ibid. p. 199, 200, 120.

'

Ibid. p. 56l, 562.

'

Ibid. p. 528.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV. to liave lived

In sustaining this part of his character, he

and died alternately.

bore the ivy-branch

307

person of his representative priest

in the

;

agreeably to the

accurateassertionof Dionysius, that the Britons covered themselves with leaves of that plant while celebrating the

by

or Adonis.

under the

of their national Bacchus

or Aeddoii

and which

his officiating minister, '

rites

Acdd

designated by the appellation

evidently the

is

Yet, while revered as an

name of Aeddon

The Ark

ship of

Aeddon

strong door,

perished

:

:

he

is

is

he

Adoneus

tide as is still

described

little

mistake

Hindoos make the

the

expressly said by Taliesin to have been

tiie

celebrated as having entered into the inclosure of the

is

what time the elements were

and he

same

infernal deity,

Menu whom

and he was

:

was likewise assumed

such a manner, that we can as

in

bis real character as that of the diluvian

god of obsequies.

whicli

;

let

loose and his contemporaries

described as the chief of the toiling just ones,

dwelt on a sea which had no shore, and of whose integrity

it

was

who

long

that thev

did not endure the extremity of distress/

X. The same system of theology prevailed throughout America

have been some

to

indeed

it

of

relics

it

in the

corroborated

to establish the position,

:

the continent of

and there appear

back settlements to a very

be even yet altogether extinct.

Americans themselves,

seem

by the Europeans

at the time of its lirst discovery

The

late period, if

universal tiaditions of the

by recent geographical discoveries,

that their ancestors crossed the narro^v chan-

which separates Asia from the new world, and thus gradually spread

nel

unknown

themselves over a country long

in the west.'

But

the religion, to

which they had been devoted while inhabiting the Asiatic continent, they

would doubtless bring with them into

And

this circumstance,

which might have been anticipated from the very

course of their emigration, 1

.

Mr. Adair,

who

their recently acquired settlements.

is

clearly established

long resided

among

by a reference to

facts.

the natives that occupy the districts

behind the United States, imagines, that they are descendants of the longlost ten tribes of Israel.

I

cannot help suspecting however, that

his curious

narrative has been heightened by the love of a system perhaps too hastily

'

Mythol. of

^

Robertson's Hist, of

Brit.

Druid,

p. 122,

Amcr.

259, 574.

b. iv, sect. 8. p.

* Ibid. p. 118, 55-i,

41, 42, 43.

555, 557.

THE ORICfN' OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

308 BOOK

IV.

adopted

;

and that

to a

mind preoccupied with

Israelites because their priests carried

tom prevalent among them served had,

This ark the it

priests

to bring additional

were wont to bear

on the ground

rite

and cus-

They

conviction.

to

Tliey entertained an implicit faith in

they esteemed chieftain

and

it

attendant,

his

it

be had, upon short logs of wood.

the power and holiness of to touch

their ark it

:

and

except the

and they only on very particular occasions.

deity of this ark they invocated

Mr. Adair supposes

to be had, they rested

no one presumed

so sacred, that

They never

in solenin processions.

where stones were

but,

:

where they were not

upon them;

The

about a small ark, every

seems, a consecrated ark, in which they kept various holy vessels.

it

placed

the idea, that tiiey must be

by the name of Yo-He-JVah ; which

to be a slight variation of the

Jehovah of the Hebrews,

while he pronounces the ark to be a transcript of the ark of the covenant.'

Such a conjecture would be highly probable, were people upon record, whose priests were accustomed solemn procession

:

so far

but,

this

is

Ark and

that the ark of these

Ammon,

the deluge.

to bear a sacred ark in

from being the case, that the

vailed in every part of the gentile world, originating tradition of the

the Israelites the only

Hence

rite

pre-

no doubt from a strong

I feel thoroughly persuaded,

Americans was no other than the ark of

Siva, Osiris,

Adonis, Bacchus, Attis, Hu, and IMenu; and that their theology,

so far from being a corruption of the Mosaical Institutes, was in reahty that

very Diluvianism which constituted so large a part of the religion of the pagans. It

must be confessed, that Yo-He-JFah, as Mr. Adair writes the

ark-god, bears a considerable resemblance to the

title

of the

name Jehovah: but I more

than suspect, that he has combined into one word what ought to be consi-

Purchas, giving an account from

dered as two distinct invocations. lain of the

same American

region, tells us,

celebrating their sacred rites,

naked, and

had

in this condition

finished, they

their garments.

'

See

iv

work

all

that,

when

Champ-

the inhabitants

were

the females present stripped themselves

joined in a frantic song and dance.

exclaimed with one voice. Ho, Ho,

Ho ;

When

they

and then resumed

After a while they again cast them aside, again performed

intitled

The History of

with eke Indians an(l resident

m

the

American Indians, hy James Adair, Esq, a trader

the country for ^Oyearst

'

THE ORIGIN OF PACAX IDOLATRY.

women

of the country, when they attained the age of

fourteen or fifteen years, prostituted themselves to

and

tliat

they followed this course of

when they entered

He

same exclamation.

the dance and the song, and again joined in the

adds, that the young

309

for the

lite

whomsoever they pleased;

space of

or six years,

five

With respect to their

into the matrimonial state.

theology,

they venerated one god, one son, and one mother; and these they associated

The first of them

with the Sun, thus making their deities four in number. also styled the father :

and they had a notion, that

their goddess,

they

whona

up both her

they eminently called the mother, once devoured or swallowed offspiing and the Sun.

In

tliis

Mr. Adair would doubtless have discovered the Trinity;

narrative

and would have pronounced the god, denominated the or

filial

Word

of the ancient Targumists

more than the

forth to us nothing

yet

:

religious notions

son,

to be

distinctly

it

Mimra

tlie

enough

sets

and practices of the old

pagans, and thus confirms the supposition that the sacred ark was the ark of

Bacchus or called

Ho ;

The

Osiris.

and they

whom

deity,

thrice invoked

him

these

He is

so highly celel)rated by the gentile hierophants. as the

Hu

of

tlie

is

Huas

Mr. Adair writes Yo.

evidently what lain,

Britons and the

tlie title

of the god

:

Americans venerated, was

in allusion to that

of the Greeks

This then, as

but the natives,

it

mystic triplication

the same, even in ;

we

and the name collect

Bacchic cry of

Ho

Hevah

He-JVah, which

is

is

ilu or Bacchus, so

Ho

is

from Champ-

appears, used also another

exclamation, which Mr. Adair expresses dividedly He-JVah. to believe, that, as

title,

we have here no

I

am

inclined

other than the

or Evo'e ; and consequently that the exclamation Yo-

thought to be a corruption of Jehovah,

is

in fact nothing

more than Ho-Hevah, which is equivalent to Huas Evo'e or inversely Evo'e With such an opinion the indecent rites of the god exactly correBacche. spond.

The

songs and dances of the naked

women

of the Bacchantes and priestesses of Flora;

their

are the songs and dances

denudation corresponds

with the similar religious denudation of the Egyptian females, before the bull

who was the same as Isis or the Ark was probably much of the same nature, as that of the

Apis, and at the festival of Bubast^

and

their prostitution

'

Eurch. Pilgr.

b. viik c. 4. p. 760,

',

751.

chap,

i

v.

3\i)

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Bain Ionian uoineii

iu

honour of

J.Iylitta,

of the Armenian in honour of Anai's,

of the Cvjjrian and Lyclian in Ijonour of Venus, and of

honour of Baal-Peor.

These

'

which were always associated with the arkile worship, and which were

rites,

Asfortheark,

the universal disgraceof thelicentious theology of the Gentiles. whicli no one might touch save the chieftain or his deputy,

(he Bacchic ark

M hich none

;

open with safety except the initiated.

niiglit

She

mother.

Of

the relation of father and son.

Egyptian

Horus

triad,

composed of

the sun.

Woden

ther,

Such

also

was the Gothic

Thor

triads,

from the same souice.

whom,

mother or the great bear to each other

mother, Osiris the father, and triad,

mo-

consisting of Frea the

And

the son.

The number

nearly allied to

They have all,

three

sons of the transmigrating great father

to

who

;

one

it is

which comprehends Subhadra the great mother, and

Jagan-Nath and Bal-Rama two brethren.

mundane

suppose

an exactly similar description was the

Isis the great

the father, and

of the oriental

two

and shrine of the goddess

associated with two other deities,

is

and

his worship,

Tliis ark I

the other pagans, they emphatically called the

all

clearly, I thinic,

it is

Mhich contained the syinhols of the god and

to have been here, as elsewhere, the token like

in

are very evidently the phallic

in short,

rites,

Canuauitish

tlic

and

arkite great mother,

different periods of his

life,

number of

the

made up of

the

taken from the

is

but the triad

:

I believe, originated

itself is

the great father considered with reference

during the former of which he appears as

the consort and during the latter as the offspring of the maternal goddess.

With

the worship of this triad

is

joined that of the Sun; an arrangement,

which again perfectly corresponds with the mythology of the Gentiles in the

These remarks

old world. fiction,

which the American savages have received from

lative to the

whom

they revere as the great mother.

suaded, to the entrance of the solar god stantially the

precisely

same

similar

imitated in his Herod.

their ancestors,

devouring or swallowing up of the Sun and the

female deity

'

a right understanding of the wild

will lead us to

as the absorption of

occurs

in

own person

lib. ii. c.

60.

Noah

filial

Ark

Mysteries:

the

all the sufferings of the great father,

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

;

and

Bacchus by Ceres-Hippa.

the Druidical

p.

76.

god by the

It alludes,

into the

Strab. Geog.

re-

I

am

per-

it is

sub-

An

idea

aspirant,

who

was sometimes

lib. xi.

p. 533.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

313

feigned to be swallowed up by the ship-goddess Ceridwen and to be after-

wards born again as an infant from her womb.'

That Mr. Adair

mistaiven in

is

the Israelites, and that

have rightly

I

in civilization, or (as I

new

we ought

is

Hu

if

rather to express ourselves) had the

from the

least degenerated into the savage state

It

with

we examine the theology of which had made the greatest progress

world,

suspect

Ho

identified their ark-god

more decidedly,

or Huas, will appear yet those two nations of the

deducing the northern Americans from

institutes of their ancestors.

conjectured by Sir William Jones, though he has not

excellently

pursued the investigation resulting from such an opinion, that the religion of

Mexico and Peru was Hindostan, Greece,

we

see reason to

that the ark-god,

is

:

same

and substance, as that of Egypt,

What he

has omitted I shall

and, since the theology of those two

same

clearly the

adopt

in origin

China, and Japan. ^

Italy,

endeavour to supply

American nations

the

his

conjecture as the truth,

whose character

as the ark-god of E^'Vpt,

more

civilized

as that of their northern brethren, if

\vc

have

it will

last discussed,

obviously follow,

must be the same

and those other countries enumerated by Sir Wil-

liam Jones. 2.

The

tradition of the Mexicans, at the period

when

their country fell

under the Spanish yoke, was as follows.

While

their ancestors in a

gions that

and

lie to

state of

the north of Mexico, their gods bade

specified distinctly the signs

we reduce

their supputation to

eighth century.

nomade barbarism were

inhabiting re-

them seek new

by wliich they should know them.

our era, occurred about the beginning of the

Thev proceeded southward

in quest of the predicted signs

so leisurely, that the last of the seven tribes, of which their family

posed, did not reach

Mexico

mencement

joumey.

of

the

in less than three

From

claimed to be peculiarly descended. called Vitzliputzli or Mexitli

:

this

The



hundred years

tribe the

god,

and he promised

possessions of the six other tribes, and to lead

with riches.

lands,

This, if

them

after the

com-

Mexican Americans

whom to

was com-

they venerated, was

make them

lords of the

into a land

abounding

Relying on his promise, they set forth under the immediate

Davies's Mythol. p.

229—259.

* Asiat.

Res. \ol.

i.

p. C68.

^"'^^- '^•

THE. ORIGIN OF PAG-AN IDOLATRY.

9-lS:

Bw
'»•

auspices of this deity

made and

for,

:

having placed him

in

an oracular ark or coffer

who bore him

of reeds, they consigned him to the care of four priests,

his vehicle

their directions

on

tlieir

shoulders and pretended on every occasion to receive

immediately from him.

It

was

speaking in an audible

he,

who pointed out their line of march, who charged them who commanded them to advance it was he, who prescribed halt, or them the whole ceremonial of their religion. The leader whom they fol-

voice from his ark, to to

:

lowed, or rather the god himself, was called ceived the appellation of Mexicans. sent to the lord of Culbuacan,

of the

tribes that

readily

who seems to have been the to demand his daughter,

granted: but,

the

very night of her arrival,

placed near the idol and

and arrayed

in

consecrated as the

territory of

were,

a,

;

god.

A

and the name,

by

their

our great mother.

signifies

Culhuacan, they advanced

fish,

and abounding with the

cordingly, the following night, priest

:

to

the place

the signs,

all

final

Vitzliputzli

where

v.hich the

settlement.

These

meadows,

Ac-

water-lily or lotos.

appeared

and commanded, that they should seek a

was

attire,

clear stream of water or rather a lake, surrounded with

well replenished with

slain

and a young man,

:

mother of

Mexico is now situated. Here their priests found god had pointed out as marking the scite of iheir

request

she was

her feminine

youth thus attired was worshipped by them ever since

which they distinguished him, was Toccy, which

in order that

The

their god.

Afterwards she was flayed

heiag covered with her skin

Leaving the

chief of one

had preceded them,

by order of the deity.

re-

In the course of their progress,' they

she might be their queen and the mother of

was

whence the nation

3Iea.'i ;

tree,'

in

a dream to an agedT

which grew out of a

rock in the midst of the lake, and upon which they should observe an eagle feeding on small birds, since that was destined to be the place where they

The

should build a city famous throughout the whole world.

duly made

;

and the ominous eagle was discovered

described by the god.

'

Forthwitij^ by

,CGmmon

Purchas says tunal, which from the coDtext seems

not the precise import of the word.

to

in

consent,

search was;,

the very situation

they erected a tem-

mean some kind

of tree; but

I

knoW'

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

313

porary building on the insular rock, that the ark of their deity might rest there until they should be able to construct a sumptuous temple for

re-

Next, they with much labour enlarged the area of the rocky

ception.

by casting into the lake around

island

its

stone,

it

timber, lime, rubbish, and

When

such other materials as they could manage to procure.

they had thus

gained a sufficient surface above the level of the water, they built upon

it

the temple of their god and the future capital of their empire.'

We may readily discover in

this curious tradition

almost every idea, that

prevailed in the old diluvian worship.

The

oracular ark, containing the god and borne by the priests,

the very

is

same as the oracular ark of Amnion or Osiris or Bacchus, and as the Argo The great mother of and Argha of the Greek and Hindoo mythologies. the deity

that

is

same great mother,

And

throu^liout the gentile world. cient

whose

rites

prevailed

the lake with the rocky island

symbol of the deluge and the mundane Ark, which we

venerated in every quarter of the globe.

It

is

alike, as I shall

nous deity priests

was formed by the

and priestesses were supposed

power

to personate

much

They

esteemed

for their androgy-

;

union of the two

close

Mexican

idolaters.

have occasion hereafter more largely to specify,

of their worship, they gave them as their

find so highly

This also was per-

and practice of the old

the great father and the great mother an hermaphrodite

that an-

is

observable, that the

great mother was personated by a boy in female attire. fectly agreeable both to the notions

universally

:

whence, as their

and represent the objects

of this mixed nature as

was

it

in

to do.

The manner

in

which the Mexicans were brought to the place destined

for the foundation of their city,

and the marks by which that place was to

be known, afford another proof of the identity of their theology and that of the old continent.

It is

easy to collect from the tenor of the tradition,

the ancestors of the Mexicans were a wandering horde of Tatars

:

that

who, at

a comparatively recent epoch, passed over from Siberia into America, and,

advancing southward, at length founded no contemptible empire. likewise, that they journeyed

'

Pag.

Idol.

under the direction of their priests

Purch. Pilgr.

b. viii.

VOL.11.

c.

It ;

appears

who bore

10.

2R

*'»*'' '*•

THE ORIGIN Of PAGAN IDOLATRY.

814 J.OOKIV.

much solemnity the figure of their god inclosed witliin an ark or boat, and who from time to time pretended to receive from him oracular responses ^.jtjj

specifying the course of their journey.

were the migrations of the

an exactly similar description

arkite theologists in

when

Wilford justly observes,

Of

the old Morld.

As Mr. Argha

tracing the connection of the Indian

with the Greek and Egyptian Argo and with the sacred ship of the Ger-

manic or Gothic Suevi, the mystic boat was held by some of the first emigrants from Asia

Palladium or pledge of safety, and as such was

to be their

carried by them in their various jourtieys ; whence the poets je.igned, that the

We Argo was borne over mountains on the shoulders of the Argonauts. may also remark, that, when the ancient colonists were about to establish '

a settlement or to build a

they were wont to consult their god, and that

city,

he in return pointed out certain specific marks by which they might know the

These marks were usually

destined place.

religion, the artful priests contriving to

manded by an

oracle to build

cow should

down

lie

Ilus

and Cadmus were each com-

Troy and Thebes on

the exact spot where a

and thus the Phenicians laid the foundations of Car-

:

dug up the heads of a

thage, where they

their

blend superstition even with their very

Thus

existence as a settled nation.

in close connection with

and a horse

bull

;

the latter of

which, according to Virgil, was the express sign which their guardian deity

had declared

The

to them.*

icans were, in the

stored with fish

first

instance, a lake

;

Now

it.

getable both in Egypt and India

mundane

ship

its

Argha

The

calix.

were highly venerated t"he

lotos

and well

and we are

whence, from

its

was a well-known sacred vetold, that it

fish

was a symbol of

property of always

represented sitting

and the eagle were also sacred

in every quarter of the

world.

floating

;

and, as such,

These additions

to

lake and the island are almost the only particulars, in which the direc-

tions given to the

'

:

;

the lotos

the water, the diluvian gods were

on the surface of within

abounding with the

and, in the second, a rocky island in the midst of the lake

with an eagle perched upon

the

by the ark-god of the Mex-

signs pointed out

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Eustath. in

Mexicans by

iii.

their ark-god diflfer

from those marked out

p. 137, 138.

Dion. Pcrieg. ver. 195. Virg. iEncid.

lib.

i.

ver.

445

—449.

to

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAV IDOLATRY. awandering colony of the

commanded by an

ancient Pelasgi or Scythic

oracle to shape

until they should find a lake with

their course to

They were

Palli.

and not

a floating island in the midst of

to settle

The

it.'

and most probably the ingenuity of the supplied the symbolical floating island, which seems to have been one

lake proved to be that of priests

The form stool in

Cotyl^

:

Chemmis

of the same description as

of Vitzliputzli was that of a

an ark or

Egyptian lake near Buto.*

in the

man

and a band of azure passed under

his

seated on an azure-coloured

which there was a piece of wood

at every corner of

litter,

carved into the shape of a serpent's head.

his

Italy,

3 f5

His forehead was likewise azure

Upon

nose from one ear to the other.

head he had a rich plume of feathers covered on the top with gold.

his left staff"

hand he held a white

target

:

and

in

his right

In

he grasped an afure

The box

carved into the semblance of a waving snake.



or ark or

within which he was seated, was covered with linen clothes, feathers^

litter,

jewels, and ornaments of gold lofty altar.

it

was conspicuously placed upon a veil, by way of exciting the

Such was the ark-god of

greater veneration.

worthy of

and

;

Before him was drawn a curtain or

notice,

Mexicans

and

;

it

is

that they supposed all his ornaments to have a certain

In

mystical sense attached to them.'

been perfectly

the

The dark

right.

this

opinion I believe them to have

azure or blue approaching to black

is

a sa-

;

most

cred colour highly venerated both by the Hindoos and the Egyptians

probably as being the hue of the watery element, on which the great father

and the Ark once casting

its

floated.*

The

serpent,

which possesses the faculty of

skin and appearing again in renovated youth,

was a very general

symbol of the transmigrating diluvian god, who was supposed perienced a second birth

were •

*

:

hence

it

initiated into the jSIysteries, as

Dion. Halic. Ant. Rom.

Mr. Southey,

in his

artificial floating islands

a sacred lake.

He also

poem

lib.

of

i.

'

bosoms of those who

a token of their regeneration.'

The

describes the forefathers of the

Mexicans

as having

covered with turf and flowers, on which they ferried over the waters of speaks of their god Mexitli or Vitrliputzli as born from the great

the spirit of old mythology.

Purch. Pilgr. b.

in the

have ex-

c. 15, 19.

Madoc,

ther without the concurrence of a father.

'

was placed

to

viii. c.

Both

mo-

these particulars are strictly accordant with

His authorities are the Spanish writers. 11.

Clcra. Alex. Cohort, p. 11.

* Asiat.

Res. vol. i.p. 26l. Kuscb. Praep. Evan.

lib. i.e.

11.

cnxr.

iv.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

316 BOOK

IV.

Spanish writers

stool, as the

to have

been

call

in reality J-he calix

it,

on which the deity was seated,

of the lotos

;

which was placed

the Egyptians, to symbolize the sacred oracular navel

my

confirmed in

it

exhibits, is seated

am

more

the

medal

medal

in

the triple divinity, stool

:

but the most

convince any person,

will

has paid the least attention to the mythological antiquities of Egypt and

Hindostan, that the supposed stool

is

no other than the sacred aquatic lotos

and the god himself the

triplicated great father.'

medal was found,

the precise country which

is

by the ancestors of the Mexicans previous rica

that

says,

upon a low sopha or

careless inspection of the foe-simile of the

a

I

to the curious Siberian

He

the cabinet of the Russian autocrat.

whose form

and

:

opinion by an evident mistake of a precisely similar nature,

which Dr. Parsons has made with respect

this

in the centre

agreeably to the practice both of the Greeks, the Hindoos, and

of the ark,

who

I take

we may

:

lotos,

flower,

Now

the region, where

must have been occupied

to their crossing over into

therefore be tolerably sure, that, if the stool on the

the stool of the

Mexican god must be a

lotos

pour of inspiration

:

to be closely

and, in a similar manner,

This same

also.

on

cleft the va-

the curtain of Vitzliputzli

connected with the curtain of the Pythian Apollo and

with the mystic veil of Isis and

In conjunction Mith

whom

medal be

unless I greatly mistake, was nearly allied to the Delphic tripod,

which the priestess sat when she received from the sacred rocky

seems

Ame-

Hymen.

Vitzli|)utzli the

they called Tlaloc.

Mexicans worshipped another god,

These two were always placed together

:

for

they

esteemed them companions, and ascribed to them an equal degree of power/

The

triad

and

whom

was completed by the goddess,

whom

they styled the great mother,

they venerated as the goddess of the waters.

'

As

I

have already

observed, like the chief female deity of the pagans in every quarter of the globe, she

was a personification of the mundane Ark

of the ocean Osiris

:

while the two other

members

Remains of Japhet.

'

Purch. Pilgr.

p. 184, 187.

b. viii. c. 10.

*

Parch. Pilgr.

b. viii.

or

Jagan-Nath

c. II.

This goddess of the waters was personated by a priest in

female attire precisely in the same manner as the Mexican great mother they vfere one goddess.

on the surface

of the triad correspond with

Woden andThor,

and Horus, Jupiter and Dionusus,

'

floating

:

whence

I infer,

that

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. These were accounted the peculiar

and Bal-Rama. lake

317 of the sacred

divinities

and the Mexicans annually propitiated them by a very characteristic

:

human

On

sacrifice.

the day appointed for the ceremony, they

embarked number of canoes, carrying with them a boy and a When arrived in the middle of it, they placed the unhappy victims in a girl. and caused it to sink with them in such a manner, that it never boat little The rite needs but little explanation the two children again appeared. upon

the lake in a great

;

'

:

and mother on the surface and the whole ceremony bears a resemblance

to represent the infant great father

were designed

of the intermediate deluge

;

which can scarcely be mistaken to the Hindoo practice of committing the goddess to the water, the Egyptian custom of precipitating a virgin into the Nile and setting Osiris sacrificing 3.

men

afloat in

to the diluvian

Cronus by throwing diem

Religious notions and practices,

Mexicans, prevailed in every

and the ancient

his ark,

more or

otlier part

Roman mode

into the Tiber.

of

*

resembling those of the

less

of America:' but I must hasten to

the theology of the second civilized empire in that quarter of the world.

The 7nac.

principal god of the Peruvians

The

latter of these titles I

was

called Viracocha

suspect to be

and Pachaca-

compounded of

the Indian

Baghis and Cama, the Bacchus and Caimis of the Greeks and Egyptians but the former denotes, in their language, the froth of the sea. time god was esteemed by them the great author of nature

:

:

This mari-

and, next to him,

or rather (as I believe) in conjunction with him, they worshipped the Sun.

The

rites

the sea,

of Viracocha, agreeably to his name, had an immediate relation to

whence he was thought

to

posed to have sprung from the great lake Titiaca these legends

is

substantially the

He was

have been born.

same

;

for

a lake was a symbol of the deluge,

and the sacred lake of the Peruvians appears to have received from the great mother Sita or Tit^a.

Accordingly

we

its

find both

choca immediately connected with their traditions of the deluge. posed, that,

when

waters of a flood, '

Purch. Pilgr.

all it

likewise sup-

but the import of both

:

appellation

it

and Vira-

They sup-

the inhabitants of the world were destroyed by the

was repeopled by

their ancestors;

who, at that period,

b. viii. c. 13.

"

Asiat. Res. vol.i. p. 251.

^

See Purch. Pilgr.

b. viii.

Niebuhr's Trarels. sect.

and

ix.

ii.

c. 8.

Lactant.

Instit. lib.

i.

§ 21.

'"*''•

^•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

318 B»UK

IV.

came out of a cave another legend,

that,

within which they

when

had been concealed

manner

'

These two

;

after

which time mankind began

same event in a somewlrat

fables relate the

the

different

but they are both conceived perfectly according to the genius of

:

ancient Paganism.

The

forth after the deluge, grotto,

and they had

men were drowned, Viracocha emerged from

all

lake Titiaca, and thence proceeded to Ciisco to multiply.

:

whence the ancestors of the Peruvians came

cave,

means

Ark

the

;

which was symbolized by a gloomy

whence the great father and such

were thought to be born again posed to have emerged when diluvian ocean, of which he lake, as I

as

and the

:

were

lake,

initiated into the

Mysteries

whence Virachoca was sup-

mankind perished by water, symbolizes the

all

was esteemed the mystic

In

offspring.

this

same

have already had occasion to mention, the Peruvians shewed a

small island, where they believe that the Sun once hid himself and was thus

Hence

preserved from impending danger.

provided

it

they built a temple to him upon

it,

with an establishment of priests and women, and there offered to

men and

him

great sacrifices both of

how

exactly these notions coincide with those which

Gentiles of the eastern continent.

of animals.

We

It is curious to observe,

prevailed

among

the

have here the symbolical lake and

sacred island, a lake avowedly connected with the deluge and the repeopling

of the earth, so that the import of the legend cannot be mistaken.

We have

here also the Sun, or Viracocha worshipped in conjunction with the Sun, sheltering himself from danger in the small island; precisely in the

manner

as the

Greek Apollo and

the Egyptian Horus, each of

same

whom was

enemy The correspondence

confessedly the Sun, severally received shelter from their implacable

the ocean in the floating islands of Delos and Chemmis.

between the three fables doubted

:

and,

have had a

is

such, that their identity

if their identity

common

cannot reasonably be

be allowed, then the religion of Peru must

origin with that of

Greece and Egypt.

With Viracocha or Pachacamac they worshipped the Earth under the name of Pachamama, esteeming her the mother of all things and the sea under the cognate name of Alamacocha, which denotes the mother sea. By ;

the

first

of these they meant '

tt)e

great universal mother that once floated

Purch. Pilgr.

b. ix. c. 9- V-

^74.

oa

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

whom

the ocean, between

319

and the Earth there existed throughout the mytho-

logy of the Gentiles a systematic intercommunion of personality

and the

:

second, from the circumstances of the deluge, was ever reckoned the general

parent both of gods and men.

'

That such was the

case,

may

be collected

from the character of another symbolical deity who was associated with them. This was the rainbow with a snake attached to either extremity of it.

seems

It

the

same

to

me

as those

sufficiently evident,

that

Pachacama and Pachamama

are

two remarkable personages, from %vhom they deduced

both the family of their Incas and the foundation of traditions inform us,

that,

Their

empire.

tlieir

while their ancestors roamed naked in the forests,

strangers to every species of cultivation or regular industry, attached to no

and unacquainted with those sentiments and obligations which

fixed residence,

form the

bonds of

first

social union

;

a

man and a woman,

of majestic form,

and clothed in decent garments, suddenly appeared on the banks of the lake

They

Titiaca.

were sent by

ed, that they

and

declared themselves to be the children of the

them from

to reclaim

sion, enforced

Sun

their beneficent parent to instruct the

the irregularities of savage

by reverence for the divinity in whose

life.

name

At

to Cusco,

v>

assert-

human

race

their persua-

they were supposed

to speak, several of the hitherto dispersed natives united together

them

and

;

and followed

here they founded the capital of their future empire.

The

names of these extraordinary persons were Manco-Capac and Mama-Ocollo.

The former

instructed the

women

men

in agriculture

and other useful

Nor

arts,

while the

Manco attend

only

to the first objects of necessity in an infant state, such as food, raiment,

and

latter taught the

habitations

founded

by

;

:

and

to weave.

did

he was likewise the great lawgiver of the empire which he

and, by precisely defining the functions of those in authority and

estat)iishing

down

to his

body

politic

Any

to spin

a due subordination of ranks

in the

governed, he handed

descendants and successors the Incas a well-ordered and regular

oile in the least

degree conversant with

tlie

mythology of

tlie

pagans

cannot avoid being struck «ith the perfect resemblance of character between

Manco-Capac, and

Osiris, Dionusus,

Hu, Phoroneus, Cronus, and Janus,

Sl-AitMW It &tujv yivimv, xKi iKfrc^a, TijOuv, precisely expresses the Peruvian notion.

'^"*''«

"•

THE

320 BOOK

IV.

Qn the one hand

;

OttlGIN OF

IDOLATllY.

and between Mania-Ocollo, and

and Cybel^, on the

otlier

Isis,

Ceres, Ceridwen,

This circumstance alone might lead us to

hand.

what persons we ought

suspect,

PAGAN

by them

to understand

:

and the suspicion

will acquire additional strengtii from the apparent identity of ^lanco-Capac

and Pachacama,

and

consequently

Manco and Pachacama and the

of

Mama-OcoUo and Pachamama.

are each desciibed as being the offspring of the Sun,

latter is additionally said to

ing his production from the sea and the lake Titiaca feigned to have

first

father

:

Manco-Capac or the mother

OcoUo

the offspring of the Sun, larly feigned to

is

the arkite

the diluvian

is

the Peruvian

And,

Magna

Menu

Manco-Capac

if

infer, that

of the

Manco in short, Hindoos, who is simi-

The

venerated under the appellation of Vaivaswata.

differently expressed

title,

Menu, Menes,

which by

Manes,

Mama-

Mater.

be an emanation from the solar deity, and who

seems to be a mere variation of that

may

certainly the transmigrating great

is

be the great father, the analogy of Paganism requires us to

OcoUo

and they are each

allegorical nativity

must be the same.

therefore

:

monarch of

first

But Pachacama, whose various modes of

easily be reconciled with each other,

notwithstand-

they are each also

:

appeared on the banks of that lake

celebrated as the founder of Cusco and as the

empire.

Moon

have been born of the

very

is

thence

name indeed

different nations

was

Mannus, Man, Menwyd,

Minos, or Manacan. It

is

curious to observe the numerous points of coincidence between the

superstition of the Peruvians

and that which prevailed throughout the whole

of the eastern continent.

Both they and

their neighbours

Mexicans had consecrated

the

virgins,

whose functions and whose vow of celibacy precisely resembled those of the vestal virgins at

The

bull

Rome.

was venerated by the Peruvians no

Europe, Asia, and Africa.

less

This animal, I have

than by the idolaters of

little

doubt,

was the sym-

Manco-Capac or Pachacama; as it vvas of Bacchus, Osiris, Menu, and Siva and we may remark, that one of the sacred bulls of Egypt actually bore the name of Pads, which %vas compoundedly expressed Pacha-Cama

bol of

:

by the Peruvians. chus,

Pads

is

the

same

and the Hindoos express Baghis

title, :

as

and,

what the Greeks wrote Bacif I

mistake not,

it

forms the

1

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAV IDOLATRY. second appellation of the Sun-born jManco

;

Capac

for

is

32

probably no other

than the Ce-Baeche of the ancient Irish or the Ca-Baghis of the Hindoos, the import of which

In

all their

is

the illustrious Bacchus. the

sacrifices

Peruvians

daughters of the Ocean, while the sea

mother of waters.

I

suspect,

that

used itself

calling

shells,

them

the

they denominated the great

the shells which they employed on

such occasions were of an oval form resembling boats

and

:

I

am

the

more

inclined to this conjecture from the obvious resemblance between the Peruvian

custom and a

parallel

one of the Hindoos.

In every sacred

description these last constantly use the vessel called

rite

of whatsoever

Argha, which

is

an

avowed copy of

the mystic ship Arglia which floated with Siva on the surface

of the deluge.

With a

employed

their paterae

Oval or round

similar reference and in a similar manner, ihe

and fashioned

shells then

their sacred

Greeks

cups in the form of boats.

were the arghas or paterse of the Peruvians

:

and,

may easily be collected from their stvlinc them daughters of the Ocean. They were symbols of that sea-born goddess, whom the Greeks and Romans ^\orshipped under the name of Venus or in

what

light they considered

Aphrodite

;

them,

the Syrians, under that of Atargatis or Derceto ;

Rama-Devi

and the

Lacshmi or Asyotcersa or Parvati or In each case was equally meant the Ark, represented by the ship

Hindoos, under that of

or

Durga. Argha or Argo and by the navicular dish or shell and hence it is, that the Venus-Anadyomen^ is so frequently depicted standing in the midst of a large :

circular shell resembling in form that of a cockle.

Both the Mexicans and the Peruvians had another custom, which must by

no means be passed over

Their sacred virgins were wont from

in silence.

time to time to prepare certain loaves or cakes for the idol which they venerated.

These were sometimes made

in the

sometimes were so moulded as to imitate

form of hands and

tlie

Such lumps of paste they considered as the bones and

They

feet,

and

shape of the idol himself. flesh

of their god.

served them up in large golden dishes, which the Hindoos, I presume,

would have called arghas devoutly partook of them.

:

and, in the course of the ceremony, they "\V'e

may

all

here again trace the palpable identity

of the American theology and that which prevailed so widely throughout the eastern continent.

Fag.

Idol.

These cakes were evidently of the same nature VOL.

II.

as those,

2S

c"'^*"-

i''-

THE ORIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRV.

322 BOOK

IT.

which the Canaanitish women were accustomed to make in honour of Astoreth

A

or the lunar arkite queen of heaven.'

The

Greece and Egypt. formed with two

They were loaf,

Isis,

the Earth, the Ark, and the lunar Crescent.

Moon

Mexican

and, as the

:

which was an imitation of the god, was composed of maize moulded

with honey

;

We

flour.'

so these sacred cr.kes were

may

made

ner, as

we

of honey kneaded with fine

American devotees were

observe, that the loaves of the

solemnly set out before the idol on a table

:

and precisely

in the

tice, as

he justly observes,

apostates

Gad

same man-

learn from St. Jerome, were the cakes, together with wine

To

other victuals, set out on a table before the deities of Egypt.

for

in

sacred cakes were called Boiis from their being

every seventh day to the

offered

custom prevailed both

horns, so as to imitate the mystic heifer, which was

little

once the symbol of

at

similar

Isaiah alludes,

when he speaks of

this

and

prac-

certain Jewish

who, forgetting the holy mountain of Jehovah, prepared a table

;

or the Cuthic Ghaut, and

the lunar ]\Ienu.'

may add,

I

who provided

a drink-offering for

Paul clearly

that St.

refers to the

Meni

or

same ancient

custom, when he points out the utter incompatibility of Christianity and

Paganism, by asserting, that we cannot consistently drink of the cup of the

Lord and of

tlic

cup (that

is,

the Patera or

Argha) of demon-gods,

that

we

cannot at once partake of the Lord's table and of the table of hero-divinities.*

The

curious apocryphal

upon the

now under

rite

and the Dragon

story of Bel

consideration

:

and

it is

is

evidently founded

vahiable, as presenting an

apparently faithful picture of the old serpent-worship of the Babylonians. .Jeremiah calls the cakes, which were offered to the queen of heaven, Chonim,

Chon.

in the singular,

name

I take

that this appellation

it,

of Cliimi, which the Egyptians varied into

illustrious

Chon.

They

applied the

title

to the great father,

sometimes called Htrcules and sometimes Cronus. a god denominated '

jtTom.

*

Hcsyth. Lex. Bsuj.

vii.

oblique ca?cs

is

J

8. xliv.

Con 15

whom

Diog. Laert. in

Buiin, or (as the Latins

Bun

which wesiilJ

retain, of selling

:

they

made

borrowed from the

whom the Greeks

The Peruvians had

the offspring of the Sun,

also

and to

— 19.

English word

'

;

is

Chon and Gigon or the

vit.

Emped.

would write

it)

The name Run.

of the cake in one of the

Hence we have borrowed our

and from the same pagan source has originated the old popish custom, a sort of consecrated cakes named Buns on good friday.

Ibaiahlxv.il. Hitron. Comment, in

loc.

*

1

Corinth, x. 21.

:

THE

whom

PAGAN IDOLATRr.

ORIGIN' OF

they ascribed the

first

production of bread and of

3'23

things necessary

all

They speak indeed of a contest between Con and Pacbicama, which may perhaps have some reference to the struggle between Osiris and Tyjjhon to

life.

but both the character and the origin of these two gods plainly bespeak their be recollected, that, by the mystic theocrasy of the ancients,

It will

identity.

even Typhun and Osiris were sometimes considered as one deity.

As the chief god of the Peruvians was the great father adored in the Sun, we shall not wonder to find, that, like all the other pagans, they venerated a certain divine

This was properly composed of the three sons of that

triad.

transmigrating primeval personage, whose production was considered by the mysticizing genius of Paganism in the light of a wonderful self-triplication

of their parent

:

but, since the great father

was revered

Sun, and since

in the

in the progress of pantheistic theology the different parts of creation were

esteemed

was an

his different

transferred to the

Sun and

named Tangatajiga

idol

doos

members, the Peruvian

Thus, while they worshipped

they likewise multiplied the Sun into three persons, the father Sun,

:

air,

traces of the

in the island of Otaheite it

Sun

and venerated three images of the god of

;

considered as presiding in thunder, rain, and snow.'

XI. Evident that

of the Hindoos,

or Three-in-one, the exact Trimurti of the Hin-

the son Sun, and the brother the

to the elements.

triad, like that

:

same

and

it is

would likewise be found

may

theological system

probable,

to prevail

if

be observed also

minute inquiry were made,

throughout the other islands scat-

tered in clusters over the vast Pacific ocean.

When

captain

Cooke

sacred chest or ark.

of

it

The

lid

which has been given to

palm-nut leaves.

on

first visited

little

The

ark

of

Otaheite,

tliis

us,

itself

one end of

it

it

from place

machine, according to the description

:

on,

was fixed upon two

to place, in the

was a square hole

natives venerated a kind of

was nicely sewed

arches of Avood very neatly carved.

be to remove

tlie

and

in the

The

and thatched with

poles,

and supported

use of the poles seemed to

manner of a

sedan-chair.

At

middle of the hole was a ring

touching the sides but leaving the angles open, so as to form a round hole Purch. iii.

p.

Pil.;r. b. ix. c. 9,

21—34,

200, 201.

10,

U,

12.

b. viii. c. 12, 13.

Robertson's Hist.

olAmer. wl.

CHAP.

IT.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

324 liooK IV.

The

within a square one.

time that Sir Joseph Banks saw this ark,

first

end was stopped with a piece of

the aperture at the

touched to avoid giving

cloth,

Avhich he left un-

Probably there was then something

oft'ence.

Avithin

:

when he afterwards examined it, the cloth was taken away, and the The same machine is noticed in the narrative of coffer was found empty. but,

some

captain Cooke's last voyage, and

interesting particulars are added.

Joseph Banks had been informed, that but we are

symbol supposed repository was in

form

and of

whom

it

was de-

but they learned, that Ooro, or rather a

:

was concealed within

This sacred

it.

of the twisted fibres of the husk of the cocoa-nut

Captain Cooke and

rite

of the god, to

English were not allowed to go near enough to ex-

contents

to represent him,

made

god:

called the house of the

:

and

was somewhat round, but with one end much thicker than the

it

other.

The

The

mysterious

its

was

name

further told, that the

was Ooro.

dicated,

amine

now

it

Sir

was performed

burial.

his attendants

were present at a

Moral, which

in a

'u

at once a place

That, where the English witnessed the

principal one in the island

and

;

mid with a square area on each

sacrifice to

Ooro.

of worship

sacrifice,

was the

form was that of an obtuse oblong pyra-

its

At

side.

a small distance from the end of

it

nearest to the sea was a large scaffold or lofty table, on which the offerings of fruit

and other vegetables were

constituting a rude altar.

frequently

men no

less

laid

Here

:

and by the side of

it

was a heap of stones

the sacrifices were offered up, which were

than animals

:

and here the ark of the god Ooro was

placed during the performance of the ceremony.'

Dr. Hawksworth, who arranged for publication the minutes of captain Cooke's

much

first

in the

voyage, seems to have been struck with the ark of the Otalieiteans

same manner

for he observes,

as

Mr. Adair was with the ark of the northern Amegeneral resemblance between that sacred

ricans

;

coffer

and the Jewish ark of the Lord

still

more remarkable,

house of the god. I think

it

I

that

that

the

it

is

remarkable

:

and he considers

should be called Ezvharre no

do not wonder at

his noticing the

Eatua

it

as

or the

resemblance; though

no proof of the Hebrew origin of the Otaheiteans, any more than of

the northern Americans.

'

The

additional particulars relative to this ark-god,

Cooke's First voyage, b. i.e. ?0.

Thjrd voyage,

b.

iii. c.

2.

.,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

385

afterwards furnished by captain Cooke, shew pretty evidently, that he wa*. the great universal father of the gentile world, venerated alike throughout the

The ark,

eastern and the western continent.

furnished with staves for the pur-

pose of being carried by the priests in solemn procession, boat, as the

Argo of Anitnon or

Bacchus, Hu,

Ho,

and

Vitzliputzli.

is

the

same sacred

and the ark of

Siva,

square aperture or door,

Its

fur-

no other than the sacred oracular navel or And the god, who was thought to lie concealed within it, is

nished with an interior ring, ornpiialus.

Argha of

the

Osiris,

'

that primeval character,

prominent a feature

is

whose mystic concealment or aphanism formed so

in tlie ancient Orgies.

was not however so much

It

god himself who was thought to be hidden within the

What

representation.

for the Otalieiteans,

it

ark,

symbol was, we are not able

this

as his

symbol or

positively to say;.

appears, were as unwilling to expose the contents

their sacred ark to the eyes of the profane,

tlie

of.

as the hierophants of the Dionysic

but I more than suspect, that

was the very same as that, which was inclosed within the ark of Bacchus, and which was so generallyIVIysteries

:

it

The name of

esteemed by the pagans the peculiar type of the great father. this

yet,

ark-god was Ooro.

when

Now,

though I wish not to build upon etymology;,

I observe such decided

marks of resemblance between the Ota-

heitean theology and that of Egypt, I that

the

this Ooro

Horus of

The mode

is

am

strongly inclined to

in appellation,

no

less

conjecture,

than in character, as

and the Auri of the Hindoos.

of conducting the worship corresponds with the deity.

on which were placed the offerings of

fruit,

is

The-

but a copy of

on which the sacred bovine cakes and drink-offerings were wont

Menu and

be set out to

to

same even

the Egyptians

scaffold or table,

that table,

the

pyramid serves ship just in the

the lunar

queen of heaven

:

while the obtuse

to shew, that the Otaheiteans represented the

same manner

mountain of the

as their idolatrous brethren of Egypt, Hindostan,

and Babylonia, Their worship of

tlie

ark-god produced as

veneration of a triplicated deity. recently adapted the

'

titles

It

its

natural consequence the

seems probable, that the natives have

of this divinity to the doctrine which they have

Respecting the ompbalus more will be said hereafter.

Vide

infra b. v, c. 4. J III.

ciiAf. iv.

'

THE OBIGIX OF PAOAK IDOLATRY.

S36 sooK

IV.

from the Missionaries; who in

j-eccived

have been too hasty

their turn

in

fancying, that the Otahcitean theology exhibits traces of a primeval belief in

the

Holy

Trinity.

They have been

misled,

much

in the

same manner

the fathers were by a specious decoration of the old Orphic triad.

as

If the

grand outlines of the Otaheitean religion did not afford the best comment on its triad, %ve

should have a very satisfactory one in the tradition

a man was born of the sand of the

by her became the parent of married

:

and with

sea,

who married

three males

allegorical daughter,

own

and three females.

their descendants the earth

three sons of him, who, Irke the Indian

his

;

that formerly

daughter, and

These

was gradually peopled.

Menu

or Buddha,

Mission. Vqjage tp the south sea. p. 344.

Tiie

espoused his

were the true prototypes of the triad of Otaheite. '

inter-

CHAPTER

V.

Respecting the human character of the great father, as exhibited in

Buddhic or Thothic or Hermetic or Samanean theology.

the

NOW

JL

proceed to consider the

hibited in different

human

character of the great father, as ex-

Buddhic or Thothic or Hermetic or Samanean

superstition.

parts of the world subsist distinct from the Brahmenists

I.

;

each of which, as

may

Tn the ninth Indian Avatar Vishnou

our western characters.

Vishnou or Bacchus or and men. so

much

ject

:

These

in

the

some

but in the west they there

we may

be argued from

its

trace

univer-

must be as old as the dispersion from Babel. is

said to have appeared in the

name

of Buddha, Boudha, Boudh, or Bouta, as the in

:

Yet even

appear to have been early blended together. the vestiges of two systems sality,

may be termed

countries by the adherents of what

Hence

Buddha

Osiris.

therefore

Each

the adherents of

in the object

is

tlie

is

variously expressed

really the

is

same person as

alike the great father both of

two primeval superstitions

of their worship, as in the

mode

and hence again, since the very same person

is

form

gods

differ

not

of exhibiting that ob-

venerated by each class

of sectaries, and since consequently in the grand outlines the god of the one-

must correspond with the god of the in the

other,

two systems a strong tendency

has actually taken place in the west

:

to

Me

shall not be surprised to find

amalgamation.

This conjmixture

and, even in India, however the Brah-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

S28 BOOK

IV,

menists

may

detest the Buddhists, the orthodoxy of the former

discriminated from the lieterodoxy of the

latter

but faintly

is

and Buddhism, as

;

has

it

been justly remarked, melts insensibly into Brahmenisni.'

No

1.

more

part of old mythology

intricate,

intricacy

may

more

is

though

curious,

than the character and worship of

Buddha

we

mind

be unravelled,

if

steadily bear in

properly no other than the transmigrating great father

;

in

:

some

yet

respects

much of this

that that divinity

and

if at

the

is

same

time we carefully remember the established gentile doctrine, that the great father

is

repeatedly manifested afresh, not only at the

commencement of

each world, but in the person of every eminent legislator or reformer

who

appears during the continuance of a mundane system.

The Brahmens

say, that the religion of

Buddha

heretical

is

have just seen, they represent him as an incarnation of Vishnou .ancient Sanscrit inscription at

rested

;

;

and

Om

triple

;

is

god

upon the face of the milky ocean, and who reposed upon the

have been an Avatar of Vishnou told, that

Nevertheless he

:

is

sometimes said not to

he were an incarnation of that deity,

or, if

he ought not to be reckoned among the Avatars, inasmuch

was manifested

as he

as

described, like Vishnou, as the divinity,

is

navicular serpent Sesa or Ananta.*

we are

celebrated as a portion of

that

Brahma- Vishnou-Mahesa

who

is

we

as

and, in an

:

moved upon the waters is invoked very same as the Hindoo Trimurti, or the

Narayan, or the being declared to be the

Buddha-Gaya, he

yet,

;

solely to seduce the people into erroneous doctrines.

Hence he is considered as the promulgator of an heterodox religion, and his Lastly, we find many acknowledging Buddha votaries are deemed infidels.' as the ninth Avatar of Vishnou, but maintaining him to be a different person from the heretic Buddha who is worshipped in Ceylon, Bootan, Thibet, ;

China, and the eastern peninsula of Siam and Malaya.*

In these discordant opinions we may, truth

The primeval Buddha is the same as Vishnou, or while the Buddha, who is reprobated as a ha-etic and who

:

by the Brahmenists to be an incarnation of the great * Asiat.

Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 241. •

where the

easily perceive

lies.

Osiris '

I think,

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

vii. p.

viii.

p.

55, bG. vol.

532, 533.

viii.

p. 532,

533.

father,

Res. vol.

i.

was

p. 284,,

Siva, is

or

denied

a religious

285.

THE ORICI^f OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. adventurer; wlio assumed the

be one of his numerous

title

and character of the god, who claimed

terrestrial manifestations,

certain obnoxious changes in the old

precise era of this impostor

329

and who as such made

Buddhic theology.

To

ascertain the

Some

perhaps no easy matter.

is

to

place him,

or at least an Avatar of Buddha, about a thousand years before Christ:

but

am inclined

I

to believe, that the person,

whose modification of Buddhism

gave such offence to the Brahmenists, must have flourished very considerably nor Clemens,

later; for neither Porphyry, nor Strabo,

all

of

whom mention

the two great Indian sects, give the least hint of any animosity subsisting

Agreeably to such an opinion, what

between them.

Buddha than

in

commonly supposed

is

the course of the

to

deemed the heresy of

have been introduced into China no

At any

century after Christ.'

first

is

earlier

rate, I certainly

impostor in question was an entirely distinct

think with Georgi, that the

person from the proper and original Buddha. Accordingly, whatever might be the era of this pretended Avatar of the god, the Buddhists themselves justly the beginning

:

and,

in

that at a very remote period or,

as

we ought

that their religion existed from

insist,

support of their assertion,

we have cogent

prevailed throughout the whole of Hindostan

it

rather to say, that

it

extended

itself

more western

parts of Asia and Europe.

within this ample range

Buddha

votaries of

ary nations

;

in

its

establishment

of the countries

yet continue to flourish throughout China and

Asam,

and generally

many

prevails either wholly or partially

the great empires

Siam, Pegu, Ava, tribes,

still

it

In

and

of those vast and numerous islands which farther Indian promontory.

The whole

'

among many of

of the Ganges

in all regions east

lie

and the

:

its

tribut-

of Cochin-Cliina, Cambodia,

states

Boutan;

Thibet,

;

to the east

legend of

the Tatar

and throughout most and the south of the

Buddha indeed

sufficiently

proves him to be the great transmigrating father, and thus tends to demonstrate the high antiquity of his

recent impostor assumed his is

worship

name and

:

and, in supposing that

some more

character, I suppose nothing but

perfectly consistent vvith the accredited doctrines of Paganism.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Asiat.

Res. vol.

Fag.

Idol.

ii.

p.

vi. p.

123

— 126.

591. vol,

vii, p.

398

et infra.

VOL.

II.

;

from the north of Tar-

tary to Ceylon and from the Indus to Siam, even omitting in the

proofs,

Moor"s Himl. Panth.

p.

240.

2

T

what

'"*'•

*•

THE

330 tooK

IV.

PAGAN IDOLATUV.

OftlGiN OF

Since the principal god of the Buddhists then of the Brahmenists

the principal god

contending idolaters

after all,

will,

;

we may

is

same person as

the very

naturally expect, that these

be separated by only a narrow

Accordingly, between the two systems there

demarcation.

general resemblance, that there can be no doubt, as

observed, that the one

is

IVIr.

is

so

of

line

close a

Joinville lias well

Buddhism

the child of the other; and, since genuine

excites the idea of something crude

and unformed while Brahmenism wears

a finished and systematic aspect, I

am

Yet would

to the former.'

the Babylonian tower;

I

inclined with

concede priority

to

because on no other principle can we satisfactorily

Buddhism then seems

account for the universal prevalence of both.

me

him

carry back the origin of both to the epoch of

to

to be the Jirst coiTuption of Patriarchism, the commencement of what

Epiphanius

Scythic heresy

calls the

:

while Brahmenism

Some

completion and perfection of that heresy. preferred the one

the two together.

:

some chose rather

of the architects of Babel

to adhere to the other

This religious dissention was,

apparently the

is

if

and some mixed

:

I mistake not, the second-

ary and subordinate cause of the dispersion,

In the Matsya-Avatar, which relates to the deluge and to the preser-

2.

vation of Menu-Satyavrata in an ark, Vishnou appears under the form of a

man

issuing out of the

mouth of a

fish

:

and he

is

supposed, when the waters

abated, to have recovered the sacred books which had been lost. itself,

we

fish

Maya, by which the Hindoos understood delusion: Satyavrata, he was invested by Narayan in the office of Menu,

are told, was

and, as for

under the name of Sraddadeva or the god of

Now

The

obsequies.''

circumstantial evidence clearly demonstrates,

avowedly a manifestation of Vishnou, so he

is

Buddha

is

same person

as

that,

likewise the

as

Menu-Satyavrata or Noah.

A

tonjb

is

ancient hero

shewn is

at

Naulakhi

supposed

to

in the country of Cabul,

where some very

The Mussulmans

be buried.

call

him Peer-

Maitlam and Maitri-Burkhan, which in the dialect of Samarcand signifies The Buddhists say, that he is Buddha Naray ana or the lord and master. Buddha dwelling in the waters. And the Hindoos, who live in that country,

'

call

him Machodar-Nath or the sovereign prince

Asiat. Res. vol.

vii.

p.

398

et infra.

*

in the belly

Asiat, Res. vol.

i.

p.

of the fish.

230—234, 239.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUT. Some

was the father of Satyavrata

fancy, tliat this person

Wilford justly observes, such father

By

Lamech.

cavity or inside

And

that vessel.

natural or

chodara. certainly

Ark;

are applicable to

of

the fish, he

Vishnou

Mr.

but, as

:

alone,

not to his

they understand the

the cetus or large sea-fish being a symbol of

which can afford shelter to

artificial,

Noah

tells us,

he adds, that any place in the

Buddha

'

titles

the belly

the

of

331

middle of waters, either

living beings

is

Ma-

called

then, as the sovereign prince in the belly of the fish,

out of the mouth of a

is

Matsya-Avatar, where that deity appears issuing

in the fish

and, since a fish was an acknowledged type of the

:

Ark, Buddha and Vishnou must equally be the same as Satyavrata or Noah.

His identity with Menu-Satyavrata further appears from another particular.

The

author of

tiie

Amaracosha

and that he married

was

Ila the daughter of the ark-preserved

who was saved from

fish,

of

title

is

Hence,

described, as resting

hence,

Ila,

King of justice;

or

and each

to have floated

Hence

to

also,

sea,

in his

Asiat. Res. vol.

vi. p.

Asiat. Res. vol.

vii.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

as they

Buddha

to,

and as being Sradda-

temple at Oogul-Bodda,

And

be sleeping on a sort of navicular bed.*

when esteemed an incarnation of Vishnou-Narayana; he

sitting in the calix of the

'

is

on the waters

already referred

upon the face of the milky

image appears

'

Satyavrata

Buddha who

they must dearly be the same person.

in the Sanscrit inscription

deva or the god of obsequies.* his colossal

Ila

have been inclosed in the belly of

Dharmarajah

are each reported to have married

oftheocean.'

;

to

Yet

fundamentally one with Menu-Satvavrata, we find

thus

them each bearing the

As

the deluge in an ark, and as

are each the husband of Ila

Buddha being

Menu. *

father Menu-Salyavrata.

upon the waters and

said to have floated

a

own

likewise the wife of her

therefore

was the son of the lunar god,

that he

tells us,

sacred aquatic lotos.

* Asiat. Res. vol. vii. p.

479, 480.

is

depicted

*

411. vol.

ii.

p.

376.

p. 39. vol. ix. p. 88.

p.

284

—286.

I

conclude him to be Sraddadcva, which

is

a

title

of

Menu-Satyavrata, because the inscription attributes a peculiar efficacy to the performance of the Sradda in the temple at Boodha-Gaya, and because under the the

Charon of Hindoo mythology.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

'

Maur.

vi.

p. 451.

Hist, of Hind. vol.

See Plate ii.

p,

480.

II.

Fig. 2.

name

of Salivahana he

is

°"*'-

''•

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATtlY-

332

3. According to an inscription in the Maga language communicated by Lord Teignmouth, Buddha was born of Maha-AIaya, the wife of SootahDannah Rajah of Cailas. As soon as he saw the light, he was placed by

Brahma

in a

golden vessel, and delivered to a female attendant

child, alighting

but the

;

from her arms, walked seven paces without assistance.

intelligence of his birth

was speedily circulated

The

and a sage, who had re-

:

paired to the palace of the Rajah for the purpose of visiting him, wept and

laughed alternately as soon as he beheld the wonderful infant, because

appearance he divined something both of good and bad import. departed

but,

:

when

five

had marks on

a Rajah-Chacraverti dignity of Avatar. tlie

:

He

then

days had elapsed, he assembled four Pandits for

Three of them conclud-

the purpose of calculating the destiny of the child. ed, that, as he

in his

his

hands resembling a wheel, he would become

and a fourth determined, that he would arrive

The boy was now named Sacya

:

and,

when he

at the

attained

age of sixteen years, he espoused the daughter of the Rajah Chuhidan,

with w hom he repaired to his

own

place of residence.

One

day, as certain

Mysteries were revealed to him, he formed the design of relinquishing his

dominions; and accordingly

He

horse.

directed his servant to leave

armour.

left his

palace with only one attendant and a

crossed the river Ganga, and arrived at Balucali

He

him and carry away

then adopted the manners and

life

his horse,

;

where, having

he

of a mendicant

laid aside his ;

and clothed

himself with some pieces of wearing apparel, which he discovered in one of the five flowers that appeared at the creation of the world. that a traveller passed by and presented to

Sacya accepted the

of grass.

offering,

him an

offering of eight bundles

and reposed upon

it.

golden temple appeared, containing a chair of wrought gold.

mit of the

Sacya

;

temple Brahma

alighted,

It happened,

Suddenly a

On

the sum-

and held a canopy over the head of

Naga

while Indra with a fan in his hand,

prince of serpents,

and

the four tutelary deities of the four corners of the universe, attended to

him reverence and with

all

At

the

same time the chief of the Asoors

his forces to give battle to Sacya

and the other

was

service.

deities,

left alone,

:

do

arrived

upon which, Brahma, Indra,

forsook him and vanished.

Sacya, perceiving that he

invoked the assistance of the Earth.

She attended at

his

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. and suddenly brought a mighty deluge over which the vanquished Asoor and

Then

to retire.

descended from above; and Sacya was dignified with the

five holy Scriptures title

the ground, by

all

were compelled

his forces

333

of Buddha- Avatar.^

much

In the midst of

that

idle

is

and impertinent,

yet easy to disco-

it is

ver in the present fable traces of genuine primeval tradition.

Buddha

Cailas or Cailasa, where

said to

is

As Olympus

mountain of Indo-Scythic superstition. and

his kindred divinities

inestimable gem, fact,

is

have been born,

is

the sacred

the seat of Jupiter

is

so Cailasa, every splinter of whose rocks

:

the peculiar residence of the diluvian Siva.*

one of the three holy peaks of Meru

;

is

an

It is,

in

which thence is similarly described

as being the favourite haunt of the mariner of the Argha, and which

Deo-Naush

brated as the birth-place of

prototype of

Meru was

Maya, we

an appearance

grea^ when' Buddha to suspect, that

added, sense of

fish

But

the

history of the deluge. is

find the

Maha

Maha- Maya he is I am much inclined ^

but only the super-

not the original,

is

The Hindoos

Maya.

and we

Since therefore

'

said to be the son oi

Delusion

:

of Vishnou, which makes so conspicuous

be the son of the Great Delusion.

in effect said to

however

Hindoo

in the

cele-

the Paradisiacal Ararat.

are told, in the Sanscrit signifies Delusion

term applied to the symbolical

signifies

or the Indian Bacchus.

is

themselves inform us in a jargon,

which has clearly arisen from the doctrine of successive similar mundane

Maya we

systems, that by

godhead

to diversify

himself by creating worlds

told by a Cashmirian, that

of

all

among

the inferior gods.*

the

mother.'

Greeks.

Asiat. Res. vol.

ii.

between the manner of

p.

arising



and Sir

of the William Jones was inclination

universal nature

and

This exactly agrees with the import of the word

Maia

383

:

Maya herself is the mother of

properly denotes a grandmother or a great

It likewise signifies a

meaning of the term, '

are to understand the first

386".

this legend

nurse

:

but

this I take to

be only a secondary

from the circumstance of a nurse being

It

is

fre-

impossible not to observe the general resemblance

and that of many of the old mythological Welsh romances

produced by Mr. Dav;es. '

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Ibid. p.

223.

i.

p. 248.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

'

Maia,

ita.r^oi

i.

p. 234.

nou lirir^of

fA')ri)f .

Hesych. Lex.

CH.IP. V.

THE OUfGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

334 >;ooK IV.

quently addressed

among

the ancients by the

then will be equivalent to the great allegorical parent of

Buddha, who

thought to have floated the Jish

of

belli/

same

difficult

Hindoo

on the ocean, and who

conceive

to

from unsatisfactory.

far

symbolical

mode indeed

the

fish to

is

styled the prince in the

the whole world.

sense of Delusion, of

It

is

Maya

Maya was

or the

Hence,

lusion.

fication:

I

Maya

By

or delusion. to

this

or the great

question, whether

Noah, must ship

fish,

a sow, and a lunar crescent. :

his

Maya

title.

Maya, seem

delusive. ;

by a

Each of

these

acquired an additional signi-

It is

equally to lead us to

however of

compound

little

moment

be right or wrong in this speculation

:

the to

true pri-

the

main

Buddha be

if

mother Maha-Maya, however we are to understand the name,

character, according to the universal

in

we must

but each of them was likewise mere de-

apprehend, the word

I

not

represented by a great variety of symbols

Magna Mater

mitive meaning of the

it is

him; but that the

but both the history of Buddha, and the remarkable

Maha-Maya

the

there said, that the appearance of the

Menu-Satyavrata was

woman, a cow, a mare, a was

How

introduction into the

its

form assumed by Vishnou was purely hieroglyphical, and therefore the arkite

is

be the mundane Ark, the

evidently understand^ that no fish //^era/Zi/ appeared

Now

who

deluge seems to account for the circumstance in a

history of the

manner

:

mother, the

this gi'eat

as Menu-Satyavrata,

Magna Mater of pagan mythology throughout word Maya may have acquired in Sanscrit the very

and

:

great mother can only

this

;

mother

the

is

name of mother. Maha-Maya

Argha or

analogy of Paganism, be the

the Ark.

With such an opinion the remainder of the legend The golden vessel, in which the new-born Buddha

exactly corresponds. is

placed by Brahma, I

take to have been that sacred navicular dish or cup, which the Hindoos call

Argha, and which they esteem a copy of the ship of Iswara.

The cause

alternate joy

in his

and sorrow of the sage when he- beheld the

infant, be-

appearance he divined something both of good and bad import,

precisely accords with that part of

gotten by his descendants.

He

the god of regeneration to the

Noah's character which was never

was the god of destruction

new world

:

he was the

for-

to the old world,

terrific

devourer of

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. his children

335

man-

yet he was likewise the venerated parent and restorer of

;

kind.

Buddha

the hands of

The wheels upon

are those mystic rings or circles,

which most of the Indian Avatars are depicted as holding. They were alike and they were considered as resacred in Britain, Samothrace, and Egypt :

presenting at once the circle of the Universe and the inclosure of the Ark.

They

are types in short of the Ida-vratta on the

summit of Meru, whether

it

symbolize the mundane ring, or shadow out what the Druids were wont to

Ark

call the

The

of the TVorld.

Buddha we may reasonably

Mysteries said to have been revealed to

conclude to be those astronomico-diluvian Orgies, which were the basis of

Noah, or

gentile theology.

mystagogue

first

was deemed

:

the

principal

and each succeeding hierophant assumed

moment when Sacya

is

assists

the

its

and

At

special attention.

In

this

is

Earth

distress the

and, discharging a deluge of water from the central abyss,

;

This fable requires but

speedily puts his enemies to flight

so far as

titles^

solemnly inaugurated as Buddha-Avatar, he

attacked by the Asoors and their gigantic chief.

him

his

his representative.

But the concluding part of the legend demands our the

was accounted the

arkite deity,

import

is

concerned

but

:

way of comparison and analogy.

little

comment,

much that is interesting in The Asoors, who are put to flight by

it

contains

the deluge, are introduced into the Courma-Avatar as churning the troubled

ocean with the mountain JVIandar is

;

summit of

while, on the

How

seated in the calix of the liieroglyphical lotos.

how Mandar

diately connected with the flood, in the lotos is

Noah

in the

is

the

this

Avatar

Ararat, and

literally said to

imme-

is

how Vishnou

Ark, has already been shewn at large

gend of Buddha, these Asoors are

Vishnou

hill,

:

in

the le-

be routed by an inundation,

which the Earth pours forth against them.

The legend

finally tells us, that,

when

holy Scriptures descended from above.

the Asoors were put to the rout, five

These are those ancient volumes,

which the mythology of Paganism so generally supposed to have been preserved at the lime of the flood, and which were thought to have handed to the

new world

the collective

wisdom of

the old.

Thev

are the

down

books,

which Xisuthrus was feigned to have buried during the prevalence of the

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr.

336 BOOK

IV.

waters,

and which Vishnou

the ocean

when

is

thought to have recovered from the bottom of

They descend trom heaven,

the deluge began to abate.

Moon

cause they were preserved in the hieroglyphical the Dioscori

is

theSyiian Venus

They

dropped from the lunar

said to have

history of the great father,

Among the Hindoos and

we

and as the egg of

generally find introduced into the

by whatever name he

may

the general character of

and benevolent prince, who came fices,

circle,

reported to have fallen from heaven into the Euphrates.'

is

are the books, in short, which

4.

be-

just as the egg of

:

be celebrated.*

Buddha

is

that of a mild

to abolish the cruelty of sanguinary sacri-

animated beings.'

to preserve the lives of all

This notion probably originated from a perversion of the history of Noah.

The

patriarch did not indeed abolish sacrifice

up the

first

victim after the deluge

:

on the contrary, he offered

;

but his benevolent character seems to

correspond with that of Buddha; and, as in one sense he was the undoubted preserver of the lives of

all

the Samanfean opinion respecting

creatures, so

the illegality of shedding blood

may

much At first

perhaps have arisen from a too

extended interpretation of the doctrine of the Metempsychosis. the soul of

man was

of man, as

believed only to reappear in the person

each new world introduced a perfect repetition of the history of a former

world

:

afterwards, partly from the use of bestial symbols, and partly

but

fi-om a notion that the essence of the

the

human

was thought

soul

great father entered into

all creation,

to experience a penal transmigration through a

long succession of animal forms.

Such an opinion would naturally produce

a horror of slaughtering the brute creation

;

lest

haply the limbs of a parent

should be served up at the table of a son, or a wife perish beneath the blows

of an unconscious husband.

The

doctrine in question, and with

sion to the slaying of animals, was brought by Pythagoras

where II.

it

took deep root and had long flourished

The Buddhists

'

Athen. Deipnos.

*

Vide supra

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

b.

Ovid. Metam.

iii.

lib.

out of the east,

in full luxuriancy.*

5/.

Hyg. Fab. 197.

5. p.

the aver-

'

of Ceylon are the descendants of the continental

lib. ii. p.

iii. c.

it

iy7, 198, 201.

xv.ver.

153—477.

Maur.

Hist, of Hind. vol.

ii.

p.

481.

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. who emigrated

Buddhists,

at the revolution effected

337

by the Brahmenists."

Tliese, on the old principle of the destruction and reproduction of similar

Morlds, have imagined no less than twenty two Buddhas, of lot

five

already appeared

and a

;

The Buddha, whose

to be yet future.

He

Gautauieh-Buddha. ponscquently he

like the last

fifth,

Avatar of Vishnou,

now who was born

is

prevails in

religion

the person,

is

they

al-

Four of them have

government of the present world.

for the

whom

thought

Ceylon,

is

of IVIaha-IMaya

the fabled husband of Ila or Argha, the sovereign prince

is

and the destroyer of the Asoors by the de-

in the belly of the arkite fish,

luge which the Earth poured out

to his assistance.*

The Buddhists themselves do in effect explain this multiplication of their The renewal of the world after the deluge, vvith many circumstances god. resembling those which occurred at the commencement of the antediluvian vi'orld, led to the belief in a succession of similar mundane systems. At the beginning of each appears a Buddha or Menu Avhose office it is to replenish the new world with inhabitants, and who is accounted the universal Hence, if we omit the intermediate father both of hero-gods and of men. ;

descents of this personage which for the most jart are of uncertain application, to

we may

two; and

ultimately reduce

tliese

two are

Gautameh-Buddha those patriarchs

Noah,

ditions of

though, as

;

his legend

Gautameh

that,

is

their island

Adams peak

heaven.

The

Asiat. Res. vol.

Pag.

Idol.

p.

case with gentile

tra-

was

entirely overrun by evil spirits;

mark of

For

and this

:

and, having succeeded in

his foot

on the summit of the sacred

or Sammanelkh-Sree-Pade, and thence ascended to

to its being

vii.

the

the latter of

of Ceylon have a notion, that before the

doctrine however of three other

Ceylon previous



commonly

to that country

dislodging them, he planted the called

very

deemed

incarnate, he determined to expel them.

purpose he took three voyages

hill

the JNlenus,

has been erroneously decorated with Enoch's

The people

when he became

all

and Noah.

ought, I think, evidently to be

translation to heaven. arrival of

Adam

the Buddhas, like

all

406.

overrun by

Buddhas had prevailed

evil spirits

:

and

its

occupation by

* Atiat. Res. toI. vii. p. 32, 33.

VOL.

II.

in

2

U

338 i:ooh iv.

OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

THJi

demons was

those malignant

the cause of the religion of Gautaraeh

being

there promulgated."

When we

consider the character of this deity as established by other cir-

cumstances,

will not

it

be very

In the imagined

sent fiction.

difficult to ascertain

the import of the pre-

that occupied Ceylon previous to

evil spirits,

Gautameh and subsequent to the maniwe recognize the Asoors of the Brahmens,

the mystically triplicated voyage of festation of the former Buddhas,

the Kharfcsters of the Zend-Avesta, and the Titans of

They were

tian mythology.

Greek and Egyp-

those wicked antediluvians, that intervened be-

tween the only two Buddhas whose existence was real and they are destroyed by a hero-god

ingly,

Accord-

literal.

who performs a voyage for the own religion in

;

express purpose of eradicating them and of introducing his

and who at the close of

lieu of their impieties,

the summit of a lofty mountain ere he

What we

is

his

voyage plants

his foot

on

miraculously translated to heaven.

are to understand by the voyage by the mountain, need scarcely

be pointed

As Buddha

out.

flourished at the period of the deluge,

and was

the husband and navigator of the ship Ila or Argha, the voyage undertaken to destroy

will follow, tion, is

Whence

an impious race can only be the voyage of Noah. that the mountain,

the local

Agreeably

Meru

on whose summit he completed

it

his expedi-

or Paradisiacal Ararat of the Cingalese.

to the prevailing belief in a succession of similar worlds,

over

€ach of which presides a Buddha or Menu, the inhabitants of Ceylon suppose, that, towards the end of the present

mundane system,

long wars, unheard of crimes, and a portentous diminution of

human

all

except a small number of pious persons,

the evil

drowned, will

life

;

that a terrible rain will then

and thus be enabled will

to

avoid

be changed into beasts

;

it

there will

be

of the length

sweep from the face of the earth

who ;

will receive timely notice

that the wicked,

after

of

being

and that ultimately Maitri-Buddha

appear and establish a new order of things.*

The whole

of this

is

palpably a mere repetition of the history of the deluge applied to a yet future epoch

'

;

and

Asiat, Res. vol.

it

vii. p.

serves to confirm the opinion,

49, 50-

* Asiat.

that the multiplication.

Res, vol,

vii.

p.

415.

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATllV.

339

both of Buddhas and of worlds has altogether originated from the succession of

Noah and

the Noetic world to

Buddha-Gautameh

III.

divinity as the

Such

Samano

occur perpetually in

varieties

Thus,

in the present instance,

Suviano or Suman

or Saman,

but they

:

to be written

Somono-

orthography of the

tiie

Sotnono

is

pronounced either

and thus Gautameh

:

be the same

to

Pegu

or Pooti-Sat of Siani and

Somono-Kodotn ought properly

title

oriental nations.

and the Adumitic world.

acknowledged by the Cingalese

Somono-Kodom

contend, that the

Gautameh.''

is

Adam

is

indifferently

Gautame or Godama, Kodom or Codum, Codam or Cadam.'' Throughout the Burma empire, the temples of Buddha are of a pyramidal

expressed

form

and, like

:

all

other buildings of that shape, they are copies of the sa-

Mcru or Mienmo; The statues of the god

cred mount

in

Ararat.'

are sometimes small, but frequently of a

stupendous

other words, they are transcripts

Dr. Buchanan saw one

size.

solid block of white marble.

was

It

in

a

of

in old

Ava, consisting of a single

sitting

posture

:

and

fingers

its

he

guessed to be about the length and thickness of a large man's leg and thigh.*

There

is

another of these statues, though

Its

head

same

is

that

exactly resembles the

of the same form

attitude

concerning

it

it

and

;

:

its

no means of equal

Mr. Gentil, who published

plain of Virapatnam.

1775, says,

l)y

;

it

has the same features ;

Brahmens had abolished the people's faith.'

who was now no

his

What

worship and had

its

He made

arms are

in the

various inquiries it

re-

longer regarded, since the

made themselves

the French traveller writes

DO other than Bout, Biidh, or Buddha : and the

Baouth

masters of evidently

is

tradition respecting the di-

seems necessarily to imply, that the worship of Buddha was esta-

blished in India prior to the superstition of the

quently however the only representation of

* Asiat. Res. vol.

"

Asiat. Res. vol.

Symes's Embass. to Ava. vol. ii.p. 110, 183, 222. Asiat. Res. vol.

248. vol.

iii.

vii.

vii.

p. 213.

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p. 38.

p. 293,

and Plate p. 169,

295, 399. II. Fig. 3.

Brahmenists.

Somono-Kodom

*

'

of the Siamese.

and the answer, which he universally received, was, that

presented the god Baouth,

vinity

his travels in the year

Somono-Kodom

ears are exactly similar.

in the

size,

vii.

See Plate

is

Very

fre-

a large black

p. 413. III.

Fig. 14.

See also Symei's Embass. to Ava. toI.

ii.

p. 247,

'^'**'''

^'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

340 BOOK. IT.

stone.'

This

sometimes carved with various hieroglyphics, and

is

exhibit the impression of his feet lese,

said to

the Siamese, no less than the Cinga-

for

:

have a notion that the print of

is

his foot

was

left in their

country.*

The

practice of representing Buddha, either by colossal images or by large blackstones,

is

of considerable importance

by which we may trace as

it

worship

his

since

:

it

;

were, into Brahmenism.

In many of the temples of Somono-Kodom there of female is

two special marks,

atibrds us

a worship however, perpetually melting,

figures,

on her knees,

exhibiting a princess

in

is

danger of perishing in a

Burmas

say,

that once,

when

he was saved by a princess,

river,

A

of her long hair.'

:

Magna Mater,

circumstance not very

those of Syria, the goddess

appears seated upon a rock,

Sometimes a dove

surrounding ocean.

out of the

upon her head

On

the west of Siam.

lie far to

Cybele, or the mountain-born rises

princess

introduced into the device of several ancient coins, stamped in

countries which

which

The

with her attendants.

sculpture the

this

who threw him a rope made dissimilar

a sculptured groupe

and appears to be offering up her long hair to the deity.

Respecting the import of

Godama was

is

is

perched

and sometimes the fabulous Centaur, that well-known type

of the great father,

is

quently blazes an altar

Near

placed in the same situation. :

but a

man

her not unfre-

universally represented at her feet in

is

the midst of the water, imploring that assistance which the goddess from her insular rock seems prepared to hold out to him.*

and character of Buddha

I

have

little

legends are fundamentally the same.

Masna Mater the river

is

resting

the

man,

The supposed

on the summit of Ararat

whom

From

the general history

hesitation in concluding, that the

:

princess

is

Godama

and

two

the arkite

saved from

the Syrian medals exhibit as plunged in the

ocean and as receiving assistance from the goddess of the rock.

IV. The high region

to

the

north of India, which comprehends Cash-

mire, Boutan, Thibet, and Bokhara, settlements of the Buddhic Chusas Hind.

vol.

'

Maur.

*

Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p.

295.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

295, 296.

Hist, of

vi. p.

ii.

p.

:

was one of the and

it still

481. Ind. Ant. vol.

Symes's Embass. vol.

iii.

ii.

first

retains

and most eminent

a spiritual preemi-

p. 33.

p. 183, 197, *98.

* Sec several representations of these coins in Bryant's Anal. vol.

ii.

p. 386.

THE ORX6IN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

341

nence, not very dissimilar to that once exercised by the Arabian caliphs or

Roman

the

pontiffs.

A
The name, by which

of a living and visible incarnation of Buddha.

human

is

known,

usually

once the

at

is

deity

is

and the

spiritual

Lama

Teeshoo

or the priest Teeshoo

superior

civil

of

this

and he

:

the country.

Yet,

throughout the wide extent of Tartary, there seem to be other pretended

may

incarnations of Buddlia, as well as this whicli

and resolved to set forth

on

visit

In pursuance of

the living Fos.

his travels

;

and well known

tioned in Bell's travels,

mine of Taranath

maps between noticed

by Le Compte

and Orgun.

unless indeed

;

Thibet within the limits of Tartary

which

:

he

is

Lama-

the

Fo, men-

living

in the northern parts of

place of whose residence

the

;

the rivers Selinghei

his tribe,

this determination,

Combo, adored

and, in the country of

Afterwards he proceeded to worship another

Combo.

Fo,

the para-

Mr. "Wilford mentions a Brahmen, who had renounced

mount.

the

be esteemed

India by

marked

in

the

may be the Tatar we suppose him to include This

last

not improbable, since he

is

professes to speak of the

most famous seat of the god Fo particularly ve-

nerated by the Chinese

a description exactly answering to the living

;

Teeshoo-Laiiia of Thibet, ecclesiastical superior

whom

and as

This

unquestionably the

is

mother of Fo, as

Maya

is

the mother of

Buddha

Moye

both from the circumstance of

evident,

or

his great spiritual father.'

V. The Fo of the Chinese is

Fo

the monarch of China acknowledges as his

of the Hindoos.

being said to be the

Buddha and from ;

the religious re-

verence paid by the emperor to the Teeshoo- Lama as an incarnation of the

god Fo

:

because, since

and since the is

Lama

is

Buddha

also the living representative

l)lainly

'

be

tlie

is

adored as the

the gi'and

Boutan and Thibet,

of the Chinese Fo,

Buddha

;

as he

Buddha and Fo must

same person.*

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

207—220.

ii.

p.

375.

vol. vi. p.

When

483, 484.

Le Compte's China,

the Chinese deputies to

Buddha-Gaudma, they immediately recognized him him accordingly.

deity of

living representative of

Symcs's Embassy to Ava. vol.

ii..

as their

p. 318.

own

Ava beheld

p.

the

332.

Burman god

national Fo, and worsbippcu

chap.

v.

;

THE onioiN OF pagan idolatry.

34Q 1.

It

is

not very

by which the name of

trace the steps,

difficult to

Biidclha has been transformed into Fo.

In Boutiin and Thibet the word

Pout, and Poti;

in

But ; and

Cochin-China,

iii

tions are according to those rules of etymology,

B

tliroughout the whole world. severally letters of the

Italianized

mode of is

Mot

French

A

or I

enunciation

is

is

sound

indifferently

O and

and

Po

into

Fo by a

natural and obvious

:

the second

:

its final

just

which

in

the

was expressed by Pot,

consonant was sounded like Po,

nation which could not pronounce the for

F

is

merely

P

aspirated

From a

Immeasureable,

Sanscrit denotes

and Maya, the Hindoo name of the god's mother, 2.

The

religion of

Fo

or

Buddha

China, subsequently to the Christian

Thibet

;

whether believe,

most probably, I it

think,

was then introduced

that the particular

and the

;

similar in-

is

into

0-mi-to

into

said to have been introduced into

era,

from India or Ceylon or

either

from the

Yet

latter.*

for the first time.

I

am

I greatly donbt,

rather inclined to

modification of ancient Buddhism, which

logical system

canied at that period into China and Buddhism thus modified was one, who had assumed ;

claimed to be an incarnation, of the god

;

that the

facilitate the introduction

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 220. vol. vi. p. 260. Asiat. Res. vol.

* Asiat. Res. vol.

ii. i.

p.

theo-

apostle or

the name,

the Christian era were the Chinese well acquainted with

'

tlie

is

and who

an imposture perfectly in character

Long

both with the theory and the practice of gentile mythology.

"

title

Mo-ye?

viewed with such abhorrence by the intolerant Brahmenists, was

acquaintance would obviously

the

as

capacity of pronunciation, the Chinese have converted the Buddhic

Amita,

are

In the vernacular

rejected.

same, whetiier we write Fo or Pho.

will be the

U,

added or omitted, as an

When Buddha

pronounced MoJ^

the change from

P was

OU

less

therefore mutually interchangeable;

quiescent, is

varia-

which prevail more or

and T,

adopted or

and when Pot by the quiescence of

letter

Such

Siam, Pout.'

word experiences a yet further change and Pout or Pot is pronounced Po ;

dialect of Siam, the

consonant

D

and P,

same organ, and

while the final short vowel

Put, Bot, Pot,

pronounced But,

is

Fo

:

and

of a system

* Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

before

this ;

very

which,

17O.

374.

p. 170.

vol. vi. p. 262. vol. ix. p. 41.

Le Coropte's China, p. 319.

THE OHIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY.

J

343

SO far from being altogether novel, was but a viodification,

haps called a reformation, of the

speciously per-

from their ancestors.

faith inherited

Fo, as Sir William Jones well remarks, and as I have already shewn to be the case,

is

unquestionably the

Buddha

of Hindostan

genitor and reputed first emperor of the

Fo-Hi

;

Victim,

is

Now

named by them

also

Fo, sirnamed

the history of this primeval

such as plainly to shew, that he

Buddha, and consequently that he identity

is

of which compound word the second monosyllable denotes, we are

a Victim.^

told,

Chinese

but the great pro-

:

of Fo and Buddha can

the

is

it,

as

as the god Fo; since the

Hence, unless we un-

scarcely be disputed.

new-modelled

warrantably suppose, that the Chinese placed Fo-Hi at the head of

same

or the

same character

the vei^

is

Hi

their

history,

when, subsequently to the Christian

era,

and they

Buddha hence, I say, it necessarily appears to follow, that under the name of Fo or Fo-Hi they had venerated Buddha from the very commencement of their national existence and that it was first

received the religion of

:

;

simply a modification of their ancient religion, which they admitted at a later period either fiom India or Ceylon or Thibet.

But

3.

let

us proceed to examine the legend of Fo-Hi.

This ancient personage

and

been the

said to have

is

his character sufficiently demonstrates, that

we

are told that his mother

was sirnamed Flozcer- loving.

As

t

he must be referred to the

age of mythology, not to that of genuine history. birth,

emperor of China

first

With respect

to his'

was the daughter of Heaven, and that she the

nymph was walking

alone on the bank

of a river with a similar name, she suddenly found herself encircled by a

rainbow. years,

had

Soon

after this she

became pregnant

was delivered of a son radiant

that of Sui, or

on the mountains of Chin immediately

''

who, among other

That son was Fo-Hi.

add, that he was born in the province of Xeusi

bred seven ditferent kinds

and, at the end of twelve

as herself;

Star of the year.

which was produced by the deluge.

:

after

;

and that he was manifested

that grand division

They moreover

relate,

of animals, which he used

Asiat. Res. vol,

ii.

p.

375^

titles,

The Chinese

to

of time,

that he carefully sacrifice to the

*="*•'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

344 HOOK

IV.

gi-cat spiiit

of heaven and earth

:

and they

Shin-Nungh had

that of a serpent, wliile his son

All these particulars serve to identify

by the Chinese, as by fabled grandfather, self,

ther

viewed only the

is

Ark

all

liave a notion, that his

the licad of an ox.'

or Arhan,

the

is

and she

:

;

is

His

of their kings.

first

same person

in a diftercnt relation to his allegorical

time of her conception

He is esteemed

Fo-Hi with Noah.

other ancient nations, the

Heaven or Uranus

body vas

as

him-

That mo-

mother.

feigned to have been walking near a river, at the

we have repeatedly

because, as

seen,

the holy river

of each pagan aation was a symbol of the deluge considered as retiring from

Moon

the mountain of the

which both she and the river were named,

The rainbow

requires no comment.

:

they are therefore

inclosed within the Ark.

the

The

brings to our recollection a very

The

twelve years of his mother's

their star

:

not of the Sun,

but of the

during which

Noah was

of Star of the year, borne by Fo-Hi,

common accompaniment

of the arkite god

Chiun or Saturn, Astarte, Taschter, and the Dioscori,

and goddess.

and

I

from

take to have been the lotos.

twelve months,

title

flower,

I

gestation are twelve revolutions, I apprehend,

Moon

The

or the paradisiacal Ararat.

cannot refrain from thinking

il

probable,

all

had

that the idea

The

originated from the appearance of a comet at the time of the deluge.

seven classes of animals, out of which Fo-Hi was wont to offer sacrifice to

God, seem

plainly to be the clean beasts

and birds which

to take with

him

His

mixed

into the

Ark by

sevens.

partly to his being the

relation,

such story as that w hich the Hindoos built perhaps

on some

title

ordered

of Victim has apparently a

first sacrificer, tell

Noah was

and partly

of their victim

Brahma

to ;

some

a story

primeval tradition of the future sacrificial self-devotion

of the seed of the woman.'

And

the fabled forms of himself and his

my-

thological son exhibit to us the symbols, under which the great father

was

represented in every quarter of the globe.

The Chinese

further relate of Fo-Hi, that, the

to inundate the whole country, he restrained '

Asiat. Res. vol.

p. 313. *

ii.

p.

375, 376.

Martin. Hist. Sin.

Couplet. Praef. ad tab. chron. p. 3.

Vide supra

b.

ii.

c. 8. S III. 2.

its

Yellow

river being

wont

destructive overflowings with lib.

i.

p. 21.

Le Compte's China,

:

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOtATRY.

A

proper embankments.

similar story

is

told of the

345

Ganges: and

the

two

are not very unlike that of the Egyptian Prometheus and the overflowing of I have

the Nile.'

little

doubt but that

tlie

same event

is

alluded to in

ail

of them.

Yet

4.

it

may

be

that,

said,

although these matters prove Fo-Hi to be

Noah, they no further prove him to be the same as Buddha or Fo, than as all the other chief gods arc the same person as that deity. That is to say, they are

fundamentally the same as Buddha, only because they arc

all

all

equally the great father.

As

I"can judge, Fo-IIi

as

far

no

is

less intimately

and immediately the

same as Fo or Buddha, than Gautameh or Sacya or Somono-Kodom whence

I

infer,

Buddhism must have been the primitive

that

:

idolatry of

China, and that the religion introduced subsequent to the Christian era was

same

the

what already existed

as

some novel

there,

except only that

it

had undergone

Let us see then, what arguments can be adduced

modification.

to prove the direct identity of

Fo-Hi and Fo, and

therefore by necessary

consequence the direct identity of Fo-Hi and Buddha.

What lations

will first strike

Fo and Fo-Hi

an inquirer

:

for

tiie

is

the palpable identity of the

only difference between them

is

two appelthis;

the

name of the god in an uiicompoundcd state, while the latter is the very same name associated with a word which signifies Victim. Since therefore Fo and Fo-Hi are equally Noah, so far as personality is concerned; the presun)ption is, that in each case the title Fo is the title Buddha expressed agreeably to the Chinese mode of pronunciation. Hence it will follow, that the first emperor of China is no other than Buddha both in name and in character. But this is not the only argument. The Chinese story of former

is

the

the birth of

Fo-Hi bears so

close a resemblance to one of the

of the birth of Buddha, that they must have originated source.

was

The nymph

the favourite

One

of her

titles

Abiat. Res. vol.

Pag. Idol.

stories

who presides over the fourth lunar mansion, mistress of Soma or the masculine "eniu s of the Moon. is Cumudanayaca or She who delights in the xoater-Jlouer Rohini,

and the particular water-flower, from which she takes her '

Hindoo

from a cominon

vi. p.

478.

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

VOL.

title,

is

a species

p. \6.

II.

2

X

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

346 HOOK

IV.

Their offspring was Buddha, the sidereal

of \qios that blossoms in the night.

Thus

regent of the planet Mercury.'

nymph

tion of 77/6

^owxt-Zowwo-

be deemed

sufficient to establish the point

5.

me

If then

Fo-Hi be

in

y

Buddha

appears, that Fo-IIi and

it

are alike descrihed as the offspring of a

celebrated under the appella-

an arbitrary coincidence, which

might

in itself

of their proper identity.

every respect the very same as Buddha,

seems to

it

almost inevitably to follow, that Buddhism in some form must have been

the religion of China from the very

This

will

account satisfectorily

first.

for the

ready acquiescence

Buddhism

usually been esteemed the earliest introduction of

in

what has

into that vast

empire, an introduction placed after the Christian era: the Chinese did not receive a fiew religion,

but were only led to embrace certain modifications or

Of

corruptions of that theology which was already familiar to them. particulars indeed of that theology

consider the evident identity of

more easy

to suppose,

we

can glean but

Fo-Hi and Buddha,

little

:

yet,

when we

cannot but think

I

which prided

to believe that a large proportion of a great empire,

remote

its

it

far

that the Chinese, in adopting the superstition of Fo,

adopted only what they deemed an improvement of their old system

antiquity,

the

was

led,

in

consequence (as

alledged) of

it is

mercial intercourse with Hindostan and Ceylon, to reject

its

than

;

itself its

on

com-

primeval

reli-

gion in favour of the religion of foreigners.^

"

Asiat. Uc>. vol.

*

The

ii.

cxc<'llent Sir

thesis of lUulilhism

p.

vol.

hnngfust introduced

The importation, says must lead

375, 376.

m, to suppose,

he,

virtue,

p. l6'2.

into

China

iii.

25S.

p.

be not a

little

embarrassed by the hypo-

after the Christian era.

that the former system, whatever

it

in the Jirst

eentury of our era,

was, had been found inadequate to

of the people from those offences against conscience

which the civil power could not reach

'restrictions anii

vol. to

of a new religion into China,

the purpose of restraining the great bo(k/

and

i.

William Jones seems plainly

:

and

it is

hardly

possitilc,

government could long have subsisted with ftlicity

;

that without such

for no government can

long subsist without equal justice, and justice cannot be administered without the sanctions of religion.

The

inference therefore to be d.rawn from these premises

the Chinese including the governing pov^ers, in the

first

in

that a considerable proportion of

century of our era, finding the political

insufficiency of the religion of their fathers, deliberately

and that,

is,

and philosophically renounced

hopes of mending the matter, they made the atheistical superstition of

tlie

it;

later

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

On

the Mhole therefore

am

I

inclined

conjecture, that the Cliinesc

to

brought their ancient theology directly from Babel

some one of

tively late period,

Brahmens

;

to overset the

that this produced a struggle

modern Buddhists

persecution drove the

an opinion, the

latter part of

which

is

who new-modelled

name of Dliarma, which

the

a

Brahmens themselves; faith,

Buddha

of

and that the

;

Such

into various distant regions.

Samanean

title

whole system of the

and a persecution

and

:

for the

im-

said to have taken the

is it

undoubtedly reconciles

which cannot otherwise be very easily accounted

a contradiction,

Brahmens

is

assumed the name

adopted by Sir William Jones, seems

to be confirmed by the assertions of the postor,

but that, at a compara-

:

the Samani^an hierophants

and character of Buddha, and laboured

347

The

for.

universally speak of the Buddhists with all the malignity of an in-

tolerant spirit: yet the

most orthodox among them consider Buddha himself

and esteem him the Trimurti-Om or Brahma-

as an Avatar of Vishnou,

Vishnou-Siva united.' In Cashgar, as

6.

Nath

we have

seen,

Buddha

is

sometimes called ]\Tachodar-

Whether

or the sovereign prince in the belly of the Jish.

name does not appear recently-mentioned Brahmen who had abjured his

have borrowed

of the god

precise

this

in that character.

and worshipped along with

It

is

caste,

the Chinese

according to the they have a statue

placed in a temple near the wall of Pekin,

Maha Cala

Iswara, Satyavrata, and Cronus.

but,

;

or Great

Time

;

who

is

In one part of the temple

Charan-Pad or the impression of the

foot of

same as

the is

shewn the

Datta or Datt-Atreya

;

just as

pretend to exhibit it on the summit of Adam's peak, and the Burmas on a large stone covered with hieroglyphics.* Hence it is evitlcnt, that Datta is one of the names of Buddha or Somono-Kodom because the the Cingalese

;

legend of the impressed foot belongs to the history of Buddha.

Mr. Wilford

as

justly observes

and as

I shall

But Datta,

have occasion hereafter to

Buddhists the paramount religion of the court and the nation.

I

can with

difficulty belicvt-,

either the occurrence of so unparallclied a circumstance, or the superior efficacy of an atheistical

by

system over any other (however bad

its

it

action on the consciences of men.

"

Asiat. Res. vol.

*

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

ii.

284, 285. vol.

p. 48'2,

483.

might be)

to

subserve

Asiat. Res. vol. ii.

ii.

p. 1'23, 12t. vol.

p. Jii.

llie

purposes of government

376. p.

iy6. vol.

vi.

p.

262.

'^"'*'''

34S HOOK

IV,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

poiAtout more

at large,

clearly the Tat,

is

Taut, or Thoth, of Egypt and

Phcnicia,

VI. The

Buddha has equally spread

religion of

itself into

Cochin-Ciiina,

Tonquin, Japan, and the most remote parts of Tartary." Japan, like China, is said to have received the religion of Buddha or Budsdo subsequent to the Christian era but I cannot refrain from susi)ccti
same

no properly novel theology was imported, but only a modijlcation of that ancient superstition to which they had long been prethe very

;

that

Ka;mpfer says with much propriety, that, both from the affinity of the names and from the similarity of the religion, he has no doubt, that the Budsdo or Fo-Tokfe of Japan is the same as the Buddha of Hindosviously addicted.

Sometimes the Japanese

tan.*

than Saca, Sacya, or Xaca, as expressed

Deva-Bod, or the one of

ascribe to

common

of

title

Buddha

no other

is is

variously

Buddha

divine

sometimes they

:

call hi in

Abbuto or Fa-

and sometimes again they denominate him Aniita, which

:

his

this

which appellation

S'uilca ;

sometimes they designate him by the appellation of Daibod, or

:

ther Buto

him

call

Hindoo

titles,

is

Chinese pronounced 0-]Mi-To.

by the

him a holy book, which they suppose

to

They

have been brought over

they represent him, like the

to Japan on the back of a white horse:

also

Buddha

of Ava, by a gigantic figure sitting cross-legged in the calix of the tarate or lotos

:

they suppose

him

to be the

god of the ocean

^vont to tie small coins to a piece of

wood and

an offering to him, in order that they

voyaoe

:

and they esteem

hinj,

may

;

to throw

whence mariners are them

obtain j)ropitious

into tlie sea as

w inds and a

safe

according to the universal persuasion of the

human souls, deeming him who happily transmigrate from

ancient hierophants, the patron and protector of

more this

particularly the

god and father of those

world into the Elysian abodes of the blessed.'

In Cochin-China, Buddha

same manner

as

he

is

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

'

Ibid. p. 247, 243.

vi.

p.

in

This arrangement

is

263.

book

v.

multiplied into three divinities,

comprehend

said to

Brahma-Vishnou-Siva.

is

*

p. 468, 552, 553.

much

in the

own person the trij)le god by no means uncommon and his

Kaeropfer's Japan,

:

book

iii.

c.6. p. 241.

TH£ OHIGJN O* PAGAN ICOLATKy. the triad of Buddha,

evident from

tlic

349

like all the otlier triads of the Gentiles,

whole tenor of his history,

the three

to

relates,

as

is

Noah

sons of

viewed as a reappearance of the three sons of Adam.'

The

A^II.

Buddlia has produced three different sects of

triplication of

Buddhists;

\vho severally worship their favourite divinity under the

Buddha

Gautama, Jain

or

kindred religionists,

the votaries

(I appreliend) the i)roper Buddhists,

gions to the north and east of

on the borders of Hindostan

it

:

names of

Mahiman. Of these of Buddha, by whom we are to understand

or J'ma, and

:

Arhan

or

are found in Thibet and other vast

I'c-

the followers of Jain are chiefly dispersed

and the adherents of Arhan, who are said to

have been once the most powerful of the

three,

now

Siam and other kingdoms of the eastern peninsula.

principally reside in

There

*

is sufficient

proof however, that Jain and Arhan are ultimately the same as Buddha,

Brahma and Vishnou

just as

same

are ultimately the

as Siva

and the three

:

viewed conjointly form that triad of great gods, which was thought to be produced by the mysterious self-triplication of the universal father.'

VIII.

An

Many

are the

titles,

enumeration of them

may

by which Buddha

is

known

to

his votaries.

prove useful in further discussing the present

subject. 1.

His special name Buddha

Boudh, Bod, Bot,

is

pronounced and expressed

variously

Budd,

Bad,

But,

Buddou, Boutta, Bota, Budsdo,

D

The Siamese make the final T or quiescent, and sound the word Po : whence, as we have seen, the Chinese still further vary it to Pho or Fo. In the Tamulic dialect, the name is proPot, Pout, Pota, Pot I, and Pouti.

nounced Podcn or Pooden ple of

Sumnaut

sound of the

nounced

Ah

or Suinan-Nath,

U or Ou or

whence

:

Au

:

or

and,

Oo

is

the city, which once contained the temcalled

'

Asiat. Res. vol. vi, p. 263.

On

193, 195, 196, 201. vol.

320, 360.

vol. ix. p.

vi.

p.

manner, when the

i.

p.

248, 285. vol.

295, 463, 483,

143. 145, 173,

Hind. Pamh. p. 223, 237, 253, 256.

P

is

pro-

sounded B,

All these are in fact no niore than a ' Asiat. Res. vol.

this point, see Asiat. Res. vol.

Tiie broad

passes in the variation Patten into J,

in a similar

we meet w ith Bad, Bat, and Bhal.

'

Patttn-Sumnaut.

ii.

525—530.

210—217, 222, 256,

p.

iii.

p. 195,

122, 369

vol. vii. p.

201.

—376.

vol.

414. vol.

iii.

viii.

259, 264, 272, 280, 281.

p. 51,

p. 305,

Moors

cw'»p-'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

350 BOOK

IV.

linslntT

of chanofcs on the connate letters

names

his

X(it/i,

is

Suman, which

is

Sumanbans ov Sannaneans''

Cardama.

this

—A

T

D — Another of '

and

Samana, Suman-

was borrowed the sectarian appellation of

third

Godama,

Gautameh,

expressed

and P,

varied into Somon, Somono,

From

and Sarmatut.

B

Gautama; which

is

Godam, Codain, Cadam,

This perpetually occurs in composition with the

indifferently

is

Cardam and

last,

as SoiJiono-



A fourth is Saca, Sacya, Siaka, Sliaka, Codom or Samana-Gautama Xaca, Xaca-AIuni or Saca-Menii, and Kia which is the uncompounded form of Sa-Kia* A fifth is Dherma, or Dhanna, or Dheniia- Rajah A sixth is Hermias, Her-Moye, or Heri-Maya^ A seventh is Dalta, Batt-Atreya, That-Daliia, Date, Tat or Tot, Deva-Tat or Dcva'



'



—An Eswar^ — A Txvashta

'

eighth

Om be

Min

is

3fan

same Gomat' Esivara " title

or

or is

Mahi-Man, Mai-Man, —A —An eleventh Alin-Eswara, formed by

Jrhan^ added) Mai-Man-Om^° ninth

Chin-Deo, or Jain-

Jain, Jina, Chin, Jain-Deo,

is

or

—A

tenth

or (if

is

is

Menu

joined to Eszvara"

thirteenth,

when he

is

—A twelfth

is

Eswara or

considered as

the

Gomat Siva,

Har-Esa ; that is to say, tht great Esa or the lord Esa A fifteenth is Tara-Naih'^ fourteenth is Dagon or Dagun or Dak-Po'* is Arca-Bandhu Kinsman And a sixteenth or of the Sun.'^ £. Among the ancients, it was a common practice for the ministers of a

Ma-Esa

''

or



A



Asiat. Res. vol.

'

p. 32,

vii.

vi.

p.260, 262.

220.

vol.

i.

p. l62, l63,

l66, l6r, 170. vol.

398.

' Asiat. Res. vol. vii. p. »

vol, ix. p.

38,413.

Asiat. Res. vol. vii. p. 38, 413, 414. vol.

Asiat. Res. vol.

ii.

p. 123. vol. vi. p.

p. 199-

iii.

262, 263.

vol. vi. p.

259.

Kaempfcr's Japan, p. 247.

Hamilton

s

account of East-Ind. vol.ii. p. 57. 5

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. S3,

'

Comp.

Asiiit.

Res.

vol. vii. p. 39- vol. vi. p.

vol. ix. p.

» Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p.

264.

212, 215.

483, 263.

vol. v. p.

26l. vol. x. p. Sg.

»

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 143, 303, 272, 280, 259- vol. vi. p. 526.

9

Comp.

Asiat. Res. vol.

vii. p.

414. vol.

vi. p.

295, 483. vol.

p. 305. vol.

viii.

iii.

p.

195,

196.

° '^

Asiat. Res. vol.

iii.

p.

"

Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 253, 256. Hamilton's account of Ea»t-Ind.

IS

" Moor's Hind.

195, 201.

Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 124.

vol.

ii.

Panth. p. 256.

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p. 57- Symes's Embass.

"

Asiat. Res. vol.

p. 284,

to

ii,

Ava.

p. 124.

285. vol.

ii.

p.

110.

THE ORIGTK OF PAGAX IDOLATRY. god

to call themselves

by the name of the deity

mode

accordingly was the

whom

n^ans confessedly derived natural to conclude, that

tlieir title tlie

are told, that

Samana

or

antiquity.

so

;

Brahmens or Brachmans borrowed

Somona

is

their appel-

writers

:

and

the name, by which the god,

still

the priests of the god, and thence the whole

most

it is

Brahma-Vishnou-Siva.

their Trimurti

more than one of the Greek

Tliese two sects are mentioned by

we

Brahme and As the Sama-

from Samana or Buddha

from Brahme, the parent of

lation

Such

they venerated.

of distinction, which the votaries of

Buddha adopted, probably from very remote

of

351

body of the Buddhists, are

alike

distinguished.'

Porpliyry does not seem to have been aware of any such rivalship and

which subsists between the present Brahmenists and

animosity,

as that

Buddhists

for he speaks of the Brachmans and Samanfeans as being only

two

;

sects of those Indian divines,

common observed, it may

whom

the Greeks were wont jointly to

Hence, as I have

designate by the

appellation of Gymnosophists.

already

be doubted, whether the impostor, who introduced

into the ancient Buddhic theology those alterations which

ious to the Brahmenists, flourished earlier than the

Porphyry appears

Christian era. the

Saman^ans with those wliile j-et his

assis ;

Much two

He

sects.

truly observes,

is

to the account,

who

whom

eremetical

to

are

so obnox-

have confounded

now

called

Sany-

curiously accurate/

which Strabo gives of these

that the system of the

and coherent than that of the Samantans

orderly latter,

enthusiastic devotees,

it

century after the

first

some measure,

account of the Brahmens

same remaik applies

the

also, in

made

:

Brachmans was more and he describes the

with a slight variation he denominates Germanes, as leading an

woods and

the

life in

as voluntarily submitting to the

most painful

austerities.'

Clemens Alexandrinus, though he Samaneans or

modern

(as he calls

Sanyassis,

distinguishes

Asial. Res. vol.

'

Strab. Geog. lib,

vi.

p.

274, C.iO.

.\v. p.

certain branch of the

them from the Brahmens with a much

greater degree of precision than Porphyry



makes a

also

them) Sarmaneans to be plainly the same as the

712, 713, 714.

'

*

:

for,

after

he has said,

Torphyr. de abslin.

lib. iv.

§

like that

\J.

*^''^'''

^•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

3o2 COOK

IV.

author,

Brahmens and Saiinantians

that the

he adds, that the

are two sects of Gyinnosopliists,

whom

obey the precepts of Butta,

latter

holiness they venerate as a god.'

on account of

his

any more

Neitlier Strabo nor Clemens,

than Porphyry, give the least intimation that the two sects were then hostile to each other.

IX. The

liigh

country of Cashgar, Boutan, Thibet, and Bokhara, which

has been shewn to be the proper geographical INIeru both of the Brahmenists

and the Buddhists, was one of the chief settlements of the Chusas or Scuths, and therefore one of the principal and Buddha,

stition of

Yet

earliest seats

which that great family was ever peculiarly devoted.

to

The

of the Saman^an theology.

was not absolutely the cradle

it

of the unmixed super-

Ximrod and the Cushim comprehended tlie central region; which, when viewed at its greatest extent, was

primeval empire of of that

fertile

denominated Ircin or Cusha-ihvip within

of Scuthic extraction.

still

and the mountaineers of Persia,

:

which the name of Iran seems more peculiarly

to

part

were evidently

to belong,

Hence, as both Brahmenism and Buddhism branched

out from Babylonia to every quarter of the globe, and as the long-lived

Cuthic empire was the earliest empire of Iran, we large intermixture of

Such,

*

am persuaded

I

guous, so far as the idiom Airrov Se

ro-jtuiv

rujv '^a.^jj.avuiv

oi

Strom,

wtvs^

Some have supposed, insinuates, that,

Btcn is

oV

vyy EyjtjarvjTai

Vide

it

is

a

Boxyy.a.vo'.i,

Oixouiriy,

xa\ovjj.svor

book

vi. c. 2.

the

somewhat ambi-

wri

£ij

Eicri

Sa tujv

Oeoj'

Kai

^aXouij.evoi.

c-riya.; sy^ova-tv,

'"

"'*>'<'"<'"'

IvSwv

TErt/xijxao-*.

isv-

yoi.iJ.CiY,

Bourra

roij

oi

Clem.

Brachmans and

to

to

the

who

Alex.

Sarman^ans, Clemens

venerate

Buddha; thus

Sarman^ans did not worship Buddha.

name of Buddha and

seems also necessary

tmv Iviwv ought

infra

ie

o'l

it'j'Aai;

h' Jiref/SoArjv (r£p.yorijrof

Brachmans and

some of the Indians. *

a.uTwv,

axjoJfua vnwvrai, xat vSmo rai; X^?"^'

Porphyry and Clemens are the same clause

'S.a.^fj.ot.va.i

that, after speaking of the

that Samaiia

or Samandans,

o!

is

subjoin the passage.

besides these, there are certain of the Indians

in eflfect saying, that the

we consider

J^a'

a

305.

p.

i.

u.iv

I

n^otra.yo^euoy.iyoi ours

ipXoms,

Tta.oa.yyihij.cx.inv,

lib.

oi

to find

in the old Persic theology.^

concerned.

ro ysvo;-

eu rca.ihvaiia.v, laacrtv,

may expect

the meaning of Clemens, though his language

is is

AWo^tot

S^vjv is ai>.
irsiSoy-Bvoi

Buddhism

that his votaries are

still

But, when

called

Samana

conclude, that the Samaiieans or Sannaneans of

as the

modern Samana; and consequently,

that the

be rendered these are they of the Indians, not there are also

THE OUIOtW OF PAGAN IDOLATKY. From

earliesttim.es,

tlie

the hiffh lands of Persia

from

Bactria or Bokhara was closely connected with

for the inhabitants of

:

same enterprizing race

tlie

of Iran,

same race

each

district

were descended

and Zoroaster himself, the great prophet have resided in the lofty region of

to

But Zo-

was likewise the favourite haunt of the Magi.

Bactria, which roaster and

;

most commonly said

is

353

Buddha

as the

Noah

are equally

and the Magi seem

:

Buddhic Maghas or Moghas of Magadha

clearly to be the

who

;

derive their

name from Maga the grandson of Twashta, and among whom Buddha, whom we must identify both with Maga and Twashta, is feigned to have been Accordingly, both Cyril and Clemens Alexandrinus agree in telling

born.'

But the Samaneans were the

Persia.* is

both in Bactria and in

that the Samanfeans were the sacerdotal order

us,

known, that the sacerdotal

well

Magi

therefore the

:

Magi and

and consequently Buddha or

the

Maga

priests of

Saman

class of Bactria

or

Buddha

;

and

and Persia were

it

tlie

Samaneans must have been the same or

Saman must have been

venerated in

those regions.

With

the mythologic history of the Zend-Avesta, which

this conclusion,

I have before

The name

had occasion

to discuss,

will

of the most ancient bull, that

Key-Umursh,

is

said

to

Abbuto of the Japanese, father Buddh-Datta.

have been is

plainly-

This Aboudad

be found

in perfect accordance.

was united with the

But Aboudad,

Aboudad.

nothing more than is

the

first

like

man the

Ab-Boud-Dat

Buddha or Adam, who

or is

Buddha-Gautama or Noah for he is named Taschter, who flourishes with three

described as being prior in time to

succeeded by a second man-bull,

first

:

subordinate coadjutors at the period of the deluge.

Nor

is

According

this the

to the

only proof of

the

Buddhism of

Iran and of the whole world was Mahaba(^

people into four orders, the religious, servile

guage

'

that he received

;

;

the ancient Persians.

Dabistan of Mohsan, they held, that the

and that there

;

that

Mahabad

monarch of divided the

the military, the commercial,

from the creator a sacred book either

first

and the

in a heavenly lan-

had been or would be fourteen Mahabads

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 32, 74, 80.

* Cyril.

Oper. vol,

Pag.

Idol.

ii.

p. 133.

Clem. Alex. Strom.

VOL.

II.

lib.

i.

p. 305.

2

Y

cha.p. v,

THE OIUGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

354 i-.ooK IV.

apparent at different intervals.

Mahabad is

He

Menu.

as

whom

is,

Buddh

the great

I believe, ;

indisputably the

is

same

opinion: iov Malta- Bad

perfectly right in his

and the fourteen Mahabads are the fourteen Menus, of

Menu-Swayambhuva

the principal are

rata or

William Jones remarks, that the name

and that the person so called

Sanscrit,

is

Sir

or

Adam

and Menu-Satyav-

Noah.'

Agreeably to the usual practice of calling the priests

Maga were Magas ; so the

after the

names of

gods, as the ministers of Saman or

in

denominated Sa^natieans or

head of the hierarchy,

their

Persia and Bactria generally as the

immediate representative of the great father who was ever esteemed the primeval

Maga

or Druid, assumed the loftier

of

the Ifidian Caucasus, a large colony of those,

or Sacasenas and Chusas their descendants

India, the

which

;

have been known

.

As

to subvert the

Woden

Asae or Asiatics

it

:

identical divinity,

for

*

ii.

from the Indian Caucasus,

their descendants positively declare the

p.

58

their in

book

vi. c.

4

Woden was

the

ancestors had venerated while yet occupying the

But

that divinity

was certainly

the god of the Chusas of

mount Meru.

east.

— 60.

See Vallance/s Vindic. apud Collect, de reb. Hibern. vol.

* Sefebelow

wor-

have been brought into Europe by a colony of

Buddha has ever been

» Asiat. Res. vol.

empire and to found

seems impossible not to conclude, that

whom

original settlements :

to

Roman

its ruins.'

the Goths and Saxons then emigrated

ship of their god

Buddha

more modern times by the

in

Greeks celebrated under the appellation of Sacce and Scuths, and

and as the Scaldic traditions of

their

the Hindoos call Sacas

These are the progeny of those warlike

a republic of independent states upon 1

classical writers

which, in the course of their westward progress from upper

due time were destined

in

whom

by the

Cushas, gradually penetrated into Europe,

or

names of Saxons and Goths. oriental tribes

Mu-Bad,

or

same elevated region of Cashgar and Bokhara and northern

the

Persia, which coincides with the tract denominated

where

Eas-Bad

the chief or the great Buddha.*

v/\i\ch ditnoie?,

X. From

title

.§ II.

iv.

numb.

14. p.

429, 457.

ORIGIN-

Tlir.

We are compelled same

are the

Saxon

To

therefore to believe even a priori, that

3.5.5

Buddha and Woden

*"*''•

and consequently that the theology of the Gothic and

deity,

was a modification of Buddhism.

tribes

conclusion

this

OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

it

ferocious and military

may

naturally be objected, that the character of the

Woden

bears no great resemblance to that of the mild

and philosophic Buddha whose

shedding even of animal

religion prohibits the

blood.

Such an

objection,

In the

swer.

however

admits of a sufficiently easy an-

know not why we

I

place,

first

plausible,

are bound to suppose that the

very ancient theology of the Buddhists was akvays distinguished by characteristics

:

on the contrary,

were imposed upon place, even if

it

that the

present

And,

in the

second

Buddhic theology was always a theology Cuthic extraction

yet, that the military tribes of

;

its

seems probable, that those characteristics

at a comparatively late period.'

we admit

abhorrent of blood

it

in the

course of a long period of erratic warfare should have transformed the mild

Indian deity into the god of

battles,

is

nothing more than might have been

obviously anticipated from their peculiar circumstances.

adapts

divinities

its

to

its

own

favourite pursuits

which led the Christian Goths of Europe

Dennis and

St.

George

:

Superstition ever

and the same humour,

to venerate St.

as accomplished cavaliers,

James and

would induce

St.

their ad-

venturous pagan ancestors to worship the blood-abhorrent Sacya under the

new but more appropriate in short, as these

Buddhist and

two

in that

I)rove that they are

With

2.

ff''oden is

mode

'

On :

may now appear

one god both

simply the Tamulic niode

Buddha same word as

of enunciation,

this supposition

however,

because the system of

it

tluit

is

name and

Vide supra, book

iv. c. 5.

is

in person.

of pronouncing

Buddha

expressed Pooden or Podeti Ifodcn.''

Sir

1,

;

:

Bod ; and

for,

in that

and Poden

is

William Jones, ac-

must have been imposed previous is

Hindoo

yet sufficient evidence to

variation of

philosopher

§ VIII.

Different

Vod\s a mere

J^oden or

Buddliism. *

in

Woden.

in the creed of a

of a Gothic chieftain, there

respect to name, JVod ov

undoubtedly the

goras

character of the sanguinary

deities

to the

days of Pytha-

palpably a modification of blood-abhorring

'

^'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

366 r.ooK IV.

Woden

cordingly, hesitates not to identify the Gothic

Buddha

and, so far as

:

can judge, he

I

But etymology, though an

3.

deemed. sufficient

useful

respond with that differ

perfectly right in his decision.'

is

auxiliary,,

can never

in

itse/f

we must therefore name of Buddha can be shewn

to establish a matter of fact:

whether the person as well as the

may

with the Indo-Scythic

of

Woden, however

from each other.

This

he

inquire,

cor-

to

one characteristic the two gods

in

will lead nie to

touch upon the history of

the Scandinavian divinity in connection with that of the Cuthic Buddha.

The Buddha

of the east

as a triplicated divinity

means of central

ascribed to the time of the deluge

is

and

;

is

said

In

a

similar

manner

is

viewed

have overwhelmed the Asoors by

to

a prodigious inundation, which the Earth poured

abyss.

;

forth from

the

was supposed by the Scythian

it

mythologists, that the whole impious race of the giants perished in a mighty flood,

except one

who escaped

in his bark

that, at this

;

period, a vast

was produced; and that from the cow was born Bure, the

cow

father of Bore,

who begat three sons Woden and Vile and Ve.' The names of Bure and Bore are so evidenriy the same, that we need not scruple to identify the two persons who respectively bear them. Hence the purport of the legend will be, that, at the

epoch of the general deluge, a patriarch and

his three sons,

afterwards worshipped as the great gods of the Gentiles, were born from an

immense

ship which

all

nations agreed to symbolize by a cow.

In the oriental mythology, Buddha ter as

Menu-Satyavrata, and

personage, that

is

to say,

is

his

is

acknowledged

own daughter

history of

Woden.

Res. vol.

'

.Asiat.

'

Edda Fab.

his three sons,

nus

is

iii.

).

and we

;

That

divinity

find is

who were

de mor. Germ. § 2.

Ila

is

The import of

the

.'son

of

reputed to have this

it

legend has

in the fabulous

him who was born from the

p. 425.

Bore and

Mannus

whence

:

something similar to

his triple offspring are the

venerated in the time

said to have been the offspring of Tuisto,

observe, that

same charac-

said to have married Ila the daughter of that

been the consort of her own father Menu. already been considered

to be the

is

Menu

of"

same pcrsonnges

as that

Mannus and Man-

Tacitus by the Scuthic Germans.

the child

or Noah, and that Tuisto

is

of the Earth. the elder

I

need scarcely

Tuut or Adam.

Tacit,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGANf IDOLATUY. cow

Symbolical

and he

;

Now,

goddess Frea.

is

also described

between the Earth and the Ark as

;

as the

Buddha

Earth and less

tlian

Menu

or

word Ida or Ila denotes the Earth

bears

personage as the ship Argha, and as she of

a certain mystic intercommunion

to

who

goddess

the

is

that

at

appellation

once the m

ife

is

the

same

and the daughter

Goths denominated the mother

so Frea was by the

:

being the husband of the

exact accordance with those mythological notions

in

Mhich so widely prevailed relative

or the JVorld,

as

357

mother of the gods, and was supposed to be the offspring no The very name indeed of Ida was the consort of Woden.' the

known

perfectly well

Scythian ancestors,

our

to

expected from their eastern extraction top of their holy

of Ida on the

naturally

niight

be

the Hindoos call the circular

for, if

:

as

Ida-^ratta, the Goths equally bestowed the appellation

hill

higli central

plain which

was thought

to be tenanted by their

diluvian hero-gods.*

Considered as Menu-Satyavrata, Buddha obsequies

;.

and, as such, he

as the conveyer of souls

character of

of those

Frea

to

Woden

who

is

Sraddadeva or the god of

name of Nara-vahajia, vessel, over the infernal river.' The

represented under the

is

in

is

a large

not dissimilar.

He

was thought

to receive the

He was

conduct them to the mansions of the blessed.'

and triumph.*

was

plainly

esteemed a Stygian or infernal deity.

described, as being the inventor of letters, as the conveyer of

knowledge, and as the person

which he communicated

to

who

mankind.

book from heaven

received a sacred

Woden

In like manner

appears, not

only as the god of war, but likewise as the god of literature. attributed the discovery of the

been eminently poses of

life,

as

Edda. Fab.

Runic characters

skilled in the art

of writing,

for the operations

poet, cited by Bartholin,

'

in safety

In short, according to the general notion entertained of the

arkite god, he is

also feigned

descended into Hades, and thence to have returned

to have himself

Buddha

souls

bravely perished in battle, and in conjunction with his consort

v.

Mallet's Noith. Ant. c.

*

speaks

Edda. Fab.

vi.

p. 89, <)4.

and he

Hence an

Runes ^

'

common

which the

Asiat. Ucs. vol. ix. p. 173. ii.

p.

pur-

ancient Gothic

as being /e/?cr*

Ibid. vol.

is

reported to have

is

as well for the

of magic.

of the

vii.

:

To him

220, 221.

chap.

v.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

358 BOOK

IV.

great ancient traced, •which the gods

of the gods engraved.

cot7?posed,

eastern Buddhists sometimes

The

which Woden the sovereign

'

gave a horse to their deity

:

for that

animal was early and very widely adopted, as one of the sacred

symbols

;

whence originated the many

and mother

fables of the great father

Thus

assuming the forms of a horse and a mare.

the Japanese have a

temple of Buddha, which they call the temple of the white horse the holy book of their god

arkite

;

because

supposed to have been brought over on an

is

The Gothic Buddhists, in a similar manner, and it was proIt had eight legs ascribed a wonderful horse to Woden. duced, when the gods were in great danger from the attacks of those impious giants who were swept away by the deluge. Mounted on this horse, Woden, animal of that colour.'

:

the father of inchantments, descended into

reconveyed by him to light and

Woden,

horse of

the infernal regions

;

and was

The

from the drear abode of Hela.'

life

horse of the Japanese Budsdo, was, I have no

like the

doubt, what the old Scandinavians were wont to call a horse of the sea, by

which they meant a ship

Greek and

:

and that ship was the Ark or the Ceres-Hippa of

Nor

British mythology.

the primeval vessel solely under hieroglyphics literal allusion to

Gentiles.

As

it,

floated

name

the

direct

and

in the superstition of the

xiii. p.

:

so the

and under

in the ship Argha,

when

the rest of

Goths assigned

to their

apud Mallet,

p.

deities,

of

371, 372.

Japan, p. 247.

Edda. Fab. xxi,

lour of the horse of

conclude, that

same

and as Buddha under the name of

on the surface of the deluge

Mallet's North. Ant. c.

may

find that

of Menu-Satyavrata was preserved in an ark

' Kaempfer's ^

we

the Egyptians depicted their hero-gods, not standing on dry

mankind perished by w ater '

:

which occurs so perpetually

land, but sailing together in a ship;

Iswara

shadow out

did the Gothic hierophants

in ihe

iv.

Bartholin,

Woden

or

lib. iii. c. 2.

Buddha,

as

is still

it

west as well as in the east

it

vol.

emblazoned

was thought

ii.

220.

in the

From

the co-

arms of Saxony,

to be white.

A

I

similar inference

be drawn from the stupendous representation of the same mystic animal in the English

vale of Ihe while horse.

Woden

Mr. Gray,

speaks of this horse as being

in

his beautiful poetical translation

coal-black

:

but the

t-pithet

is

the origiuaJ, as preserved by Bartholin, does not define the colour.

of the descent of

entirely his

own

addition

;

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

whom Woden

was

a wonderful ship, which with ease contained them

chief,

when completely armed, and which never

all

359

vourable wind to the place of

its

failed to

be wafted by a

fa-

destination.'

There are yet two other points of coincidence between Buddha and

Woden them

which, as they are both purely of an arbitrary nature, carry with

;

the greater weight of evidence.

Nothing more singularly marks the

superstition of

Buddha, than a

belief

that the deity left in various quarters of the globe impressions of his gigantic

He

foot.

is

said to have travelled into very

a large stone covered with hieroglyphics,

Chinese

in

the temple of

Mecca:

in

short,

superstition

was not forgotten by the Goths

Herodotus concludes

in

a

man

but

:

its

size

was

This piece of westward.

account of the ancient Scythians by in-

his curious

It

at

which the

in

their progress

forming us, that near the river Tyras or Dneister they of the foot of Hercules.

by the

Machodar-Nath, by the Arabs on a stone

numerous are the temples of Buddha,

exhibit an ill-formed impression of the holy foot.'

priests

his

shewn by the Cingalese on the top of Adam's peak, by the Siamese

is

Burma empire on

of the

Thus

one of these sacred marks.

to have bequeathed to his votaries

footstep

remote countries, and generally

was cut

a rock, and resembled the footstep of

in

gigantic, for

was no

it

shewed an impression

less

than two cubits in length.*

This Gothic Hercules was undoubtedly the Cuthic Buddha, metamorphosed

god of military prowess, and venerated under the name of JFoden,

into the

The

identity of the

two In the

bitrary coincidence.

of the week, which from

'

east,

him

is

appears also from another point of ar-

Buddha

gives his

Bhood-TFar

called

:

name

to the fourth

day

Woden

has

in the west,

Edtla. Fab. xxii.

* Asiat. Res. vol. vi.

Ava. '

divinities

vol.

ii.

Herod. Hist.

like the

vol. vii, p.

414.

vol. viii. p.

305.

Symes's Embass. to

would indeed

82.

of Thibet.

at present

way

says, that the people of the country,

named Casjon was

Asiat. Res. vol.

establish the point

in the

Mr. Wilford

where

this

was shewn, were certainly Buddhists, and that their high-priest who

mount Gocajon

Lama

concluded

295, 483.

lib. iv. c.

footstep of Hercules

resided on

p.

p. 183, 197, 198.

iii.

p. 196.

believed

to be regenerate,

of the Scuths being Buddhists, which

of argument and induction.

exactly

If this assertion be well-founded,

may

it

reasonably be

*^'''^''' ^



THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

860 BOOK

IV.

communicated

name

his

the very

to

same day, which by

that have eminently retained the

nations

the

all

Gothic

language of their ancestors

is

designated by an appellation similar to the English Wednesday.''

Thus,

I think, there is sufficient

or Scythians was

Buddha, and that the

some measure

in

manner

altered during their progress

who assumed

the

same as

the

is

westward precisely

command

title

of a chieftain or

and claimed

such a

in

Whether

from a warlike and roving people.

they migrated literally under the chieftains,

Woden

was corrupted and the character of the god

religion

as might be expected

Goths

evidence, that the religion of the

pure Buddhism, that

originally

succession of

to be incarnations of

Buddha,

or figuratively under the supposed protection of the hero-god of their fathers; is

a question, which at

The genius bable

this distance

of Buddhism renders the that

at least I think,

:

of time cannot be positively determined.

means impro-

supposition by no

first

Mr. Pinkerton

is

too positive in his

far

mode

of advocating the second.'

XI. The Buddhism of in ancient

difficulty,

The

Goths

the

explain a

will

mythology.

religion of the Celts,

as professed in

Gaul and

the same as that of the Hindoos and Egyptians the Canaanites, the Phrygians, the Greeks,

;

the

intervene between the north of Hindostan is

Now

under each system. at the

"

Asiat. Res. vol.

Swedish Odinsdag, English fol.

the

wonder

line

is,

i.

p.

Wednesday

in ;

162. vol.

iii.

to say,
;

reli-

countries which

though the same hero-

on the Goths,

at

Hindoos

some remote period by

in

is

p. ISO, 181.

Hind.

called in

vol.

ii.

p.

481. The

Icelandic Wonsdug, in

Anglo-Saxon Wodensdag, and

day of Woden or Odin.

1748.

* Pinkerton's Dissert,

but the

establishment in the

the

p. .562. Maurice's Hist, of

Bhuod-War of Hindostan,

is

:

should have adopted the very same super-

low Dutch IFoensdag, that

also as that of

that the Britons and the

and should have been theologically united

fourth day of the week, the

palpably

and the great mother, are equally venerated

two extremities of the

stition,

is

and the eastern boundary of

manifestly of a very different school

divinities, the great father

same

final

empire spread themselves irregularly over

Europe,

Britain,

and the Romans

gion of the Goths, whose tribes previous to their

western

point of considerable

in

modern

Junii Etymol. Anglic,

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. a very frequent intercourse middle of the

line

36l

and yet that the Scuths, who occupied the

;

and who therefore intervened between those two

nations,

should have professed a religion of a materially different contexture.'

The preceding Those

stance.

from

discussion will

for the circum-

that either remained in Babylonia or that emigrated

tribes,

a mixed

it in

some measure account

in

those, that retired from

advocated the Brahmenical system

chiefly

state,

Shinar in

an unmixed

Now

simple theology of Buddha.

preferred

state,

the mixed tribes

while

:

more

the

were universally so

mixed, by being under the rule of a Cuthic priesthood and nobility the unmixed tribes were altogether composed of certain

who

:

and

Cuthim or Scuthim,

under some impressions of disgust had separated themselves from their

The

brethren.

professed the

mixed

Celts then and the Hindoos, being equally

same mode of

religion

:

while the

tribes,

unmixed Goths or Cuths,

being descended from a race of pure and genuine Buddhists, pertinaciously refused to abandon the peculiar theology of their forefathers.

Yet, since

the military and sacerdotal castes both of India and of Britain were of the

same

great Cuthic family as themselves, they freely allowed the passage of

devout pilgrims

whom

they recognized

as

their brethren

common

by a

descent from one patriarchal ancestor.* 1. is

The Goths then brought

to say, pure so far as

menisra

:

but,

it

with them into Europe pure Buddhism; that

was unblended with the

peculiarities of Brah-

what shews the very great antiquity of the former mode of

worship, they found

it

already established

among

the Celts

length drove to the utmost extremities of the west that mingled form, in which

;

whom

was perhaps universally carried

it

they at

though established in off"

by the

Brahmenical theologists.

The Gauls

'

The

human

But the Celtic Teutates

ranis.'

Tuisto

venerated with

:

is

and, in both these words,

striking difference

sacrilices

Teutates and Hesus and Ta-

clearly the same as the Gothic Teut or we recognize one of Buddha's well-known

between the Gothic and Celtic theologies has been observed and

pointed out by Bp. Percy and Mr. Pinkcrton,

who judiciously expose

the gross error of Clu-

veriusand Pelloutier on that topic. See Pref. to Mallet's North. Ant. and Dissert, on the Goths. "

These topics are discussed at large

'

Lucan. Pharsal.

Pag.

Idol.

lib.

i.

ver.

in

book

444—446.

vi. c. 3. §

VI. and

Lactant. Instit. lib.i.

VOL.

II.

c. 4. c.

21.

2

Z

'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

S62 4ooK

IV.

Tat, Datta, or Twashta.

titles,

In a similar manner, Taranis

each of those names, compounded or uncompounded,

another of the

seems

is

Hesus, both

another of Buddha's

in

titles

;

Hesa, and Har-Esa, which

is

name and

but he bears

it,

He

is

being esteemed the same as Siva or Iswara.

his

name

properly a

character,

in

The

in

This

consequence of Esa,

called

Ma-

sanguinary

of Siva, the

cruelty of whose imagined character of the destroying

responds with that of Hesus.'

:

between the two superstitions.

the connecting link

to afford

appellation

of Buddha,

titles

Thor and

is

equally Tara-Nath,

is

power accurately cor-

identity of Tuisto

and Teutates

is

further proved from the circumstance of their being each called by the Latin

Tacitus says, that the Germans,

Mei'cury.

writers

votaries of

Woden

or Tuisto, worshipped

Mercury

and Cesar, Minucius Felix, and Livy, agree

who adored

Nor

Teutates.*

is

Teutates and Mercury

:

slight

this divinity, as

and

we

At

same of

thrown out partial

:

the Gauls,

random, or

at

resemblance between

much

shall presently see,

dignity has been lowered in classical mythology,

the oriental Buddha.

as their principal deity

in saying the

this assertion

hazarded merely on account of some

who were Goths and

as his

was the same character as

present I shall only notice the arbitrary coinci-

dence of the fourth day of the week bearing the name of Buddha among Hindoos, of

the

Woden among

Mercury among

the

in a large sense, as including the

two

the Goths, and of

Romans. 2.

If the

Hindoo

religion

be taken

systems of Brahmenism and Buddhism, Mr. Burrow assertion, that there are signs

every national

mode

of

it

in

lieve,

for the

country

:

me

most part carried

in

in his

every northern country and in almost it

overspread

Bokhara or the region of mount Meru,

equally certain.

Pure Buddhism was various

directions

indeed, I be-

from that

tract

of

but we must look for the primeval origin of both systems to the

land of Shinar and to the

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

*

Tacit, de mor.

295.

be right

of worship: but, that the centre whence

the whole earth was the high land of

does not appear to

will

i.

first

Scuthic empire under Nimrod.

From

this

p. 272, 285. vol. viii. p. 355, 359.

Germ.

c. p.

Casar. de

Liv. Hist. lib. xxvi. c. 44.

bell. Gall. lib. vi. c. 17.

Minuc.

Fcl. Octav. p.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Buddhism and Brahmenism must have been

centre

363

alike carried into the

west long before the march of the Goths or more modern Scuths from their

Yet Mr. Burrow maj' not be

native seats in Casligar. asserting, as

an evident and palpable truth, that Stonehenge

of Buddha.'

no

In a modified sense,

shipped him

much

Buddha,

we

as

lable

may but

and

Om.

is

the

is

is

a temple

The

Celts,

but then they wor-

:

Hindoos and Egyptians, that

Brahmenism,

of

enmity of the Brah-

yet acknowledged to be an incarnation of Vishnou

is

:

confessedly identified with the triple god Brahma-Vishnou-

venerated,

In

as

Buddha

peculiar superstition with

his

to the Buddhists,

;

safely be admitted.

liave seen, notwithstanding the violent

and, as such, he

Siva

may

same manner

in the

namely by blending

mens

this

than the Goths, were worshippers of

less

mistaken in

far

this

as the personage described by the mystic

monosyl-

manner, I apprehend, the chief deity of the old Druids

be admitted to be Buddha, and Stonelienge to be a Buddhic temple in

it is

this

partook

nature,

manner only

much more

:

for the Celtic theology,

largely of

though of a mixed

Brahmenism than of Buddhism

very circumstance, which produced the striking difference between

;

the

it

and

Gaul and

Bri-

that of the Gothic tribes.

That such a mixture had taken place tain as well as in the idolatry of

in the superstition of

Hindostan, seems to

me

to

be abundantly

In addition to the titles Hems, Teutates, and Taranis ; the names and of Arhan, and of Man or Mahi-Man, Avere well Buddha both of known to the ancient Celts. Budd, Buddugre, Bud-Ner, and Buddwas, were varied appellations of evident.

the principal Celtic god

Hu, who was adored

Stonehenge: consequently, Stonehenge

may

in the

in this

stupendous circle of

manner be

justly said to

have been a temple of Buddha and a representation of the Sakya-valya or mundane ring of Saca.* This divinity, considered as Buddha or Teut, is rightly

pronounced by Cesar, Minucius

Hermes

:

but, in his

Felix,

and Livy,

Brahmenical character, he

is

to be

Mercury or

with equal propriety de-

clared by Diodorus to be Apollo, and by Dionysius to be Liber or Bacchus.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

*

Davies's Mythol. of Brit. Druid, p. ii6,

ii.

p.

487, 488.

us,

364, 468, 557, 584.

GHAf.

T.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

36ii

BOOK

IV.

Tlie word

Arhan

Mr. Davies Arartm, and

written by

is

supposed by him to denote the arkile god.' exactly accords with such a conjecture

mighty deep, and

Hu

his wliole story relates

and Buddha, he

same

the

the

is

same character

and (I believe) also

in person,

in

The

Aravvn

for

:

not improbably

is

legend of this hero at least is

the king of

immediately to the deluge. as

Noah

:

Man,

and consequently he

or (when expressed compoundedly) the

Man, of the oriental Buddhists. The same system of theology and

it

Buddha

:

and likewise

to

this triad

was believed

fact nothing

titles.

which seems to

Re

to have the disposal of

the

venerated in

Moon

:

and

good and bad weather.'

Buddhic

variation of the

mc

over marriage,^

He was

the god of the waters, and

more than a

or great

the Celts of Ireland,

to preside

be the maritime deity of the winds.

Mananan

Here we

Mahi-Mau

this opinion,

Bad, Bod, or Bud, was thought

conjunction with

is

the ancient Irish were votaries of

that

us,

and he adduces many proofs of

to be a just one.

is in

among

prevailed also

was accompanied by the use of the same sacred

General Vallancey assures

Like

name, as the oriental Arhao,

This deity was sometimes called Manon, Menu, or Memvyd.''

have the

the

It

Bud, consi-

triad.

dered as the great father, was esteemed the masculine president of generartion, exactly

on the same principle that that character was ascribed

Peor, Osiris, and Siva

;

he was obviously made a maritime

deity.

(we are

Man,

the aquatic

told) signifies

the oriental

Buddha and jNIahi-Man

He

and ]\Ian-Anan, whose name

are but one person

are one

:

and

this

Manes, Menes, Menu, or Mannus, whose name and ried to evei-y quarter of the globe. this Irish triad, is largely

male, the

Buddha himself

son of the sea

is

the god is

it



Davies's Mythol. p. 198, 417, 4S0.

^

Ibid. p. 584., 228, 428, 176, 568.

^

Orient. Collect, vol.

prcf. p. 49. vol. iv.

ii,

numb.

precisely as

is

the diluvian

is

the third person in

introduced into the fabulous genealogy of Buddha.

nor

:

man

;

history have been car-

The Moon, which

the arkite crescent

If a female divinity,

to Baal-

and, in his diluvian capacity of the arkite navigator,

numb.

i.

Soma

is

doubtless intended by

or Lunus.

it

;

if

a

Mananan was esteemed

without reason, that such a descent was

p. 18,

xiv. p. 491, 509.

19.

Collect, de

leb. Hibern. vol.

iii.

numb.

x.

THE OKIUIN OF PAGAN IDOLiVtKY. ascribed to him

for

;

he

is

the

who was preserved in an arli The name Tat or Tath or

Bud

Tat

and 3fan.

of

The

first

month of

7'ak was as well as the

This point

known

to the ancient Irish as

Hindoo Tat or Datta and the established, not

is

for a

an

merely by the

arbitrary nature.

commenced on

the calends of

honour of the deity of that name

'T/iolh in

day of August was,

same

Egyptians, which

the

August, was called

Mai)i-Man or Buddha or Menu,

by a curious coincidence of

but

title,

as that

at the time of the general deluge.

the

is

Egyptian Thoth or Taut. identity

same

365

similar reason,

by the old

called

and the

:

Irish la Tat.

He

This god was supposed by them to preside over the harvest.'

same

as the agricultural Jupiter, Bacchus,

the prototype of

all

Another of the

was

familiar to

Menu-Satyavrata,

Noah the husbandman. Saman or Soviono : and this likewise

Buddha

of

is

pagan inhabitants of Ireland. is

Buddha, considered as

god of obsequies, agreeably to the

the

notion of the Gentiles, that the arkite god had descended

was the principal Irish

infernal deity.

Such accordingly

He was

Saman, Sanihan, or Shamhna.

and the judge of departed

November,

-ivhcn sacrifices

But

of the deceased.* the infernal

Menu

was the

and Deo-Naush; or as

Osiris,

those kindred divinities,

titles

tlic

first

or

Hades and

the character of the

esteemed the lord of death,

festival

this infernal divinity

flourished

Traces of

preserved in a large ark.

univei-sal

occurred in the month of

of black sheep were offered to him for the souls

Buddha

that primeval superstition lays on the

land and in the western

His

spirits.

is.

into

at;

liis

just as

;

was

the time of the deluge, and

worship, such

human mind,

of Scotland.

isles

was likewise a sea-god

At

still

is

the strong hold

remain both

in Ire-

the time of his festival, which

coincides with the Popish feast of All-Souls, the peasants ^vade into the sea

purpose of searching for the head of

for the

have corrupted from Shamna ale,

'

Collect, de reb.

Hiberii.

Orient. Collect, vol. *

To

this

black ram. '

into Shout/.*

which he throws into the water,

The

infernal

ii.

numb.

vol. i.

iii.

p. 18,

numb.

this god,

One

of

whose name they

them bears a cup of

after invocating the

xii. p.

469i ^70. vol.

iv.

demon numb.

reason,

Saman,

p.

43.

as sacrificing

a

lib. xi.

why is

xiii.

send

19.

Cimmerian or Celtic Pluto, Homer accurately describes Ulysses, Odyss.

to

the feast of All-Souls was appointed to supersede the festival of the

sufficiently obvious.

"'^f-



THE ORIOIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY.

366 BooKtv.

abundance of sea-ware

to enrich their

ground during the ensuing year.

ceremony, as was the case with the ancient Mysteries,

They then proceed

night-time.

to

the church

and,

:

is

performed

This in the

having extinguished

a burning candle which had been placed upon

tlie

communion-table, they

spend the

and

singing.'

It often happens, that local

S.

and

rest of the night in drinking, dancing,

theological revolutions,

and thus continue

There

the religion of former days. this nature has

occurred

names survive the shock both of

is

political

to attest to the remotest ages

reason to believe, that something of

in several instances within the limits

of the present

British dominions.

Plutarch speaks of a certain traveller

had

led

him

to visit the

named Demetrius, whose

islets

islands of the

demons and heroes venerated by :

and

singular proof of the ancient prevalence of

titles

isles,

which

in

Ila,

titles

scattered

His account

the natives.^

it

I

enables us to produce a very

Buddhism among

Of

the Celts.

;

bear the denominations of Bute,

the direct attestation of the traveller

and the existence among the Celts of the

Budwas, Budd, Arawn, Teutates, and Taranis, on

we can

the other

hand

scarcely doubt, that those four islands were so called in honour of

Buddha, Arhan,

Ila the arkite consort of

a similar manner,

it is

Man-Anan

or the aquatic

whom

I

settled in the isle of

of these was

in fact

have

Man, who

a holy island

'

Collect, de reb. Ilibcrn. vol.

O

jvtaj JaijOtOKwy xai

Manx,

that

is

described as being the son of the

Hindoo Mahi-Man or Menu,

Man, and thence conferred

*

sifrj

In

identified with the

sanctuary surrounded by the sea

Je Ai;jxi;rf(i}f

Buddha, and Saca or Sakya.

the ancient tradition of the Irish and the

ocean and

^

still

Now, when

and Skye.

considered, on the one hand

is

number of

the time of Demetrius were designated by the

of the British demon-gods, four

Arran,

described

and he added, that some of these were expressly called the

;

believe to have been perfectly accurate

these sacred

He

most distant extremities of Scotland.

that part of the country as being surrounded by a great

and desert

curiosity

twv te^i

iii.

numb.

or,

iv.

in

xii. p.

it.'

Each a

the language of the bards, tiie

mundane Ark

449, 460. ynjirwv Eivai

Plut. de defect, orac.

numb.

name upon

each represented

Tijv BicrTccviacv

-f^qtuMv oyo,aa?eo-6a(.

Collect, de reb. Hibeni. vol.

:

;

his

xiv. p. 509,

tfsXAaj t^t^^Wi

CTt0^a,iu,Si

w}*

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

367

each was considered as the residence of the deified patriarchs bore the

titles,

by which the great father or

his

and each

:

mystic consort were distin-

guislied.

XII.

Samana, which

that in the Celtic festival of

Such sacred

many

wild tales

devoted to the celebration of the funereal Mysteries, have given

isles,

yet extant among the Welsh and the

The family of Gavran obtained

that

title

of the islands

voyage of Merlin and

Lady Morgana

known by

This expedition was not heard of afterwards

the ocean.

became

of the three faithful

told,

by accompanying him

discover some islands, which, by a traditionary memorial, were

Green Islands of

lost to

Camb.

the Britons.

his bards in

rise to

Irish.

Gavran, Cadwallon, and Gwcnddolau, were the heads, we are tribes of Britain.

is

the head of the

superstitiously observed in the western isles of Scotland,

still

'

We have just seen,

The

Biog.

and

the boat of glass,

to the delights of an insular fairy-land.

legend

to the

is

the

to sea to

name of Tht

and the situation

;

closely allied to the

abreption of Arthur by the

It originated

from the circumstance

of some aspirants being cast away, while undergoing the process of the navicular initiation See below book

into the Mysteries.

These Green Islands are thought souls of those virtuous Druids,

v.

VIII.

c. 6. §

who cannot

4. (4.)

abode of the Fair Family

to be the

heaven of their own.

In their better moods they often

Welsh

He, who

in their boats.

been absent only a few hours

;

visits their

when,

which

;

consists of the

enter the Christian heaven and therefore enjoy this

come over

the ocean, and carry the

holy islands, imagines on his return that he has

in reality,

whole centuries have passed away.

We

have

here a variation of the wonderful story told by Tzetzes respecting an instantaneous voyage of the dead from the coast of If

may

you

Gaul

to that of Britain.

See above book

ii.

upon

it

take a turf from St. David's church-yard, and stand

An

behold the Green Islands.

and using

in his boat

relates to the artificial floating islands covered with green turf,

Similar notions prevail

among

See below book

the Irish.

qualifications of

sable

I.

and become

it

as a footstool.

This tale

which make so prominent a

v. c. 7. § I. 3.

They have a

of Ireland was. swallowed up by an inundation of the often arise out of the waves

J

adventurer, we are assured, once actually reached them

by the happy contrivance of placing the turf

figure in the ritual of the pagans.

c. 3.

on the sea-shore; you

visible to those

a strong sight and a strong

tradition, that great part of the north sea,

who faith.

but that the submerged regions

unite together the two indispen-

These regions are sometimes

esteemed an inchantcd Par
is

upon the waves.

sufficiently

which once contained within one of the rock temples. the Ark.

The connection of

the legend with the old Druidical supersti-

apparent from the popular belief, that the magical key of

I

its

compass

all the riches

of the world,

lies

this

navicular city,

buried beneath some

need scarcely observe, that the prototype of the city or island was

See Southey's Madoc. vol.

ii.

p.

146

— 149.

*"'*'•

^'*

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

368 liOftK IV.

god was sought

lost

was peculiarly

diluvian father

and, as

it is

The

for in the sea.

notion, that the

has extended

set afloat,

of a nature altogether arbitrary,

it

head of the great

itself

very widely

thence tends to prove the

namely the common origination of the

point for which I specially argue; various systems of pagan mythology.

Thus

1

Egypt a papyrine

in

head of Osiris

vessel

was yearly made to represent the

which, being cast into the waves, was thought to be carried

;

When

in the course of seven days to the shores of Phenicia.

it

reached

its

made over the lost divinity as being found again Samana concluded their search for his head with riotous

destination, rejoicings were

just as the votaries of

mirth and debauchery.'

Thus

2.

also

Romans; which

we meet with a

similar legend respecting a

together with the

name

of the deity to

head among the

whom

it

belonged,

they most probably borrowed from that ancient and remarkable people the

The god himself was called Summnnus or (omitting the Latin and both his name and his character prove him to be termination) Summan the oriental Suman or Buddha, the Samana or Shamhnaof the other than no The Romans, who, like the Greeks, were fond of resolving Irish Celts. foreign words into their own language, fancied, that Summanus was so called Tuscans.

:

from

was

his

his

\:ie.mgSummus Manium or

character

;

for

tlie

Prince of the Manes.''

S uch no doubt

he was certainly the diluvian god of obsequies

but,

:

since we find the principal infernal deity called by the same appellation both among the Hindoos, the Cingalese, the Burmas, and the Celts, the etymology

of that appellation cannot be reasonably sought for

Ovid

says,

that the

worship of

Summan Mas

Romans, when they were threatened by to confirm the opinion, that

cans

:

a curious

fable,

with the Celtic

introduced

the arms of Pyrrhus

was borrowed from

;

among

the

which seems

their neighbours the

however, preserved by Grater, identifies him with Pluto detailed by Cicero,

Samana and

Luc. de dea Syra.

* Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ^

the Latin tongue.

Tus-

yet he expresses himself as being ignorant of the character of the god.'

An inscription

'

it

first

in

Ovid. Fast.

Procop. in Esaiam. ii.

lib. vi. ver.

c.

52.

sufficiently proves his

the Egyptian Osiris.

lib.

731, 732.

xxix.

c. xviii.

c. 4.

and

close connection

He says,

apud Selden.

:

that, xvhen the

See Plate

I.

Fig. 12.

THE ORIOIM OT PAGAN ICOLATRT.

Summan was

earthen image of

cast

down from heaven, and when

could no M here be found, the soothsayers declared

Tiber

and, accordingly,

;

was discovered

it

369

have

to

it

his

head

fallen into the

the precise place which they

in

pointed out.'

XIII. Pursuing

to the

worship of Buddha, the

Romans, and

to

extreme

limits of the west our inquiries after the

we have been

led to pass

conclude that the

Summan

the Suman, Saman, or Somona, of the

Summan

think, that

we may

One

Cut

by no means the only classical

names of Buddha

of the

same

Such being the

as that of Hindostan.

and

:

of Italy case,

To

this

whose v\orship

it

has been

termination

is

omitted,

is

the

same word

Jain

as

are alike the transmigrating great father. father,

were from the reigning superstition

have been superadded

part of

it.

Of this

to

it,

:

like

and

;

equally led by simi-

and both Jain and Janus

:

according to that universal manner, in which

it

is

not only the great the chief gods of

all

Buddha, he stands

light

than to have formed an originally constituent

whence he asks

Romans, acknow-

Yet, though like Jain or Buddha he stands de-

tached from the great family of classical gods like that oriental deity,

He was

:

he ought to consider the god Janus; since the

theology of the Greeks, which was radically that of the

ledged no such divinity.'

he

is

the

his history sufficiently proves,

same character

supposed, at a very remote

Platoni Summano, aliisque Hit Stygiis.

;

period, to

Grut. Inscrip.

fol.

as

Noah.

have passed over into

10J5.

Cicer. de div.

€. 10. »

0»id. Fast.

Pag.

lib.

Idol.

i.

vcr. 89i

insu-

worship appears rather

his

circumstance Ovid was fully conscious

not unnaturally, in what

Janus;

Janus, when the Latin

But Janus

Paganism thus ultimately resolve themselves lated as

amply

was substantially

seems highly pro-

it

am

opinion I

of appellation, and by unity of character.

larity



inclined to

Suman, the Romans apparently horro- ed from

like that of

the Etruscans or ancient Latins.

1.

no other than

am

deity, in

Jain or Jain-Esa

is

William Jones, that the mythology

Sir

whose worship,

that,

is

I

that the oriental Jain ought to be identified with the western

bable,

to

of the latter

orientals.

recognize the old Taautic superstition.

shewn by the

is

from the Goths and Celts to

90.

VOL.

II.

3

A

Jib.

n

sbif.

r.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATHy.

370 Italy;

of wliich country, in conjunction with the aboriginal Cameses,

Here he received Saturn

obtained the sovereignty.

he

who, after wandering

;

over the whole world, debarked at length from his ship and brought his

Some

tedious voyage to a successful termination on the coast of Tuscany.

that Janus received from this god instructions in the art of agriculture,

say,

and that through gratitude he admitted him however that may

but,

into a copartnership of

empire

be, precisely the sanje actions are attributed to him,

He was

as the Greeks ascribed to Dionusus, and the Egyptians to Osiris. the it

first institutor

of

He flourished

civil polity.

at so distant a period, that

was a matter of doubt, whether he were a demon or a

mankind from a rude and barbarous mode of life He was their instructor in order and civilization. first,

He

that built

to

their presence

when

He

king.

He was

the deities freely

rites

the

of religion.

mixed with mortals,

on the earth was a thing common and familiar

the frequency of crimes had not yet chased justice from the world

decent sense of shame

brought

submit to the laws of

agriculture.

temples to the gods, and ordained the sacred

reigned in those early days,

and when

:

supplied the place of legal restraint; and

;

when when a ;

when war

and rapine were yet unknown.'

The

rest

of

corresponds with this primeval character.

his history exactly

In the ancient songs of the

Salii

he was celebrated, not as some obscure

To him was

the universal parent of mankind.' the end of

He was

but as the god of gods.*

local divinity,

all things.*

He

was invoked

him

:

and,

as Osiris

is

and

as tlie parent

as the general father,

of the Universe, as the beginning of the several hero-gods.' the whole world was assigned to

as being

called Consiviiis,

attributed the beginning

The charge of

sometimes identified

Typhon or the deluge, and as the ocean is said to be one of the forms of Siva so we are told by Ovid, that the ancient mythologists designated Janus by the name of Chaos.^ Under this title they jointly referred him to with

;

the era of the creation and the deluge '

Plut. in

Ovid. Fast. *

vit. lib.

Num. i.

v.

233, 234,

Macrob. Saturn,

Rom. 247—253.

Pint. Quaest.

lib.

i.

p.

lib

i.

117—120.

as every part of his character

Macrob. Saturn,

269.

e.g. p. 159-

ver. 103,

for,

Macrob. Saturn,

4 Albric. Philos. de deor. imag. c. xiv. p. 317.

Ovid. Fast,

:

lib.

i.

lib.

c. 9- ?•

i.

c.

7-

157.

'

Ibid.

'

Versic. Septim. Seren. Falisc.

p.

151.

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

371

abundantly shews, he was the primeval transmigrating great father

Noah viewed

to say, 2.

that

;

Adam.

as a reappearance of

Noah

In the mythologic composition, however, of the great father,

seems

to

Hence we

have predominated.

^"'^'

is

generally find

him in some manner

connected with a story of a ship and a voyage.

The

coins of Janus exhibited on one side the double face of the god, and

on the reverse

Ovid

either a ship or the stern or

say, that this device

ship of Saturn inquires,

ship.

is

and

j\facrobius

was adopted to commemorate the

but Plutarch

:

why such

prow of a

arrival of the

not satisfied with the solution

and

;

a symbol should adorn the medals of Janus.'

In

still

fact, if

Saturn be esteemed a distinct character from Janus, the device of the ship

ought rather to have been stamped on the coins of the former than on those of the latter

;

by Plutarch

:

and

but Saturn, and Janus, and Cameses, were

properly that

first

The

true

world.

not improbably produced the question, which

this

who was

navigator,

reason, in

may

impression of a ship,

He

respecting him.

short,

asked

equally and

the king and the instructer of an infant

why

the coins of Janus exhibited the

what Athenfeus

best be collected from

says, that

all

is

he was the

tells

inventor of barks and ships

first

us ;

a

circumstance, which at once accounts for the reverse of his medals, and points out with sufficient clearness his real character.

we

aboriginal chapel he had an ancient ark, as

much

in the

Siva,

Hu, or

severally



same manner, Mexitli.'

Noah

;

Macrob. Saturn,

Quaest.

Rom.

p.

lib.

bius mentions a play

apprehend, as Dionusus,

151,

152.

Ovid. Fast.

These medals of Janus seem

274.

among

even to the present day.

learn from Septimius Serenus

to

lib.

Athen. Dcipnos.

'

Jane Pater,

O

lib.

cate rerum sator,

Adonis,

ver.

229— 242.

common

:

for

Plut.

Maero-

children exactly similar to one, which prevails in this country

They threw

the coin

up

into

the air;

xv. p. 6^2.

O

i.

have been very

ground, crisd out after the manner of a wager. Heads or ships. ^

Osiris,

associated together as partners in empire, they

c. 7. p.

i.

Accordingly, in his

Yet, although Saturn, Janus, and Cameses, be

when

still,

I

*

principium dcoruro,

Tibi vetus area caluit in aborigine© sacello. Vcrsic. Septim. Seren. Falisc.

and, before

it

fell

to

the

-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

372 BOOK

IV.

seem further

to

shadow out that sacred

Agreeably to sjoddcss

dovt the

triad, so

in the

Brahme-

Janus was called Junonius from the

Juno whose name Mr. Bryant

resolves into Junth, which

:

and who

;

his diiuvian character,

Hence he has not

principle

Voni or

branch

He

a

which at the time of the flood

Kw/zi,

Argha and

only his ship or ark, but he

on the reverse of some of in its bill,

sifrnifies

decidedly pronounced by Mr. Wilford to be the same as

is

Hindoo female

successively assumed the forms of the ship

for,

famous both

and Buddhic systems of theolopy.

nical

or.

his coins,

is

the dove Capoteswari,'

likewise attended by a dove:

that bird appears, either holding

surrounded with a chaplet of olive leaves.

was further thought

to be the governor of the mystic

Hades

;

believed to have the power of opening and shutting the door, by

was approached.'

This part of his character

the door in the side of the Ark, through which

I have

relates,

Noah and

a

*

and was which

it

no doubt, to

his family issued

the reputed regions of death and darkness to those of light and

life.

from

Hence

the altars of Janus were placed before the doors of his temples, to shew that he presided, as Macrobius observes, over entrance and exit: hence also he called

Patulcius and Clusius, or the god of optn'mg and shutting

hence, considered as the solar Apollo, he bore the

title

:

was and

of Thyreus or the

divinity of the door.*

name of

Similar to this was a

was

Prothyrea or the goddess before

called

stance of the quitting of the divinities,

the great mother of the hero-gods.

she was

the door

Ark being considered

and, from the circum-

:

as the birth of the

esteemed the female president of generation.

was the same as Diana, or Venus, or Juno, or Lucina similarly accounted the goddess of parturition.'

appellation of Jana.

tiie

really the

same name

'

ISlacrob. Saturn, lib.

* See

Anal. '

:

i.

for c.

£).

;

each of

Noetic

Prothyrea

whom was

She was immediately and

naturally connected with Janus, the god of the door

from him

She

:

and she then assumed

Jana and Diana are be nothing more than a com-

I apprehend, that

Diana appears

to

p. 159.

a plate representing such coins from Gorlaeus, Spanheim, and Paruta, in Bryant's

vol.

ii.

p.

260,

Macrob. Saturn, JMacrob. Saturn,

lib. lib.

i.

i.

c. y. p. 158. c. 9. p.

Arnob. adv. gent.

158, 159.

'

lib. iii.

Orph. Hymn.

i.

TH£ ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. pound word, denoting the divine Jana. Nigidius, that Jana

Moon, though

that

:

the great father and

tlie

is

we

are informed by

to say, they are astronomically the

Noah and

literally

rate,

same person as Diana, just as Janus

the

is

character as Apollo

At any

373

is the same Sun and the

Janus and Jana

the Ark.'

in short

are

great mother, celebrated by the ancient mythologists

under so many dificrent names.

XIV. Janus

appears to have been sometimes called Vadimon or Vandi'

mon, particularly by the inhabitants of Tuscany

dimon

is

the

same

for

:

we

Va-

are told, that

as Janus- Vertumnus.*

The Etruscan fragn)ent, said to have been found by Inghiram, in which Vadimon is at once declared to be Janus and to be the same person as he

whom do

the Syrians call Noa,

know what

I

can scarcely perhaps be cited as genuine

:

nor

mouth

authority Annius of Viterbo had for putting into the

of the spurious Myrsilus an assertion, that the ancient Tuscans alone wor-

whom

shipped Janus and Vesta,

tain

much

as truth

ciently

forgeries of that writer certainly con-

also that undesignedly has

by the inquiries of more recent authors.

that one of the

bore the

much

curious matter,

Tuscan

now

lakes,

name of Vadimon

:

called

This at

Lago

been established least

to

certain,

di Bassanello, formerly

and, in bearing such an appellation,

Among

him.

bol of the deluge; and an

believed to float for tliey

it

:

and

it is

the ancient mythologists a lake was a

island,

of the Ark.

probable, that in

seem very frequently

to

timber-work and covered with

suffi-

but, according to the account

many

turf.

instances

really did float;

it

one, framed of

artiflcial

Whether such was I

absolutely the case

shall not pretend to

which Pliny gives of

it,

several

it

was esteemed sacred, doubtless

to

determine

islets,

with reeds and rushes, and in form resembling ships, floated upon while the lake itself

sym-

Sometimes the island was

have constructed an

with the islands in the lake of Vadimon,

its

covered

bosom;

the god

whose

bore.*

'

Maciob. Saturn,

*

Vadimon, Janus- Vertumnus.

Ilibern. vol. *

is

shews both the character of the deity and the nature of the worship

which was paid

name

Janib-

in their peculiar dialect they called

The

Vadimon and Labith-Horclua}

iii.

lib.

i.

numb. XII.

Myrsil. de bell. Pelasg.

c.

J),

p. 158.

See a catalogue of Etruscan words

in

Collect,

p. 633, c. vi.

*

Plin. Epist. lib.

viii. cpist.

20,

de rcb.

*^"*'''

'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGA>f IDOLATRY.

374 BOOK

IV.

As

have conjectured that Janus

I

am

so I

some measure disposed

in

is

the

same

to think,

divinity as Jain or Buddlia

that the conjecture

is

ened by the name Vadimon. the question to be

;

strength-

It is certainly an old Tuscan appellation but whence the Etrurians themselves borrowed it. I suspect it

is,

an oriental

;

imported by the wandering Pelasgi, who seem to have

title

been a tribe of the Indo-Scythic Palli and who early settled

in Italy:

for

it is

name Bad or Buddha in composition with Among the many variations of that name we find Bod, Bad,

apparently no other than the

Mon

or

Man.

Now

fVod and IVad.

Bad

or

the syllable

JVad ; whether they be

or not: and the syllable

is

the

same

syllable as

really connected together in point of origin

Mon or

Alan

Mahi-Man

sometimes called

is

Vadimon,

in

F<5f
is

a well-known

or the great

Man.

title

of Buddha,

who

In addition therefore

to identity of character, Vadimon affords a double coincidence of name,

because

compounds together two of

it

however lay any undue

stress

upon

improbable one, I wish to build

the titles of Buddlia.

Though

this derivation.

my

I

would not

I think

it

not an

system upon facts rather than upon

words.

XV.

There with

character,

to esteem the

We

is

another ancient Latin or Etruscan deity of a very singular

whom

same

Janus

as that

is

to preside over the beginning,

Terminus was esteemed the god of

man and man

;

in

that had

life.*

for

:

sometimes Janus

and the preserver of peace be-

justice,

His original

sacrifices

to preside over

were bloodless,

Numa

In most of these particulars he so closely resembles Buddha,

led at once to believe

very appellation of Terminus

The

inclined

incongruous to the character of such a deity to offer him any thing

it

am

am

and Terminus over the end."

which capacity he was aptly made

boundaries and landmarks.

deeming

that I

I

things were ascribed

all

This however was not invariably the case

to Janus.

whom

god and therefore the same as Buddha.

are told, that the beginning and the end of

was reckoned tween

and

closely connected,

Buddhists think

it

is

them the same, and

borrowed from a

to conjecture that the

title

of the oriental deity.

impious to venerate their god with sanguinary oblations

an idea, which naturally arose from the doctrine of the Metempsychosis '

August, do

civ.

Dei.

lib.

iii.

c. 7-

*

Plut. in vit.

Num.

THE OKXOIN

PAGAN IDOLATUV.

Ol'

375

and, in his character of the god of justice, his followers call him

Rajah

;

an ark

at the time

a name, which he bore, as that just

with the

now

it

I

Greece and

not unreasonable to guess, that Terminus

is

pound Dher7n-Menu written

manner of

after the

have not yet mentioned

the character of

preserved in

coincidence of attributes, joined

this

established position that the theology of

theology of India,

But

From

of the deluge.

Menu who was

all

Dherma-

Italy is

the

the

is

com-

the Latins.

the circumstantial coincidences between

Terminus and that of Buddha.

Somono-Codom a large black stone

Buddha

or

and

:

this

frequently represented by nothing except

is

mode of

exhibiting both the great father

the great mother has spread itself over an amazing extent of country.'

was the primeval form of Terminus

:

and

to

this

and

Such

form, as consecrated by

Nunia in the Capitol, Virgil, if the criticism of Lactantius be just, alludes when he speaks of the immoveable stone of that famous citadel.' The epithet,

which the poet applies to the stone, renders

When

criticism is just.

Tarquin wished

the precincts of the Capitol, his project was pels dedicated to different gods.

they would give place to Jupiter:

it

probable that the

to build a temple to Jupiter within

impeded by the numerous cha-

They were but, when

severally consulted, whether all

the others yielded a ready

Teiminus remained immoveable, and kept possession of

assent,

his

temple

with the sovereign of the deities himself.' It

is

a curious circumstance, that Terminus was thought to be the stone,

which Saturn swallowed instead of

and

its

name

This stone was called Betylus

Jupiter.'*

evidently connects the worship

of Terminus

with

:

the old

Betulian rock-worship, which in fact was the worship of Buddha.'

In the Phenician mythology, Betylus was the brother of Cronus, Dagon,

and Atlas

:

and

Uranus

their parent

Betulia, which possessed the life.*

c.

power of motion

as if they

These were most probably sacred rocking

'

Maurice's Iml. Ant. vol.

*

Ovid. Fast.

20.

said to have contrived stones called

is

lib.

ii.

vcr.

p. 31.

iii.

641.

Anc.

stones, M'hich

Hist, of Ind. vol.

Tibull. Eleg. lib.

i.

ii.

^

Lactant.

Instit. lib.

Lactant.

Instit. lib. i.e.

'

Euseb. Prasp. Evan.

i.

20.

c.

Ovid. Fast.

20.

lib.

i.

lib. '

c. 10.

ii.

ver.

666— 67O.

Hesych. Lex.

were held

in

481.

p.

elcg. 1. ver. 12.

Virg. .Emicl. lib. ix. vcr. 448.

*

were instinct with

Lactant. Instit.

lib,

i.

THE OUIOIN OF PAGAN IDOLATHV.

376 BOOK

IT.

Terminus then

high veneration in the Druidical superstition.

same person

as Betylus

not only because a stone was

;

which Saturn swallowed

clearly the

tlie

form under which

is

expressly declared

each of them was worshipped, but because Terminus to be the stone

is

and which

in lieu of Jupiter

itself

bore the appellation of Betylus.

That

name and

only from his form, but likewise from his I

may be

Betylus however was the same as Buddha

this

his

inferred, not

genealogy,

once thought with Bochart, that Betylus was the scriptural compound

Bdh-El

or the house of

God:

but yet, like Terminus, he

certainly appears to be

it

it,

have already seen, is

that,

among

pronounced, one

that his consort

is

Ila

well as a feminine

as to the propriety

is

title,

Paganism, that one of

we

and, however the Phenicians

:

a compounded

the various

modes

Bat, Bait, or Baiuth.

w hence, even

:

pillar

spoken of as a god, not as a place of worship.

is

expressed the word Baitulos

The Greeks

Buddha

now my doubts

Betylus w as indeed represented by a stone

of such a derivation.

might write

but I have

if

we knew not

title.

Now we

which the name

in

We

that Ila

is

have also seen a masculine as

uiight infer, according to the analogy of ancient

his appellations

must be // or

Such circum-

Ilus.

stances render the conjecture probable, that Baitulos or Betylus

is

in reality

name Bait or Buddha with the title // suffixed to it. This last title was well known to the Indo-Scythic Phenicians: and thty bestowed it on the person, whom the Greek translator of Sanchoniatho denocninates Cronus.^

the

The

state of the question in short,

is this.

We

large stone

Bat was

know, that Buddha was worshipped under the symbol of a

and we likewise know, that

:

or Bait, and that one of his

stances,

we

with respect to the etymology of Betylus,

his

titles is

name

is

// or Ila.

are told, that the stone, which represented

called Baitylus: for this

is

frequently pronounced

Under such circumTerminus or Buddha,

the express assertion of Laclantius.

Now,

it is

was the appellation of the stone which syuibolized Budd-Ila, surely more reasonable to suppose that it borrowed its name from the

god

whom

since Baitylus

it

confessedly represented, than to imagine that

derived from the action of a '

Hebrew

patriarch

Euseb. Prap. Evan.

lib.

i.

it

ought to be

who was a worshipper

c. JO.

not of

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAX IDOI-ATRY. At any

Buddha but of Jehovah. symbol of the god

Atlas

;

whom

with

would

certainly the

described as being the brother of Dagon, Cronus, and

is

one person,

all

equally the transmigrating

all

every new world commences.

indifferently call

god Dagon, who,

This person

in allusion

Noah, was

by the Greek translator of San-

said

choniatho to be the same as Jupiter-Arotrius

Terminus or Betyius, though

father

writers

find, that the fish-

to another part of the history of is

gi-eat

classical

tlie

Hence we

Cronus and Jupiler.

esteemed the patron of agriculture,

that

was

rate, the stone Baitylus

J5ail-Ila.'

Though Betyius they are

377

:

his office

and hence we likewise

was

latterly confined

find,

to the

guardianship of boundaries, was in reality no other than Jupiter himself.

One

of the

Terminus,

names of

this deity

was TerminaUs

and he was thought,

Accordingly, while

preside over landmarks..

to

;

we

Lactantius, Ovid, and Plutarch, that Terminus was the god to

dedicated landmarks

:

;

and

uudei this tbrin, he was called Cappotas

Buddha

to

When

Pout

or

Fat

a

:

title,

Jupiter

was venerated

which again brings us

name oi that god is frequently pronounced and the compound Cappotas will denote the illustrious

for

;

whom Noma

by Cicero, that one of the most

solemn oaths was by Jupiter the stone.*

back

are told by

we are informed by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, that

was Jupiter-Tcniiinalis

that gud

like

or Poti,

tlie

Pout.'

XVI. With

respect to

Dagon,

his

form was so precisely that of the Chal-

dean Oannes and of the Indian Vishnou

in

the fish Avatar, exhibiting, to

use the language of the Buddhists, the sovereign prince

of the belly of tne hieroglyphical his identity

v\ith

each of those

fish,

Buddha

that we, cannot for a

moment doubt

His worship seems

deities.

issuing out

to

have been

by the Indo-Scythic Phenicians, when they migrated

brought into Palestine

westward from Babylonia and the confines of Hindostan of country, designated by the appellations

;

that large tract

of the oriental Ethiopia and

Cusha-dwip within,

'

Lactant.

"

Dion. Haiic. Ant. Rom.

'

Piius.

Instif. lib.

i.

Lacon. p. 204.

Pag.

Idol.

c.

20. p. lib.

ii.

1

11, 112.

Bochart. Canaan,

Epist. ad famil.

lib.

ii.

c. 0. p.

707-

Ep. ad Trebat.

Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 260.

VOL.

II.

3

B

'«*''•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

878 HOOK

It,

1.

The Oannes

Erythr^an sea

mermen

merman

feigned to have emerged from the

is

man and

mingled form of a

in the

the instructor of a

these

of the Chaldfeans

new race

every useful

in

a

and

fish,

We

art.

have been

to

are told,

that four of

successively appeared, or rather, I apprehend, that the

exhibited

himself at four different times

;

he bore the name of Dacon.'

his manifestations,

and In

that,

this

same

under one of

legend

we may

evidently trace the doctrine of a transmigrating great father, appearing at the

commencement of each mundane system of the intervening deluge

Oannes-Dacon Oannes was

is

as

and

it

is

he had floated on the surface

almost superfluous to observe,

palpably the Pliiiist^an and Phenician

likewise called Annedot.

Dagon,

that

same Jain-Dot ov Jain-Datta. title

:

after

Oannes

is

It

same

the

Dacon

as Jain-Esa, and

All these are appellations of

Each

Dagon.

not unlikely, as

is

that

the

is

Annedot as

Buddha: so

that

both the names and the character of the Babylonian or Philistean god clearly identify

him with that ancient Indo-Scythic

2. Equally well

known

it

the

The word

the east of Babel. syllable of

is

title

divinity.*

Dagon

in the regions

itself signifies the fish

being the Chaldean

Dag ;

of the triplicated great father venerated

On

or

which

Om

lie

the

:

to

first

and the second, the mystic name

in tlie

Sun.

in the figure of a Some dome or egg surmounted by a pyramid, are still called Daghope and Dogon} And this mode of designating them is perfectly agreeable to the principles of The Ark was symbolized by a fish, and was considered in old mythology.

of the temples of Buddha, which are constructed

the light of a temple

:

whence, Paganism being for the most part founded on

a commemoration of the deluge, nerally copies of

god Buddha

is

Hamelton speaks of two temples

fish.

principal seats of the

Buddhic

superstition,

likewise of the

in Pegu,,

The Greek translator, by prefixing the article, has changed Dacon oriental name of the god was clearly Dacon or Dagun. '

Syncell. Chronog. p. 29.

^

Asiat. He*, vol.

431.

Euseb. Chron.

Purch.

one of the

which so much resembled each

'

vi. p.

were ge-

agreeably to his character of the sovereign prince in

himself,

the belly of the

ten)ples of the diluvian gods

mundane Ark or ship of Noah. not only the name of the temple, but

llie

Dogon however

tlic

into

Odacon

:

but the

p. 5.

Pilgr. b, v. c. 4. p.

468.

See Plate

III. Fig. 23.

THE OaiGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

379

Other in structure that they seemed to be built by the same model.

The

former of them stands temple of Kiaki

:

in

a

the hitter

is

is

Kiaki-Jck or the

called

low plain, and

built in a

is

called the temple

of the one are always open

The doors and windows

Daouii.

and

lofty situation,

and every

:

body has free permission to see the gigantic image of the deity within is

sixty

fee.t

of deep repose six

doors and windows are always

These refuse

priests.

that his form

say,

world

that

is

They

to

have

none can enter except the

describe the precise shape of

to

supposed

m hich

;

But of the other the

millenaries.

shut, so

not human.

is

Dagun

;

and only

when Kiaki awakes,

teach, that,

Dagun

the

will

form a new

of this superstition can scarcely be mistaken.

Kiaki and

anaihilated

is

posture, and

reclines in a sleeping

that state

in

lain

long,

of

but that out of

;

its

fragments

one.'

The import

Dagun

represent the great father in his two characters of the destroyer and

the renovator of the woild

:

and the mysterious opening and closing of the

doors of their respective tem[)les seem to be founded on notions similar to those,

The

which form the basis of the worship of Janus.

the famous allegorical sleep of the transmigrating patriarch sal

mode of

sleep of Kiaki :

and the colos-

representing him, as well as his posture of repose, would leave

us no room to doubt of his being the same as Buddha, even

Kiaki or Sakya and the country decide the point for he

valent to

Dag- Pout

Bhavani ; who

which he

in

His companion Dagun

Dae or Dak-Po

certainly the

is

or

on the deluge

floated

in the

there

is

It

may

"

is

;

and Dak-Po

de reb, Hib. vol.

equi-

said to be the father of

and there

is

a notion, that he presides I think, to

understand

Buddha

eighteen cubits long, which appears in the

as the statue of Kiaki described by Hamelton.'

iv.

Asiat. Res. rol. vi. p. 451.

is

form of the ship Argha, and who was

ii.

p. 57.

ii.p. 110.

*

sutficiently

a mere reduplication of himself:

Doca; by which we ought,

Hamelton's Ace. of the East Ind. vol.

• Collect,

name

be observed, that in one of the temples of Ceylon

a colossal statue of

same sleeping posture

:

if his

worshipped did not

of the Thibetians

the universal mother of the hero-gods

Moon.*

is

is

Dag-Buddha. This Dak-Po

over a celestial mansion called the arkite

is

numb.

14, p. l6l.

See Plate

II. Fig. 2.

Doubt-

See also Syraes'j Embass. to Ava. vol.

THE OKIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRS".

380 liooK IV.

less

a similar mythological opinion consigned the god to a deep slumber both

among

the Buiinas and the Singalese.

It

3.

Dason

should alike have been

The

Ocean.

name and

a curious circumstance, that the

is

found

in

one of the islands of the Pacific

two large stones one of which

natives of Easter Island adore

;

is flat

and broad, and the otlier erect and about

of the

latter

is

is

Dago and

called

or Terminus

the precise worship of

is

and the combined veneration of Dago and Taurico

:

But the worship of Dagon not-only prevailed

The

also far into the west.

Dagh-dae Dagon,

the

ancient

god Dagh: and he

or the

Siamese Dagun, and

They esteemed him

arts

They

and sciences, and

He

made

was

their

over the produce both of the

|)reside

him

to

have been

skilled in the

and the art of

:

mother and the general father of

suflficiently

mark the prototype,

to

all

their

which we ought

Dagh-dae.

is

said to have been the brother of Hercules-Ogmius;

the Celts.'

two mythological brethren

to

literature,

and who was no

name

less highly

Identity however of attributes will prove the

be really one and the same person

to demonstrate, that the ancient hero,

venerated under the

or Dag-Buddha.

and, extending his influence to the

likewise reckoned

-who was also the reputed parent of

ample evidence

Dak-Po

and as such, he was

divinity

among

they called

same as the Phenician

tlie

Thibetitin :

whom

Dia-Teibith or god of the Ark

refer the character of

venerated

evidently

dtity,

extended

letters

Such particulars

XVII. This

had a

in the east: it

to have taught their ancestors

the consort of their great

deities.'

is

the god of fertility

«ea and of the land.

poetry.

Irish

the

vatery element, they supposed him to

is

This

Tcturico.^

:

not dissi«iilar to the joint adoration of Kiaki and Dagun. 4.

io

The top

feet in height.

t^en

carved into the form of a man's head crowned with a garland

and the two are

Buddha

the superstition of

whom

:

and there

the Greeks

of Heracles or Hercules, but whose worship

spread over the face of the whole earth, was no other than the oriental

Buddha.

'

Account

* Collect, '

of discov. in Pac. ocean.

de

ri-b.

Hib.

vol.

iii.

numb.

Collect, de rtb. Hib. vol. iv. p. 503.

London, 1767. 12. p. 5^4,. vol. iv.

numb.

14. p. l6), 502, 503.

THE 1.

I

OlirOIN OF

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

38J

have already had occasion to notice those legends, which coanect

Hercules with the Paradisiacal garden of the Hesperides and with the pent that was fabled to be the keeper of the golden apples.

we

Buddha of

most of the hero-gods, he

like

Noah.

father or the scriptural

far

is

In such tales

Adam, the Alenu-Swayambhuva Saman^an superstition but,

behold him sustaining the character of

of the Hindoos and the elder

ser-

the

:

more celebrated

It is in this

as the second great

capacity therefore, that

have

I

at present chiefly to consider him. 2.

Under

name of Menii-Satyavrata

the

or Dherma-rajah,

appears as the sovereign prince in the belly of the

Ark

gator of the

and as the navi-

fish

Here he

at the time of the deluge.

Buddha

at

once

identifies

himself with Daijon and Hercules.

A tradition by a large

was swallowed up

prevailed, that the latter of these deities

fish,

and that he remained three days within

or Cetus was nothing more than a symbol of the

Ark

it'

This large

fish

whence we are

;

formed by Hesychius, that Ceterii denotes a ship large

like

a xvhale

:

in-

and

the three days related to the three years of Noah's inclosure within the Ark,

manner so long preserved among the Jews. The confinement was a year and ten days so that he entered

calculated after the ancient

whole period of the

Ark

his

:

remained within

in one.year,

the third year. Hence, by the old

have been three the

same manner,

of the

That

Jonah to

fish,

be inferred

He

was given

which

is

lain three

fable

to

it

in

said to

years within the whale; precisely in

is

days in the tomb.

similar to that of Buddha's inclosure

declared by his votaries to be literally the Ark,

from what we are also is

literal

is

reckoned to have been three days in the belly

is

have

the import of this

within the

cules.

as

and Christ

fish,

an entire second year, and quitted

mode of computation, Hercules

days or three

n)ystic

it

literally told

may

respecting the maritime Her-

feigned to have sailed over the ocean in a golden cup, which

him by Apollo

to have been a ship

Jupiter presented

;

:

but

this

cup

and the same author

Alcmen^ '

is

rightly declared by

tells

Macrobius

us from Pherecydes, that

the mother of Hercules with another golden

Tictz. in Lycoph. rer. 34.

'^"'*''" '•

tHE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IPOLATIiy.

38fi-

****

"^*

cup which was shaped

Argha of

The cup

a boat.'

like

and which was transformed into a dove when the waters

In the sacred rites of Hindostan

subsided.

which ought always to be shaped

that,

is

Argo of

the

the

ship

is

represented by a cup or

is

a boat, though Arghas

even square.*

circular, or

Greeks and Egyptians

Hindoo sacred

as the

it

like

sometimes be seen of different forms, oval, vessel

certainly the

is

the Indo-Scytliic mythology, in which Siva floated on the surface

of the delude,

dish,

of Hercules

and accordingly we

:

sometimes said to

is

He

have been at once the builder and the captain of the ship Argo.'

;

whom

Danaus, each of

Osiris and

Argo

same common progenitor of mankind

in fact the

likewise

is

though on the whole he appears

than to the gods of the Brahmenical family. character, thraj

upon

it

was usual

to depict

him

it

from Tyre

Thus

raft,

sha-

Jason and

as

the captain of the

Agreeably

in a boat.

he was represented on a vrooden

made

be more nearly

to

find,

by a navicular cup, and as Her-

typified

cules also sailed over the ocean in a navicular cup, so he

dowed out

may This

allied

to

Buddha,

to this part of his

in his

temple at Ery-

and was supposed to have

sailed

Pausanias truly remarks, that the image of

in Phenicia.

the god resembled neither those of Egina nor those of Athens, but that

had a near

affinity to

those of Egypt.*

similar to that of Osiris or 3.

Both

in

Egypt and

remote antiquity.

Ammon

in

'

Apollod.Bibl.

Herodotus

lib.

'

Ptol.

iii.

ii.

c. 5.

Heph. Nov. Hist.

this raft.

which

is

lib. ii. I

was one of the

oldest gods of

was reckoned among the twelve who were

p. 310.

think

it

lib. xi. p.

470. Macrob. Saturn,

it

Apollod. Bibl.

however right

lib.

i.

to observe,

c. 9- §

lib. v. c.

21.

19-

that the unfortur>ate ambi-

somewhat uncertain, whether Hercules

it,

he appears rather

Mr. Bryant's opinion,

tale of

to

mean

that Hercules

rendered the more probable by the

and by the annexed p- 323.

that he

tells us,

or

Minerva wah

In the beginning of the passage, Pausanias seems to speak of the latter;

but, at the conclusion of

clined to assent to

the holy ship Baris or Argo.

in

Athen. Deipnoe.

guity of the original Greek renders

on

was a representation

p. 133, 134.

* Paus. Achaic. p. 405.

strated

it

Phenicia the worship of Hercules was of very

the former country, and that he

* Asiat. Res. vol.

Doubtless

it

the former.

On

the whole

I

am

was the person seated on the

known veneration

in-

raft:

of the Tyrians for that deity,

an imagined voyage from Phenicia.

Bryant's Anal. toL

ii.

THE ORIGIN OF PAOAX IDOLATRY, produced from the famous Ogdoad

he was

but his history shews,

:

head of the eight primeval

really the

was sometimes reputed

383

Accordingly, he

divinities."

have been the parent of eight children

to

Noah,

as

tiiat,

;

and, at

other times, the father of three sons.* In Tyre he had a magnificent temple,

which

asserted to be coeval with the city, and

his priests

days of Herodotus

to

which

the

in

The

they ascribed the age of twenty three centuries.

curious historian took a voyage on purpose to

visit it

and from every

;

cumstance was convinced, that Hercules was a most ancient deity.' the Phenicians he « as esteemed the god of navigation

The Greeks borrowed

Palemon and Melicarth.*

working them up into a fable which

Among

and they called him

:

names

these

explains

sufficiently

who bore them

they represented the maritime deity

cir-

its

own

and,

;

origin,

as being the son of the

Thel>an Ino the nurse of Dionusus. 4.

Hercules however appears not only

in the character

maritime, but also in that of an infernal, deity.

once resembles Buddha and

all

In

ancients, the

Satyavrala,

aa ark

who

is

the

same

as

Noah,

it

is

in

Hence Afenu-

said to be Sradda-deva or the god

is

a part of the office of

convey the souls of the dead

for reasons

mythology of the

Buddha-Gautama and who was preserved

time of the deluge,

and hence

:

the

god of obsequies and the sovereign of Hades.

at the

funerals

in

particular he at

this

the other arkite divinities.

which have been already assigned, was esteemed,

of a warlike and

Buddha

in

of

or Salivahana to

a large vessel over the sacred Gangetic river

of Patala or Orcus.

Agreeably

to this notion, the diluvian

and

chus, Osiris, Adonis,

Once he descended Admetus another :

Pirithdus, or, as

Woden,

to

Hercules was supposed,

like

Bac-

have visited the infernal regions.

into the nether world to bring back Alcestis, the wife of

time he liberated from the shades of hell Theseus and

some

say,

Theseus

only.

On

both these occasions,

he

dragged to the realms of day the three-headed dog Cerberus.' '

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

43.

'

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

44.

*TicU.

*

Hesych. Lex. Euseb. Praep. Evan.

*

Albric. do dcor. imag. c. xxii. p. 324.

Diod. Bibl.

lib. iv. p.

232.

lib.

in

c.

i.

Lycoph.

ver. 38.

Herod. Hist.

lib. it. c.

9.

10.

Hyg. Fab. 51.

^polled. Bibl.

Txcti. in Lycoph. ver. 51, i328.

lib. ii. c.

5.^ 13.

oap.

^•

THE OKIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

384 BOtt* IT.

It is

into

worthy of observation,

that,

Mysteries of Ceres.'

This

tiie

The

design.

initiation into the

previous to his descent, he was initiated is

not said of him at

random or without

Mysteries scenically represented the mythic

descent into Hades and the return from tlience to the light of day

;

by which

was meant the entrance into the Ark and the subsequent liberation from

Such Mysteries were established

dark inclosure.

pagan world

:

in

almost every part of the

and those of Ceres were substantially the same as the Orgies

They

of Adonis, Osiris, Hu, Mithras, and the Cabiri. the allegorical disappearance, or death, tlieir

its

commencement and ;

or descent,

equally related to

all

of the great father, at

to his invention, or revival, or return

from Hades,

at their conclusion.*

As Hercules was thought have quitted

gloomy regions

its

esteemed an infernal deity, fered to him.

to have descended into hell,

in

in safety

;

so he

which capacity

and afterwards

to

was sometimes decidedly

sacrifices for the

dead %vere

of-

This was in his character of a Cabirus or Id^an Dactylus

:

and here he exactly accords with Buddha, or Menu-Sraddadeva, or BaalPeor.' 5.

We

have seen, that the columnal deity Terminus or Janus was one

of the forms,

under which Buddha was adored

in

the west

Mercury was another of those forms.

presently see, that

being also, as I contend, a form of Buddha,

we

;

and


shall

Hercules therefore

shall find, that his character

curiously melts into that both of Mercury and Terminus,

as the character

of Terminus similarly melts into that of Mercury.

In the collection of count Caylus, there are two representations of the Celtic Hercules-Ogmius or Hercules-Magusan, copied from an urn found at Sisteron a small

perfect

Terminus

pillar, is

town :

in Provence.

The god appears

in

each of them as a

human trunk, which surn)ounts the upright stone man clad in the skin of a lion. In one of the

but the

that of a robust

representations, he holds a club in his hand, thus uniting Hercules with Ter-

minus

:

in the other, he holds the

caduceus round which two serpents intwine

themselves, thus blendino toaether the characteristics of Terminus,

'

Apollod. Bibl.

'

Cicer. de nat. deer.

lib. ii. c. 5. §

12.

lib. iii. c.

l6.

*

Vide

infra

book

v. c. 6.

Her-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. coles,

and Mercury.

upper extremity

its

both

holding

Biiddha-Sakya,

may be

a ring or

observed, that the caduceus terminates at

Most of

among

sacred circle of his consort Ila

;

Hindoo gods are delineated, and the Sakwell, or ring of

the

numerous hands

their

greatly celebrated

is

This hieroglyphic was much used

circle.'

in the west.

one of

in

it

in

and

in the east

It

:

the Buddhists.

It exhibits the

which upon an immense scale

on the summit of mount IMeru, and which

to exist

385

alike

supposed

is

symbolizes the

Earth and the Ark. In another plate taken from the collection of count Caylus, Hercules

on a large stone playing on the

lyre,

while his club

lies

by

The god appears

faucon gives a somewhat similar representation of him.

leaning upon his club and standing near an olive-tree, a branch of which

On

holds in his hand.

one side of him,

fine arts

:

he

a blazing altar; and, on the

Here he assumes

other, lies his lyre at the foot of the tree.'

of the patron of literature and the

is

sits

Mont-

his side.*

character

tlie

and, while he bears in his hand

a branch of the sacred dikivian olive esteemed by the Celts a symbol of that universal knowledge which issued from the Ark, or

by which Terminus and Buddha were

alike

sits

upon the massy stone he seems to claim

represented,

the invention of the lyre which classical writers ascribe to Mercury.*

Nor

this

is

resemblance merely accidental or imaginary.

It w;as pointed

whom

out by Lucian, and fully acknowledged by a Gallic mythologist to

made

the observation.

minated Ogmius

tells u's,

that Hercules

that they depicted

;

and yet that he had skin,

He

all

him, as an ancient

man

nearly bald

the air of the Grecian deity, being clad in

and armed with a club and a bow.

he

was by the Gauls deno-

But, what appeared to Lucian

most singular circumstance was, that he was represented drawing

;

a lion's

after

tlie

him a

number of men by small golden chains, fastened at one end to their ears at the other to his own tongue. Slender as the chains were, not one of

and '

14-

Cayl. Ant. vol.

P-91,92. and

* Cayl. '

Ant. vol.

i.

i.

iMont. Ant. vol.

* Herat.

Astron.

lib.

Od. ii.

Pag.

lib.

pi.

SS.

apud Vallan. Vindic.

in Collect,

dc reb. Hibern.

vol. iv.

numb.

pi. 2. in fin.

p. ij.

ii. i.

p.

lbi
224. apud Vallancey Ibid. p. S7.

od. 10. ver. 6.

ApoUod.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

c. 3.

i

5.

c. 10. § 2.

Hyg. Poet.

c. 7.

Idol.

VOL.

11.

3

C

THE oniGIJI OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

38(5 HOOK

IV.

whom

the persons to

they were attached seemed to

make

the least effort to

break them or to express the least wish to extricate himself. they

trary,

all

On

the con-

followed the god with evident pleasure and eaiferness

for

;

the chains were slack, and therefore had not the least semblance of dragging

them along by

Lucian naturally enough concluded, that

violence.

an allegorical mode of expressing the powerful therefore that the god of eloquence

mentioning

among

effects

of eloquence, and

On

Gauls was Hercules.

the

he was informed by a

opinion and declaring his surprize,

his

was

this

Gallic pliilosopher, that his conjecture was perfectly right, that the attributes

Mercury were ascribed by the Gauls

of the Grecian

to Hercules,

and that

with them the warlike god of strength was also the god of eloquence.' This

whom

evidently that principal deity of the Gauls,

Mercury, and who was sometimes called Teutates and Hesus.''

Woden

He

ancestors in Cashgar and INIagadha.

of

all

Buddha

or Tuisto of the Goths, and the

was

is

Cesar pronounced to be

He

was the

or Tat or Tzvashta of their

in short the primitive fountain

the knowledge of the postdiluvian world, the real instructor in letters,

and the true author of

He was

social order.

was the primeval god of the ocean, and who

who

that ancient character,

sailed over its

mighty waters in

the vessel which his posterity symljolized by a sea-fish and a navicular cup.*

XVIII.

A

notion prevailed, that one of the exploits of Hercules was the

casting of certain

enormous stones

some

the approach of wild animals, or, as

bridge over which he might drive the herds

scene of

mouth of

into the

this action is laid in the straits

the ocean to prevent

make a sort of rude of Geryon from Erythia. The say,

to

which separate Europe from Africa,

and the stones themselves are called Hermata.'' This fable bears a near

rela-

tionship to the similar tale of the construction of Bal-Rama's bridge, which

'

Lucian. apud Banier. Mythol.

*

Casar. de

'

From

borrowed Potitius

:

bell.

Gall.

vol.

*

vcr.

p.

liercules-Pot or Hercules-Pouta their

but

name of this

Putitii.

was the

title

lib.

i.

c.

I

am

inclined to believe,

of the god himself, assumed is

the

26S— 2S2.

Bochart. Canaan,

263, 264.

that his Latin priesls

Virgil places at their head an archimage,

scarcely remark, that Put or Poula viii.

iii.

17.

lib. vi. c.

37. p- 644.

same word

as

by

whom

his chief minister.

Buddha.

he calls I

See Virgil, ^neid.

need lib.

IK'S

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

387

joined together the continent and the island of Ceylon. It was formed of vast stones,

same

and was fabled to be the work of his

name of the giant's causey am much inclined to believe,

superstition the

rently borrowed.

I

the monkeys.

allies

in Ireland has

From

been appa-

Hermata were of Buddha and

that the

the terminal kind, and were closely allied to the worship of I think

most probable,

it

same mode of

referred to the

:

famous columns of Hercules ought

that the

They seem

idolatry.

to

the

to

be

have been reckoned

two stupendous natural Termini or sacred pillars, and were perhaps originally

deemed forms of Buddha or Hercules

who, we know, both was and

;

still

continues to be venerated under the symbol of a large stone or rude column.

have been the nature of the Hermata, as we

Such

at least appears to

infer

from the very name

Terminus

to that of

;

may

which curiously joins the worship of Hercules-

Hermes

or Mercury, and thus brings us by a less direct that the

course to the long-established position,

Hermes of

Buddha of the east. 1 The peculiar and primeval form of Mercury was .

the west

is

the

a large stone, fre-

quently square, and without either hands or

feet.

Sometimes the triangular

shape was preferred, sometimes an upright

pillar,

and sometimes a heap of

From

rude stones.

the use of

form Kircher was naturally led to

this

He

pronounce, that Mercury was the god Terminus of the Egyptians. I believe, perfectly in the right

and as Buddha Hercules.

bore the

;

:

IMercury was at once the same as Terminus

just as Terminus,

Buddha, and Janus, are

These stones were aWed

name

Hermean

of

heaps.

So

of Mercury,

that,

specially indeed

whenever

was by the Greeks joined

in

it

Herma

The

tom of each passenger throwing a stone of the god.

last

alike the

same as

and Ilermea ; and the heaps were accumulated by the cus-

to the daily increasing

mass

in

honour

was the stone column esteemed the

was comnmnicated

composition with their names

was represented with the

attributes

figure

name we have a Sometimes the Mer-

to other deities,

Herm-Apollo, a Herm-Athene, and a Herm-Eros. curial pillar

was,

:

his

thus

of Priapus

:

nor was

it

without reason, for ultimately and fundamentally INIercury and Priapus were

each the great universal mystic abominations.

complex form

:

father,

and were each worshipped with the same

At other times

two stone

pillars

the symbolical column was of a

were placed erect

in the

more

ground, and were

'^^'^' ^'

388 1101)11

origin of ?agan idolatry.

thil

IV.

surmounted by a

third laid horizontally

precise form of the

immense

three separate upright

case the

number

three

who was adored

upon

trilithons of

pillars

two summits.

their

Stonehenge, as the other

at Borough-Bridge,

was selected

as the great father

in

This

take

I

honour of the

it,

the

is

that of

is

that in each

self-triplicated

deity

and the occurrence of such monuinents

:

certainly corroborates the opinion, that Stonehenge

Buddha, yet of Buddha venerated

was a primeval

in conjunction with

tem|>le of

deities of the

the

Brahmenical pantheon,' It

mode

astonishing to what a wide extent this

is

of worship has spread

and liow frequently the rude form of Mercury has been communicated

itself,

to other deities.

common mode of reasons, may be inferred

have already observed, that exactly such was the

I

representing Buddha: whence, exclusive of other

To a

Buddha and Mercury.

the identity of

similar source

the Betulia of the Phenicians

mentioned

stone columns (as

remarked) which are

I

have

just,

we must

ascribe

by Sanchoniatho, and the vast to be

found

in various

parts of this island.

As Buddha was

the great father and the reputed consort of Ila or the

great mother, and as the several forms of the male deity Avcre constantly

ascribed to the female

goddess

when

;

also represented

is

god bears the semblance of a

the

Thus

by the same symbol.^

after the flood

;

'

vol.

i.

sect. 4. p.

p. 16,

lib.

c.

Herod. Hist.

lib.

life.'

It

ii.

ii.

c. 51. Buxtort'.

c.

Kirchcr. CEdip. ^Egypt_

1.5.

Sanhcd.

c.

vii. fol.

60. Maciob.

See also twoelaboratenotcsof Ouzelius on the Octaviusof Minucius Felix,

19.

the great father

a bull, a

cow

;

is

when a

ciple, fully recognized in the

a merman, his consort boar, a west,

sow is

Arnob. adv. gent.

lib. v. p.

157.

;

or,

when

explicitly

markable passage from one of the Vedas '

to be instinct with

184.

When

when

i.

392.

was supposed

and was probably one of those vast oviform stones,

;

Phuriiut. de nat. deor. c. l6. Seld. de diis Syr. synt.

Saturn,

*

size



which Deucalion and Pyrrha cast behind them

and was by superstition believed

was of an immense

the

the Phrygian stone

Agdus was venerated, as a form of the mountain-born Cybel^. to have been one of those,

stone,

is

a

mermaid

;

when

a horse, a

a male dove, a female dove.

avowed

in the

Hindoo theology.

in Asiat. Res. vol. viii. p.

440, 441.

mare

;

This prinSee a re-

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

THF.

of which specimens are to be found perhaps

on two smaller ones,

artificially

this country.

in

leave a narrow door or passage,

World and

lized the

Magna Mater

the

and they were designed,

initiation:

which equally symbo-

and of which the great mother

the Ark,

genius or personification.'

Manah

a ship on the stocks; so as to

like

doubt, to represent the mysterious egg,

little

They were placed

through which the body of the aspirant

might be pertruded during the process of I have

389

a similar manner,

In of

ancient Arabs, were

tlie

the figure of a stone either square or pyramidal

esteemed sacred to Rhea, we

may

Venus,

and

worshipped under

all

and, from the cube being

:

that the

infer,

female

Avas the

INIinerva,

same shape was

attributed

to her likewise.

The intcicommunion

of deities, and the frequent mixture of the

Brah-

menical and Buddhic superstitions, caused the form of Buddha to be ascribed to

many

of the gods no less than of the goddesses

:

and the symbol

a square or conical stone equally represented Apollo, Neptune, and Her-

fii

cules."

Pausanias

tells us,

that the Athenians claimed to be the inventors

of the pillars called HcnncE, which were appropriated to the very same

Romans

purposes as the Termini of the instances of

Greek

of worship proves dispersion of

Not only

national vanity

it

to

;

have originated

prevail both in Asia

it

plain connection with the worship of

the vast pacific ocean.

worship of Dagon

in

Buddha

I

and

in

;

another of them.

Totorro and two other children Borlase's Cornwall, p. 174.

Proleg. c.

iii.

Achaic. p. 441. p. 52.

:

it

also in

over

I

may now mention

the similar

Tatooma and Tapuppa, who

are

These were the parents of

and from them sprang both the world, and

See Plate III. Fig. 27.

Maxim. Tyr.

Sale's Prelim. Disc, to

Pausan. Attic, p. 42, 43.

find

in the islands scattered

Tiie inhabitants of Otaheite ve-

Dissert, xxxviii. p. 374, 375. Seld. de diis Syr.

Koran,

sect.

collected by Gen. Vallancey. Collect, de reb. Hib. vol. '

to precede the

Europe, but we

supposed to be a male and a female rock.

* Pausaii.

and

many mode

have already had occasion to notice the stone

nerate as the most ancient of their gods



only one of the

globe.'

Buddha

one of those islands in

is

in the earliest times

mankind over the surface of the

did

adoration of

but this

:

the very general adoption of such a

iv.

i.

p. 17-

numb.

See also

14. p. 21 6.

many

instances

<="*•'• "•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUT.

390 B(ioK IV.

Such

whole race of hero-gods.'

ji^g

religious opinions, attached to such

names, seem to indicate, that those clusters of islands received both their theology and their population from the south-eastern regions of Asia.

only

is

the principal deity of Otaheit^

blance of a stone, but in

Buddha

comprehend

to

whence the

:

his

in

very

Tatooma appears and the name of

the essence

Om

same

virtually the

venerated under the imagined sem-

name two of the most ancient Buddha is called Tat, and is

own person

monosyllabic

triliteral

fundamentally and stone-god

Buddha

liis

are accurately preserved.

Egyptians.

In

Aum

of the is

be the stone-god

Aur

declared

Now

the

is

Tat-Om

or

probably the same

or Auri, the

Horus of

the Otaheiteans have a tradition, that two

fact,

of

Plindoo Trimurti

Brahma- Vishnou-Siva. to

titles

applied to him, as beino-

mythologic son Totorro

Tat or Taut compounded with

title

or

as

evidently

his

Not

the

ferocious

males, and an equally ferocious female whose moutii was furnished with two tusks of a prodigious size,

whence they came, and

but,

These were reputed dead, was ranked

made

formerly in

appearance

in the

island

:

what manner they arrived, Mas unknown.

to be devourers of

among

their

their deities."

human I

am

flesh

:

yet the

woman, when

inclined to suspect, that she

was the Calee or black goddess of the Hindoos, the Diana Taurica of the and the black infernal Venus of the Orphic mytholo-

Scythians or Chasas, gist

;

while the tradition relates to the introduction of those bloody

rites,

which were the never-failing concomitants of Cuthic devotion.

The male and

female stone-deities of Otaheite are doubtless the great

and the great mother

father

;

corresponding with the stone Mercury and

Cybel^, and with the stone god and stone goddess of the Arabs.

These

not only venerated the great mother under the symbol of a square stone, as I

have just observed

styling

They also denominated him JVudd Buddha : for, that this deity was the

him Tlieus-Ares or Thoth-Ares^

or Budd, that

same

but likewise the great father under the same symbol,

;

as

is

say,

to

Woden

or

Buddha, and consequently that the worship of Buddha was esta-

blished in Arabia,

evident,

is

'

Cook's third voyage, b.

'

Maxim. Tyr. Dissert

iii.

c.

both from the circumstance of his symbol

S-

xx.wiii. pi 374.

* Ibid.

Suid. Lex. 0£u;-Af1J'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

Si>

I

being a black stone, and from the sacred impression of his foot being shewn in the

Caaba of Mecca."

The

Hermes

classical

or Mercury, whatever liberties

with his original character,

is

of Phenicia, the Tholh of Egypt, and the Teutates

names and

One Tat

is

him

attributes alike prove

of the said,

of Buddha, as

titles

in

one of

taken

as the

Taut His

Buddha.

to be

we have

his incarnations,

same

of the Celts.*

seen,

is

Tat, Date, or Datta.

to have been a son of Atri,

Hindoo Trimurti was manifested.

triple offspring the

may have been

positively declared to be the

This

is

in

whose

nothing more

than the perpetually repeated story of the transmigrating great father and his three sons

:

same reappearing primeval

for the

triad is equally alluded to in

the several cognate triads of the Brahmenical and Buddhic systems of theology.

But what we are

at present chiefly

concerned with

is

the destination

of Datta or (as he seems to have been patronymically designated from Atri)

In the division of the world, the countries bordering on the

Dattatreya.

Nile or

fell to his

share

Thoth of Egypt

Hermes

hence, as Mr. VVilford justly remarks, he

:

are indisputably the

Indian Tat or Buddha.'

heaven immediately after the deluge. irvtCK

the ancients.'

on

A

Hermes

been the author of four sacred it is

may

point

votaries of

Buddha

notion of some books of this

or

Thoth was reported

books, which

to

none have

of astronomy

treated

;

a

well known, immediately connected with the mythology of

He

is

also said to have decyphered the inscriptions written

the pillars in the land

of Siriad previous to the flood

immediately connects him with Xisuthrus and '

Asiat. Res. vol.

*

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

lib.i.c.C.

Taut

classical

the theology of almost every nation, and into

largely than that of Egypt.*

science, as

this

the

holy books were divinely communicated to him from

pretend, that certain

more

But

The

be further proved by another curious circumstance.

description enters

is

and consequently the Egyptian Thoth and the

;

p. 8, 9.

ii.

Liv. Hist.

lib.

lib.

i.

Tol. viii. p. c. 10.

xxvi. c. 41.

;

a matter, which

Chaldean account of the

tlie

304, 305.

Clem. Alex. Strom,

lib.

Cicsar. de bell. Gallic,

i.

p. 303.

lib. -vi. c.

Octav. p. 49, 295. '

Asiat. Res. vol. v. p. 261.

*

Clem. Alex. Strom,

lib. vi. p.

Vide eupra 633.

b.

iii.

c. 5.

Lactam. 17.

Instil.

Minuc.

Fcl.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

S92 BOOK

IT.

So again

deluge.'

:

find Taut, invested

sovereignty of Egypt, and superintending the books written by the

witli the

Taut

seven Cabiri and their eighth brother Asclcpius.* the

we

Phenician mythology,

in the

same

therefore

doubtless

is

as Thoth, as Sanchoniatho indeed expressly informs us

:

and the

books of Taut and the maritime Cabiri, who were the builders of the complete that,

same

are the

ship,

as the books of

as the books of Thoth.

Thoth are

Now

it is

first

remarkable,

number; so the

said to have been four in

Hincloos have a tradition, that their four sacred books were formerly carried

which the Buddhists ascribe to

certainly those books,

Brahmens with equal of

These were

part legitimately and in part clandestinely.'

into Egypt, in

Menu, who

zeal to

the

They were in short the holy volumes Buddha and, in every instance, the story

Brahma.

same as

the

is

Buddha and

:

equally runs, that they were either Avritten or recovered at the time of the deluge.

Some

mythologists modestly ascended no higher than that great

made them coeval with the world, or even placed them before the creation. Thus we are again led to the conclusion, that the Thoth or Taut of Egypt and Phenicia is the Tat or Buddha or Ab-Boudevent:

others

Tat of Hindostan and Persia and Japan. Another

title

of

to say, the lord

is

Heri-Mai/a and contractedly Hermaya, that

Buddha

is

Maya

for both

:

he and

his

the word

appellation of 3faya, according as

mother equally bear the

is

masculine

or

feminine.

Greek Hermes and of the Phenician Baal-Hcrmon : and we may observe, that, if in the Hindoo mythology Maya is the mother of Buddha, in the Greek mythology she is no less the

This

title is

clearly the prototype of the

mother of Hermes or IMercury.

Another of

his titles is variously

This was also a name of Hermes

expressed Codom, Gautama, or Cadam.

who was

;

venerated by the

Beotians,

Samotin-acians, and Tuscans, under the kindred appellations of Cadinilus,

Casmilus, and Camillus* '

Synccll. Chronog. p. 40.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

* Tzetz. in

iii.

Lycoph.

crob. Saturn, lib.

iii.

similar manner, their

p.

obvious and close resemblance of these •*

.

Euseb. Pnvp. Evan.

lib.

i.

titles

c. 10.

75.

vcr. c.

The

8.

l62.

Mnas. apud Schol.

Serv. in

jEntid.

Cadmaol or Casmaol.

lib.

in Apoll.

xi. p.

650.

Argon,

The

lib.

i.

aiicient

vt-r.

yi7.

Irish had,

Collect, dc reb. Ilib. vol. iv. p. 494..

Main a

THE to

each other renders

of pagax idolatry.

onxtsirr

it

more than probable,

and name differently pronounced Cadam and Ilus. Another of the names of Buddha connected,

This

in

like

in

manner

or Ilus and

Cali,

in other

:

for there

:

as there

Menu

to

a goddess 11a and a god

is

this title

Buddha

whom

or Thoth or

the

Noah and

made of an is

Cal or

He

Taut or Teutates.

word

:

of Bule, Arran, Ila,

The

compound form

name of Hy, and

so

of'

Coll,

which they bestowed

was

their

Hercules-Mercury,

only a slight variation of the

is

that

to say Hercules- Mercury,

The name

name, as we learn from de

itself

designated,

is

Coll,

lie

between that

as they have given to others the

lona, from Buddha, Arhan, Ila,

same word

la Stonosa,

vviio

of oriental extraction

they worshipped Hercules

was the same

as

JVoden or Buddha.

:

for the ancient

Colls or Culis.

Chaldtians venerated

Their Culis was certainly

Cal-Esa of the Hindoos, and the Goles oiihe Celtiberians.

Asiat. Ues. \ol.

Idol.

Hu,

in the appa-

however, like most of those by which the Celtic gods were

Mercury under the appellation of the Cala or

same

of Goles, which naturally resolves itself into Col-Esa.

this

Pag.

;

universal inunda-

equivalent to thcdeluge

Celts of Spain used the

Under

'

mundane

and, in honour of him, cither they or their Celtic brethren of

and Yoni or loneh.

is

the

Goths or Scythians venerated under the name of JVitdd or JVoden.

country and Ireland by the

rently

who

throughout the pagan

titles

Scotland, designated one of the small sacred islands which

titles

Cala

have already seen to be the same as

Sometimes they called him Cull, which radical

Ilus.

of Buddha; unless I greatly mistake, that the

whom we

god Tat or Taut,

their

is

which

old Irish borrowed the sacred appellation

upon

closely

Hindoos gave the name of Cala

as the

that,

find,

the deluge of Time,

was from

It

Cala.''

title,

^\ho was saved at the period of a general deluge

books of the Persians mention

named

there

tion,

a

a goddess Cali as well as a

is

words, they are the transmigrating

or Buddha,

in the sacred

;

are that great universal father and mother,

Ila,

Accordingly we

Ark.

be compounded of

Cala or Time

is

were jointly venerated under so many different world

talie to

I

same

with the Cronus or Chronus of the Greeks.'

form of Call

the masculine

is

god Cala,

and

point of import,

Menu

or

that they are one and the

name

that

:

393

i.

p.

^

239, 240.

VOL.

II.

Ibid. p. 240.

3D

chap-

^•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRT.

394 BOOK

This widely spreading name

IV.

will furnish

and who equally

identify

perhaps the true etymology of the

who were fundamentally one divinity, themselves w ilh Buddha or Taut. Since the Baby-

both of Hercules and Mercury

titles

;

lonians and the Celts styled that deity Cull or Cules or Golex, if

the Sanscrit

names of

the

Hercules

may lord,

we

shall in

among

Mercury

Hindoo if

we

again

we

gods,

shall immediately

prefix to the

Maha

compounded of

possibly be

prevailed

or

the

and,

:

we

prefix

Heri or Lord, which perpetually enters into the composition of same word

the

Colis or

At

MercoHs.

application of the names,

it

This

last title actually

they indifferently called the god Taut

for

:

Mcr, which

title

and Htri, thus denoting the great

a similar manner have ]\Ier-Cules. the Chaldeans

have Ileri-Cules or

least,

if

was no more

there were any difference in the tiian this

and MercoUs was the rude terminal statue of the

Colis

:

was the

deity,

That statue consisted

deity.

of three huge rough stones, two of them placed upright, and a third trans-

Mercury or Hermes then being

versely on their suiumits.

we can scarcely doubt name Mercolis.^

deity as Colis or Mercolis,

a

mere corruption of the

From

same

name JMercury

that the

is

Cala, Cull, or Coll, the Greeks formed Cullenius or Cyl-

this title

which they used as an epithet of Mercury.

lenius,

certainly the

Sometimes he was

re-

named Cullene at other times he was said to have been born of Maia, w ho in the cave CuUen^ submitted to the embraces of Jupiter and there are mythologists, w ho make one at least of the Merported to be the son of a female,

:

:

curies to be the offspring of Quillenus variations of one original

Cala or Cula,

title

;

w hich

or Culenus.^

in the

Hcb. Lex. and De synt.

ii.

c.

15.

la

iv.

p.

82,

84,

p. 1 j.

type of those sepulchral demons of Arabic

Plantavil.

Scld. de diis Syr.

See likewise an elaborate note of Ouzel on the

The expression by

Goles, used as a vulgar oath,

This deity, who was ever esteemed an infernal god, seems

are feigned to dig

291, 480.

Stonosa on anc. Span, medals, apud \'allanc. ibid.

Beyer. Addit. in Seld. ibid.

Octav. of Min. Fcl. obsolete.

these are only

in tiie feminine Ca!i or Culi.

Vallanccy's Vind. apud Collect, de reb. Hib. vol.

'

All

masculine form was expressed

fiction,

to

is still

not quite

have been the proto-

which are denominated Goub, and which

up and devour the bodies of the dead.

They

frequently occur in the

Arabian Nights entertainments. ^

9.

Schol. in Stat. Thebaid.

ApoU.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

lib. iii. ver.

c. 10. § Z.

483.

Serv. in .Eneid. lib. iv. vcr. 577.

Ampcl.

c.

THK ORIGIV OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Buddha

likewise called Sac or Sacya

is

and,

:

SpJ

in a similar

western counterpart was denominated Soc or Socus.'

manner,

This Socus

I

his

take to

be the same term as Souchus or Suchus, which, as Damascius informs us was a name of the crocodile.* The appellation was doubtless communicated

on account of

to that animal,

Accordingly we

its

being one of the sacred diluvian symbols.

that Anubis or Thoth, the Egyptian Mercury, was represented standing upon the crocodile, and that Menes the first kino of find,

have saved himself on the back of one of those aquatic monsters during the prevalence of an inundation.* The crocodile in

Egypt was supposed

to

short was an hieroglyphic of the Ark, as

an ark or

Hindoos

the Ark, the

But

3.

On

chest.*

Buddha and Mercury

evident from the circumstance of

still

it

call the

not similarity of

it is

is

Campsa, which Hesychius assures us signifies the same account, as Menu or I\Ianes m as the sjod of

Egyptians denominating

tlie

there are

:

sacred allegator of the Ganrjes Maui.' alone,

titles

many

the latter deity, which also demonstrate, that,

who

which proves the identity of

particulars in the legendary history of

as

he

one with Hercules

is

has been sliewn to be Buddha, so (what indeed necessarily follows) he

Buddha and consequently the same as Noah. The mother of Buddha is said to have been called Maya

the

is

same

as

Mercury bears

name

the

The day of Buddha

of Maia.

Hindoos denominated the

by the Latins

:

day of Mercury, as by the Goths the day of IVodcn." revolves in the orbit nearest to the Sun,

by the appellation of Buddha Phurn. de nat. deor.



:

the mother of

is

it

is

by the

was called the

The planet, which among the Hindoos

distinguished

west the very same planet was denomi-

in the

Nonni Dion.

c. l6.

:

fourth day of the week

lib. xiii.

Horn. Iliad,

lib.

xx.

ver. 73.

Suid.

Lrx. •

Damas.

'

Moutfauc.

'

>it.

hid. apud Phot. Bibl. p. 1048. Aiit.

Exp.

vol.ii. part

Herod. Hist.

lib.

Moor's

Panlh. p.

lli:.d.

c.

ii.

ii.

Hisych.

691-13.

p.

197.

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

Typhon

Koah was shut up *

passed into a crocodile.

in the

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

Ark.

iElian. Hist.

p. l62. vol.

p. go.

Typlxim being mystically the lame as Osiris, Osiris having

iitered into an ark, and a crocodiic bting a symbol of that ark that the soul of

i.

Li-.\.

iii.

p.

o62.

By

Anim.

this lib.

;

we

find a notion prevalent

nothing more was meant, than that x. c. 21.

Maurice's Hist, of Hind.

toI.

ii.

p.

481.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

396 Bueitiv.

nated, and is

still

Maaoy

continues to be denominated,

represented by a large stone, frequently of a black colour

represented

Buddha

or Stilbon.'

Mercury was

:

a large stone, likewise frequently of a black colour.

l)y

Such arbitrary coincidences as these cannot be purely accidental

seem

me

to

to prove, with as

much evidence

as the

subject

admitting, that the western Mercury, Hermes, or Tlioth, racter as the oriental Mercolis,

Hermaya, or Tat;

the

same cha-

the

is

they

:

capable of

is

same therefore as

Euddiia.

The

4.

fabulous history of

tlie

classical

plainly leads us to that ancient personage,

Though

father of the renovated world.

Noah

who was

to believe,

I incline

may

may

more than one

be ultimately reduced to

all

Adam.

The

legend however of the

western INIercury seems peculiarly to refer him to Xoah, and thus to

him

the

He

same as the younger or diluvian Buddha of the

was variously reported

to

be,

the mythology of the west acknow-

that they

considered as a reappearance of

it

the head and universal

INIercuries, as that of the east recognizes

ledged several

Buddha,

Hermes, corrupted as

make

east.

be the son of Jupiter and Maia, of Bacchus

and Proserpine, of Uranus and Hemera, of Cronus and Maia, of Jupiter and CuUene, of Valens and Phoronis, of the river Nile, and of Quillenus In

or Cullenius/

he was

reality,

offspring of the great universal arkite

tiie

mother however denominated, and the same person as

named

father

:

Noah, according

for

reputed many-

his

to the different lights in

which he was

viewed, was indifferently esteemed the parent, the husband, the brother, or the son, of the vessel in which he was preserved

Phoronis, and are

all

Cullenfe whether considered as a

World and

equally the

is

:

her very

name denotes

From Maia Mercury was by Res. vol.

equally the general mother both

Maya

Asiiit.

Schol. in Stat. Thebaic!, lib. iv. vcr.

Asiat. Res. vol.

iii.

p.

577. i.

lib. iii.

Ampel.

p. 223.

in the east

and

the old Etruscans called in the masculine vol.

vcr. '183.

c. 9.

or Maia,

the great mother.^

25S. vol.i. p. l62.

'

*

'

as a sacred cavern,

most commonly reckoned the parent of the god, both

in the west

jCneid.

all

and Maia, Proserpine,

Such accordingly was the character of

of gods and men.

who

the Ark,

;

nymph or

Lactant.

Macrob. Saturn,

ii.

p.

375.

Cicer. de nat. deor. lib. Instit. lib.

lib.

i.

i.

c. 12.

c. 6.

iii.

c.

22.

Serv. in

THE ORIGIN OF PASAN IDOLATRY. Buddha

form Mains, exactly

as

Maius

to

supposes

this

is

believe

I

reason for his conjecture, than his finding

Etruscan

The

deity.'

and Maius and Maia,

Maya or Moye.

denominated

be Jupiter: but

title

Maius

like

Osiris and Isis,

31)7

him

Maius was

that

Macrobius

have no better

to

the principal

evidently the masculine form of

is

Maia

Adonis and Venus, Janus and

Jana, and other similar duads, are the two great parents of the Universe,

Noah and

the transmigrating

May

month of

the

when

the

Sun

received

entered into

As Mercury

mundane Ark.

denomination

its

the

:

to

lator

to

He

:

convey

in

we

father,

civilizer of

mankind

distributor of

first

the

same

in the first infant

their higli behests to the ears of sinful mortals

offspring Phoroneus

;

:

in the

ship was launched on the

first

and he was the peculiar messenger of the gods, w hose

the age of Inachus the son of

le
into national communities

;

Hence we

office

it

was to

in other words,

he

denounced the venfind

him placed

in

Ocean, of the nymph Archia or Argha, and

who was deemed

the

first

of men.

Originally,

are told, mankind used but one language, and lived under the empire of

'

JIacrob. Saturn,

*

iMr. Slrutt,

lib. i. c. 12. p.

in his

171.

romance of Quccn-IIoo Hall, has given a cuiious account

games as celebrated by our ancestors

in the

middle ages.

accidental similarity of names, the bold outlaw R/ibin Celtic

Budd

Horat. Od.

p. 203.

Wudd, and

or Scandinavian

cue age becomes the

10.

much

find

have composed certain ancient sacred books, when

geance of heaven to an irreclaimable world.'

*

are a

he was the primitive

:

fruitlessly

of their

jNIay-games

man, when rude

was that preacher of righteousness, who long

we

honour those

their

was the inventor of music, astronomy,

days of \he seven Cabiri or Corybantes the

ocean

commencement,

obsolete

he was the author of language

:

he was the

:

he was said

its

him, as were wont to be given to Dionusus, Osiris,

he was the general

state of society

god and croddess

and, at

:

now almost

was the great

or ISIaius then

Phoroneus, Inachus, or Cronus. letters

this

relic.''

actions ascribed

and

From

Taurus, were celebrated

which

phallic Mysteries, of

transcript and a

the

lib.

Lactan.

festive i.

strongly suspect,

Hood has usurped

maid Marian that of Maia.

that,

these

ol"

from an

the place of the

The mythology of

romance of another.

od. 10.

Instit. lib.

the

1

i.

Diod.Bibl.lib. i.p. 15..

Phurnut. de nat. deor. c. 6.

Nonni Dionys.

Manil. Astron.

lib.

i,

c. l6.

lib. .xiii.

p. 2.

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

Euseb. Praep. Evan,

1 Pet.

iii.

20.

i.

c. ly.

lib,

2Pct.ii.5.

i.

c.

THK

39s oouiv.

Jove without languaijcs,

but

ttie

lionour,

OF PAGAN IDOLATBV.

Ollir.rN

and witliout laws.

cities

But Mercury taught them various

and divided Ihein into separate nations.

e.irlie-^t

sovereign was

because he

first

Thence arose discord

Phoroneus, who was dignified

Juno

instituted sacred rites to

;

with

:

that

Juneh of Holy

the

Writ, and the Yoni or Argha of the Hindoos, who, after floatingas a ship

away

on the surface of

tlic

rious history

not very easy to mistake the import.

is

it

deluge, flew

in the

Of

shape ef a dove.'

this

cu-

Tiiere could liavc been

only one primeval universal sovereign and legislator:

and, whether he be

thenonof Ocean, or Phoroneus the offspring (j'.lrcliia, or Mercuii) the child 0) Maia ; still we may plainly enough perceive that the person >u Nhadowed out as existing in the infancy of the world when as yet called liiachus

there was hut one lanjiuacje, thou!»h that Idnizuage was afterwards subdivided into various di dects. can be no otiier than the patriarch

haps .5.

in the last instance as I

Noah, viewed

reappearing in the character of Nimrod.

have repeatedly had occasion to notice the circuuistance of the great

father beiny deemed an infernal god

interior of the

while the

;

Earth uas esteemed the region of Hades, and the deluge Thus, in the

river.

was preserved

in

Hmduo

souls of the deceaseil

Patala or Orcus

He was

mythology,

its

the goti

of oosequies and

i-.

to

this

was the

office

the conductor of the dead from the

he also possessed the power ot evocating

01

liijilier

tlie

of Phenicia and

ihe

tliciu fro

Tlioth of

nounced by the translator of Sanclioniadio

to be

tlie

u Mades.

As

and

such the

same

as the

Egypt

pro-

Her nes of

Indian Tat or

Hence

the cha-

precisely such, as miglit be anticipated.

In Phenicia,

Taut was reputed

to

be the original inventor of

the counsellor and secretary of Cronus, the IJyg. Fab. 143.

stiemi of

Egypt are righth

is

'

vene-

*

also be palpably identified vvith the

is

is

ferry the

wesiern Mercury.

Datta, who, like Taut, racter of each

to

notv

Greece: ami they must

said to have reigned in

tlooii,

to the nellier v\wili(,

Orphic poet makes him the same as IJacchus or Osiris

XIX. The Taut

sacred lake or

lliwuiilil

over the Ganges considered &> the

Si.mlar

Ark or the

Menu-Satyavrata or Huddha, who

an ark during the prevalence of an universal

rated as Sraddadeva or

1.

per-

*

Orph. Hymn.

first

who

letters,

corjalructed images of

Ivi. .flneid. lib. iv. ver.

242, 343.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

399

mode

the gods, and the primitive contriver of the hieroglyphical

He was

who

associated with the Cabiri,

And

author of certain wonderful books.

and

built the first ship.

In a similar manner, Thoth was supposed by the

been the autiior of literature relative tu

was the

all

the arts

tlie

:

knowledge of divine

He

proper name.

things, in wiiich

versed vine

iind

:

He was

he held so high a rank

reputed to be the

among

He

special appellation of the Deity.

The

common

die

self-existent

is

seem

parent and origin of them

hmi with the

Egy|)tians honoured

have litde donbt, that

which prevailed so

commonly

lie

in the

title

Trismegistus

tlie

all.'

when

of Thrice-greatest; and,

name Hermes-Trismegis-

at other times,

:

that the

Accordingly we

first

the idea

Magnus

more simply

and most ancient of the that

find,

M'as

it

Buddha

generally worshipped in a kind of triad, and

is

most ancient

This opinion was sometimes expressed under

tradition,

hero-gods begot three sons.

name

borrowed their

received the appellation from

the nolion of a mystic self-triplication set forth

to have

througliout the gentile world, that the

Pater was a three-fold being.

truly

cultivator of the

first

was even esteemed

united with this adjunct, the Greeks expressed his I

and without any

the immortals, that from his

Thciilh or Tlieus both the Greeks and Latins

of the guds,

he sets forth the majesty

was a character of [profound antiquity, and was deeply

every science.

in

Egyptians to have

and was thought to have written many books

of the Supreme God, and declares that he

and

He

he was the parent of

sciences.'

ii.

tus.

of writing,

is

or

Hermes-

declared to be

fundamentally the same as the great triple divinity of the Hindoos.

In re-

ference to this part of his character, which (as I believe) procured for him the

title

whence Lycophron heads related to

Eiiscb. Pra?p.

E\an.

CicLT. de

deor. lib.

n;it.

Euseb. Piu'p. Evan.

Theus and Dtits.

Divinity from '

lib.

Godam

Lycoph. Casaan.

lib.

i.

i.

c.

iii.

6S0.

Lactant.

22.

Instit.

lib.

1 he Sanscrit Devii and

Saxons

or Catid, which ver.

Tzetzes thinks, that his three sea,

and the

earth,

10.

c.

c. 10.

We

him sometimes represented with three heads;

dominion over the heaven, the

his triple



find

him Triciphalus.^

calls

*

witli

we

of Trismegistus,

liavo, is

a

in title

i.

Dcu

c.

6.

Anthol.

arc words of a

a similar manner, borrowed our of Buddha.

lib.

i.

common name

p. pi.. oiigiji

of die

chap. v.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

400 liooK IV.

or to his empire physical, ethical, and rational.'

But these are mere

refine-

Noah, viewed

as a reappearance of

Adam,

ments upon primitive

was esteemed

tiic

tradition.

of

liiis

:

and

fi'om that

idea of a threefold world, and

:

but the idea

from the very same source as that of the

triplication of the great father himself.

three sons of Noaii

the three

call

of the Universe divided into three parts

division originated

triple

Hindoos

universal sovereign of what the

xvorlds, that is to say,

The

earth was partitioned

amonc the

circumstance the ancients borrowed their expressed in the Orphic

their notion (as

That such was the evidently appears from the nature of the three kingdoms assigned to

writings) that case,

all

things were divided into tliree parts.

Neptune, and Pluto, the three sons of Cronus or Saturn.

Jupiter,

Every

Noah

part of the history of this last deity proves him to be the transmigrating

whence,

in tlie relationship in

which they stand to him,

be the three sons of that patriarch.

among them

:

and the earth or

must

But those three sons divided the world

fell

to the lot of Jupiter, the sea to the lot of

Now

infernal regions to the lot of Pluto.''

Neptune,

these tliree king-

are precisely the three worlds of the Hindoos, and the three divisions of

Hermes

the Universe over which the three-headed likewise the three kingdoms of

Saturn are the three sons of will

:

and. in the fabled division of the Universe between the three

sons of Saturn, heaven

doms

his three sons

ultimately be found to

Shem, Ham, and Japhet

Noah.

Hence

But they are

presided.

the fable,

:

for the three sons of

mentioned by Tzetzes,

mean, that Hermes-Trismegistus, the original

sovereign of the world and the most ancient of the gods, reigned over three divisions in the persons of those three sons into

Tzetzes however assigns yet a

himself.

Hermes

:

additional

whom

he has triplicated

third reason for the triple

he says, that he had three daughters by Hecate. light

on the

form of

This throws

Hecat^ was the same as

preceding remarks.

Proserpine, Ceres, or the great infernal mother

its

:

and, as seven Cabirae or

Titanides were sometimes added to the seven Cabiri or Titans, so with more arithmetical propriety were the three daughters of the great father assigned as wives to his three sons. '

Tzctz. in luc.

* Till' laith

and the infernal regions were used by

probably from the opinion that the

latter

tiic

were placed

the infernal gods were called Chtlionii or terrcslrial.

old mytlinlogists as

in the

synonymous

very heart of the former.

terms,

Hence

THE ORIGIN OF PAftAN IDOiATRY. The character, which Thoth bore among summed up by Diodorus Siculus.

He

held the

same

peculiar adviser in

all

he was his writer of the sacred

:

difficult

no names.

He

invented letters

;

to

many

and arranged

in

decent order every matter,

He was

the

first,

that

and that observed the nature and

distributed the stars into constellations,

He was

his

which before had

things,

that respected the worship and sacrifices of the gods.

harmony of sounds.

and

mankind.

and gave names

;

letters,

He possessed a wonderful He first taught the mode

emergencies.

talent of discovering all things useful to

of articulating distinctly

Egyptians, has been well

the

about the person of Osiris, as the Phenician Taut

office

did about that of Cronus

401

the inventor of the lyre

to

;

which he gave

three strings, acute, grave, and middle, in imitation of the three seasons of

He was

the year, summer, winter, and spring.

no

tree,

the planter of the olive-

than the original cultivator of the vine

less

vested the administration of Egypt in the hands of

be her most trusty adviser.

to

asserted, that he

In

fine,

XX.

Thoth

can properly belong to

Noah

is

Cronus

to the first

the Cabiri, and the

alone.

Mercury-Socus, or Buddha-Saca, or Thoth,

father of the seven Corybantes or Cabiri

Taut

But these are

which, considering

characteristics,

;

placed, that of Osiris,

is

to education,

which every ancient nation ascribed

of their gods or the oldest of their kings

first ship,

the Egyptian priests summarily

of the arts and sciences.'

circle

precisely the characteristics,

Osiris

he appointed hiui

was the inventor of every thing which related

and the author of the whole

the age wherein

and, \vlien

:

Isis,

:

M'as

supposed to be the

and, in the Phenician mythology,

represented as imposing on the seven Cabiri the task of transcribing

his sacred book,

while those Cabiri are said to be the children of Sydyk

or the Just Man."

Now

we

learn

from Pherecydes, that Vulcan espoused

Cabira the daughter of the oceanic Proteus, who bore to him the three Cabiri

and the three Cabirfe

;

and, from Herodotus and Hesychius, that he

Hence, as Thoth and Vulcan

esteemed the father of the seven Cabiri.'

and Sydyk arc '

Diod. Bibl.

p. 14,

Nonni Dionys.

'

Pherec. apud Strab. Geog. Idol.

Cabiri, they

15, 41.

*

Pag.

same

alike exhibited to us as the parents of the

lib., i.

was

lib. xiii. p.

233. lib.

Euseb. Prasp. Evan. x. p. -tZS.

lib. i. c. 10.

Herod. Hist.

VOL.

II.

lib. iii. c.

3".

Hesych.

3E

Lck..

'"*''•

'*•

THE OU/IGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATllV.

402 iiouii IV.

We

must evidently be one mythological character.

conclusion, that Vulcan also must be identified with

Jamblichus informs

maker of

that as the

us, that

are led therefore to

thf?

Thoth or Buddha.

the Egyptians called this divinity PIdlut,

and

good things he bore likewise the name of Osiris

all

;

but that the Greeks retained only that part of.his character, which respected being an artizan.'

his

mode

I suspect,

that

word PIttha

this

is

only

a quick

of pronouncing Biitta or Putta, and at the same time that

it

As

foundation of the Greek Hephaistus and of the Jphl/uis of Suidas. the identity of Phtha and Osiris, I take

Buddha and Iswara their votaries

saw

and that person,

The

in his

human

capacity,

that he

is

Noah, which

mechanic and the constructor of the Ark, ;

Egyptians additionally ascribed to him. great architect

Maga,

as

Twashta; who

Vulcan

his being the

same

is

ful artizans this

:

He

is

made

is

They

artist

figures, gallies

the

his

like their father,

whkh

is

evident,

both

close connection

were reckoned first ship.

Herodotus mentions, that

deities,

tlie

children the Cabiri were in form like the Pataici.'

liis

as the

the father of

skil-

Over

Vulcan, as the parent and head of the Cabiri, no

represented accordingly.

and

artist,

Hence, as being decidedly maritime

doubt presided.

Vulcan

the progenitor of Magus.^

Noah, and from

also,

profound

Buddha, considered

but their grand work was the building of the

work the chief

in

which the

attributes,

mythologically said to be

as Osiris or

with the maritime Cabiri.

enough

is

that which the classical

is

Phenician history

in the

there

relates to his being a

But, on what account he was specially esteemed an

from

fire,

Greeks omitting those other

the

Noah.

certainly the transmigrating

is

also a maritime deity.

part of the character of

peculiarly exhibits

as that of

enough that fundamentally they were one person

Accordingly, though Vulcan be celestially the solar his history to

for

they are gods of different superstitions indeed, but

:

plainly

shew

same nature

to be of the

it

the

is

we

statues

find

them

of Vulcan

These were small

the Phenicians were accustomed to place at the heads of their

on account of

same manner

their

as the

'

Jamb, de mystcr.

*

Asiat. Res. vol. ix. p. 74.

^

Herod. Hist.

supposed influence

in

maritime

Greeks did those of the Dioscori or

sect. viii. c. 3.

lib. lii. c.

affairs,

37.

Euseb. Prsep. Evan.

lib. i. c.

Ibid.

10.

precisely in

Cabiri.*

The

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN' IDOI.ATRV. Pataici indeed

venerated ries

seem

among the

been no other than the Cabiri, who were highly

to have

Phenicians, and

from the violence of tempests.

pound Pat-Isa or Bad-Isa

whom

'

who were thought to secure their votaThe name itself is probably the com-

at least the chief

:

Buddha

the orientals call

Pataicus or Cabirus was he,

or Budd-Isa or Potiti-Sat.

designated, the primitive eight gods of

one of them

The names

Egypt/

:

They were

clearly

This ogdoad Pherecydes, as

I

tlie

and, as such,

floating together in

have recently stated, exhibits to us

form by making Vulcan the father of

Cabirae by

among them both Vulcan

the arkite ogdoad:

were represented, not standing on dry land, but

fect

of these eight

by Herodotus, except that he mentions Pan as being

but the great Chronicle enumerates

and Helius.'

Vulcan and

names they may have been

the seven Cabiri constitute, by whatever different

deities are not given

403

tlie

they

a ship.

in its per-

three Cabiri and the three

sea-nymph Cabira.

Vulcan's character as an

artist,

exactly in the

same manner

as that of the

grand artizan Twashta, was supposed by the Egyptians to extend to the

whole world.

Hence Jamblichus speaks of him,

as being the demiurgic

Nous, the wise president of generation, the being who brings

to light the

Nous w ho was esteemed like Menu the Soul or Mind of the Universe, who built or created the smaller World or the Ark, who was reckoned the plastic father of the greater World when renovated after the deluge, who was the god of generation because all things were produced anew from his consort the Ark, and who was repreobscure power of

all

This

hidden matters.*

;

sented by the old mythologists as bringing those things light

from darkness into

because he brought them from the dark interior of the diluvian Ship

into the light of

Nous

Nous is certainly the same as that primeval who was himself produced from an egg wrapt in by tempests, and who afterwards generated from his own

open day

this

:

of the Platonists,

storms and tossed

essence three younger Noes.

In each particular, Vulcan or Phtha or the

creative Intelligence of the Egyptians agrees with the

and Platonic

schools.

He

was thought

'

Aristopli. Iron. ver. 275.

'

Chron. Magn-. apud Banier. Mylliol.

*

Jamb, du

to

*

Schol. in loc.

inyii. sect. viii. c, 3.

vol.

i.

p.

Nous

of the

Orphean

have been born from an egg, Herod. Hist.

493.

lib.

ii.

c. 43.

chap, v.

THr ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

404

which procfcded out of the mouth of Cneph; and he was the father of three

named

sons

In

Cahiri.'

tlic

mythology Vulcan

classical

is

be the husband of Venus

said to

which makes him the consort of Cabira the daughter of Proteus.

nymph Cabira and

and the planet Venus

oriental

both of the goddess

title

and Astarte, the Phenician Venus, was reputed

:

Venus however was not

Cincius

even

god

is

Maia

is

Now

or Ceres or Parvati. :

while Piso

;

Maia was

title

the mother of

Maya

of

Buddha

character, differing

Buddha and Vulcan

that

are the

or

we

whence, according to the system of niythologic genealogies,

are again brought to the conclusion,

in

united in composition with Sita,

both a Hindoo, a Sicilian, a Phenician, and a Celtic,

Argha

Mercury

Maiesta

for

called

These accounts are

proper denomination was Maiesta.^ ;

Cronus.*

was

that his consort

tells us,

to

mythology

classical

and thatfrom her was derived the name of the month of May

substance the same

which

whom

the only goddess,

esteemed the wife of Vulcan.

affirms, that her

each

names

their very

be the mother of the seven Titanides or Cabirae by the

Jllaia,

:

sea-

This identity appears, not only from

them both with the ocean, but from

Cabira or Cahar was an

themselves.

The

Venus were the very same person

the maritime

was tqually the Ark or great mother. the connection of

or

but

:

does not differ in effect from the preceding account of Pherecydes,

this

same

no more from each other than Buddha, Jain, and Mahi-

man. Agreeably to

Vulcan or Phtha

this conclusion,

esteemed the father of the gods

:

whence

there

portal of the temple at Heliopolis, dedicating

city/

In the Phenician history he

has led

some

ter is the

writers into the opinion, that

Tubalcain of Scripture,

prove, that his location triarch

Noah

:

for he

is

is

a genealogical

Porph. apud Euscb. Praep. Evan.

*

Euthym. Zegab. Panop. apud lib. i.e.

But

it

was an to

inscription

him

Ch?yson

:

in that express

and

Vulcan both

his

upon the

in

name and charac-

very attributes seem to

error,

capa-

his location there

and that he

is

me

truly the pa-

lib.

iii.

c. 11.

Seld. de diis Syr. p. 211.

C'cdreii.

Chronog. Euseb. Praep.

10. ^

*

Macrob. Saturn,

*

Hermap. apud Marcellin,

lib.

i.

c.

to

said to have been a great mechanic, to have been

'

Evan.

called

is

by the Egyptians

v\as

12. lib. xxii. c.

15.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. skilled in metallurgy,

to

have been a profound divine or prophet,

been the original inventor of

and above

light boats,

men that sailed upon the ocean.' XXI. As Vulcan was deemed by the

first

have been the

Egyptians the parent of the gods,

him one of

deities

so

:

Pan or Mendes primeval divinities who preceded

same character ascribed by them the eight

and even esteemed him like

to

all

have

to

of

and was thought to be the father of the Cabiric the

40J

to

we

find precisely

reckoned

for they

;

the twelve inferior,

They placed hia» therefore, ogdoad whence it will follow, that

the most ancient of

Vulcan, at the head of the Cabiric

all."

:

he must be the same person as Vulcan, and consequently the same also as

Thoth or Buddha. Phurnutus speaks of him as being a very ancient demon

1.

the indecent

mode

in

superstitions

:

Pan was thought

and, as

he was really the great father matical

manner

Mercury

as

;

Unhappily the phallic worship was common

Priapus.'

allied to

and, from w hich he was represented, suspects him to be nearly

to be the son of

to both

Mercury, and as

he was depicted in the very same emble-

;

himself,

and was esteemed the masculine

presi-

dent of generation.* 2.

With

respect to the period in which he flourished, since he

declared to be the eldest even of the eight primitive gods, rightly placed

age of Dionusus,

in the

Osiris,

is

we

expressly

Typhon, and the Titans.

Like Anubis or Thoth, he was supposed to have attended Osiris travels

;

and

classical

When

Bacchus, and the Satyrs.

goat and a

fish,

into the sacred

in

his

mythology ever makes him the companion of Silenus,

or the ocean, he advised M'hich occasion he

him

find

them

to

the hero-gods were attacked by

assume the forms of

Typhon

different animals

;

on

metamorpliosed himself into a monster compounded of a

Under

the Capricorn of the zodiac. river Nile, itself a

this

symbol of the deluge

shape he plunged

;

and thus escaped

the threatened destruction.'

'

^ '

c.

Sanchon. apiid Euseb. Praep. Evan. Pburn. de nat. deor. Ovid. Fast.

28.

lib.

i.

c. 27.

ver.

*

393—404.

Hyg. Fab. 196. Eratos.

lib. i. c.

10.

Diod. Bibl.

lib.

Diod. Bibl.

Cafast. c. 2?.

* i.

lib.

Herod. Hist.

p. 7S, 79. i.

p. l6.

Clem.

lib.

ii.

c. 4(5,

145.

Ale.x. CoLorf. p. 40.

Hyg. Poet. Astron.

lib. ii.

^''*'- *•

406 HOOK

IV,

3.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.



The Orphic

poet celebrates him, as the universal father, the lord of

the world, and the true horned Zeus or Jupiter: and he describes him, as

He

being an infernal god, the helper or conductor of ghosts like IMercury.'

him as delighting

also speaks of

which

is

common

to nearly all

caves

to reside in

:

a part of his character

who

the arkite-gods,

are continually repre-

sented, either as dwelling in caverns, as being nursed in caverns, or as being

Porphyry has written a whole

born from caverns.

which he gives many instances of

this

mode

of worship

mystic intercommunion

in

shadowed out the

latter as

much

great father from a cave denoted

:

birth

Hence

Moon

the birth of the

:*

He

meant, that he was the husband of the Ark.

who borrowed both

the ship

Argha

their

name and

and we

By

notion prevalent, that he gained the love of the Moon.'

the Arcadians,

find

this

and who delighted

was

it

was highly venerated by

from

their superstition

as a sylvan deity,

roam upon

to

who

presided over herds of cattle,

he was represented with a

He

the summits of the loftiest mountains.

was likewise esteemed a guardian of orchards and a planter of vines sickle or pruning-knife in his

hand

fit

and

;

for the pur-

In short, to use the language of Scripture

pose of dressing vineyards.* it

a

insomuch that he was peculiarly styled the god of Arcadia.

;

Here he was venerated

when

us,

Porphyry men-

from the Ark.

Arcadia dedicated to Pan and the

tions a cave in

subject, in

and he informs

the consecrated grotto therefore

as the former.

his

:

on the

But the World and the Ark

that the sacred cave represented the World.

were venerated

treatise

speaks of his prototype, he was a husbandman or

Yet, while the Arcadians adored him

man

in conjunction with the

of the earth.

Moon

;

they

had a remarkable opinion among them, that they themselves were prior to that planet.'

This was true of them as a family

were of course prior

to the vessel,

mically represented by the

'

*

5

Porph. de ant. nymph, Ovid. Fast. liK

ii.

i.

jv. ver.

264.

lib.

p.

ver.

ver.

for

the primeval arkites

and which was astrono-

Moon. hymns seems

to

me

to render (fav-

Orph. Hymn. x.

properly by larvarum.

Ovid. Fast.

built,

learned translation of the Orphic

The very curious and

' TCLtnuiv

which they

:

'

263.

271

— 278.

469, 470.

Lycoph. Cassan.

ver.

Virg. Georg.

Phurn. de

lib. ii. vcr.

482.

lib. iii. vcr.

392, 393.

nat. deor. c. 27.

SgO.

lib. v.

Tzetz. in loc.

ver. 89, 90.

ApoU. Argon,

lib.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLAfRV.

XXII.

the mother of

as

Maya

In the mythology of Hindostan,

407 not only

represented,

is

Buddha, but likewise as the parent of the amatory god

Cama, who must evidently be identiiied with the Cupid and Eros of the The Indian and the classical writers have agreed in sinking the chawest.' racter of this deity into that of a boyish mischievous urchin, who peculiarly delights in the cross purposes of love

were by no means forgotten

:

yet his genuine primeval attributes

:

and both those

and

attributes,

his birth

from

JMaya, prove him to be the same personage as Buddha. 1.

when

Hesiod celebrates him, as born the earth

at the very

time,

emerged from that chaotic deluge which regularly

first

tervenes between world and world.*

of him

commencement of

in-

Aristophanes gives a similar account

but adds, that he sprang from an egg produced in the bosum of

;

Erebus by Nijfht or the black Venus, that he was the general father of the

human

and that he called them forth

race,

darkness into

He

Exactly accordant

light.'

some remarkable manner from

in

is

the language of the Orphic poet.

speaks of him, as having the keys of the Universe, and as alike presiding

over the sea and the air and the earth equal power

in

Hades, or as being an infernal god

styles him the double divinity

sonage

whom

he represents him

:

he

;

a

title,

calls the first-horn,

a tempest-tossed egg and as being the

:

as

also,

having

and he mysteriously

which he similarly gives

to tlie per-

whom he describes as issuing from common parent both of hero-gods and

and

of men.* 2.

These

of the western mythologists,

tales

attire,

floating

machine

stripped of their sym-

out of a

at the close of a general deluge, that his family at that time

emerged from darkness mankind whether

all

when

denote only, that the primeval Cupid was born

bolical

to the light of day,

and that he was the ancestor of

deified or not deified.

Agreeably to such speculations when rightly understood, the Hindoos say, that their

Cama wns

once seized by a

chest or ark, and tl>en cast

a large '

fish

:

him

terrific

demon, who placed him

into the ocean.

but, the fish being taken, the ark

Asiat. Res. vol.

i.

p.

255.

'•Aristoph. Av. vcr. 694.

The

in a

ark was swallowed by

and the

*

Hesiod. Theog. vcr.

*

Orph. Hymn.

child

1

Ivii, v.

16

which

— 122.

it

con-

chap.

v.

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

408

Cama.

tained were discovered by Reti the consort of

within

privately brought

it,

is

Henceforth, though Reli

his death.

she was considered also as his mother.'

his consort,

This

he had sulVicicnt strength to destroy

until

Sambara who had sought

the malignant

was

him up,

the precise story, which occurs so repeatedly in the legends of the

hero-gods, and which can admit of only one interpretation

resembles the fable of Osiris, Horus, jjoint

Isis,

and Typhon

where the two superstitions blend together.

Horus was

the elder

seeing an infant

She,

the

same

as the

;

but

:

which

Plutarch

god Caimis,

and that

peculiarly

it

is

in fact the

that

us,

tells

his consort

was

named Rhytia. These are manifestly the Cama and the Reti of Hindoos. By the elder Horus I specially understand Buddha but, :

fable being

common

on

traditions relative to the deluge,

Tdus

and the younger Horus.

told of Osiris

the

the great superstitions inasmuch as they were

to both

both chiefly founded

the

Typhon, and

inclosed in an ark by Srnu or

which represented the ocean

:

to

Osiris

is

we

fi

n

it

equally

said to have been

have been cast into the Nile

and thus Horus, when pursued by the same

monster, was hid by Latona in the sacred island Chemmis, which was sup-

posed to places

shew, what deity

sufficiently

received

Cama

deep lake near the

a

float in

its

Buddha

He

;

Cameses,

worshipped there.

Horus who ;

is

the

of these

Chemmis same

as the

Cames or Chemosh of the Moabites, Italians who was venerated with Janus and

the Hindoos, the

and the Cameses of the ancient Cronus.*

was

appellation from Caimis, the elder

Cam-Isa of

or

The names

city Butos.

was indeed Janus himself,

whom

I have already

shewn

to

be

god into two persons, Janus and

though the Etruscans divided

this

whom

most ancient sovereigns, the country

made jointly

they

their

being called Catnesene from the one, and the city being denominated Janiculiim from the other.'

Buddh

:

and

it

In a similar manner, Butos

was supposed

those eight primary deities,

*

Asiat. Res. vol.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

whence Milton

calls

tion, ' '

Macrob. Saturn, Herod, Hist.

iii.

to

is

the city of

But or

have been the residence of Latona, one of

whose head was Pan or Buddha or

Thoth.'*

p. 183, 184,

lib.

i.

c. 7. p.

him

151.

Chemosh was

tht obscene dread

i.

c. 7.

lib. ii. c.

156.

the Moabitic god of love or genera-

of Moab's

sons.

THS ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. Plutarch accordingly

Pan once dwelt near Chemtnis, where

that

us,

he was originally worshipped.

doiil)tless

3.

tells

409

ancient Cupid or Caiiiiis being the

The

same

Buddha, we

as

him designated by the veiy name of that god, while Buddha

shall find

in return is dis-

tinguished by his special appellation.

Thus

Abbuto or

the

Camasson, where he

father

is

Buddha of

the Japanese

China called

in

is

venerated as the god that presides over navigation

:

and thus the primeval Cupid was sometimes styled Pothos, from which the

Greeks formed a verb signifying to be, like

but which

to love or to desire,

Btitos, a mere variation of Pot, Bof, or Buddha.^

as Buthos, which the

same word

mentally the

itself I

It

Greeks applied

take

funda-

is

to the vast

This application they learned from their Pelasgic or Scythic

aqueous abyss.

who came from the northern region of India for, among the Hindoos as among the Egyptians, water was esteemed a form of the great

ancestors,

Hence,

father.

Chaos

;

is

is

was no

less a

it

as a female

:

same

said to be the

The

declared to be no other than Buthos.*

Baut, and spoke of ter

Janus

in the west,

but

this is

of

Chaos

as

;

while

Phenicians expressed

little

it

consequence ; for wa-

form of the great mother than of the great

father,

and

Buddha or Ila was an hermaphrodite.' 4. The various genealogies of Cupid will all be found to lead to the same conclusion, that he is the fod Buddha or Noah as worshipped by the Buddhists.

Me birth

have already seen, that Aristophanes and the Orphic poet deduce his

from a wonderful egg, which was driven about by the winds on the

surface of a watery

makes

his

Chaos

nativity

;

synchronical with the emerging of the earth from the

bosom of the hoary deep. the Phenician

Jarrige Hist, dcs Indes.

Similar are the doctrines, which were taught in

According to Sanchoniatho, the principles of the

school.

Universe were a dark

'

while Hesiod, though he mentions not the egg,

air

and a turbulent Chaos, from

liv. v. c.

31.

Euseb. Prasp. Evan.

lib.

i.

c.

the mixture of

10.

Phurn. de nat.

deor. c. 25. *

Ovid. Fast.

*

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

Pag.

lib.

Idol.

i,

ver. 103.

Epiph. adv.

haer. vol.

i.

p.

\6i.

lib. i. c. 10.

VOL.

II.

3

F

'"'^'''

*

THK OniGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

410 aeoK

IV.

was born Pothos or

^viiich

Eros

Ciij^id

and afterwards he

:

says, that Potlios

(for he groundlesi^ly divides this ancient being into

Here we have

the sons of Cronus and Astartt.' the floatinij e
in effect,

In classical mythology, Cupid

was born from the

he

in that capacity

As

sea.

as

Maia

such, he

a maritime deity,

is

like

sail to the wind, and sometimes

Dagon

fishes,

on the sea

floating

who informs

the last seems to be explained by Elian,

in

at

him threw him

that the elder

us,

and gave

into the sea

same person

as

Venus or Mylitta or

the

Ark

;

hiin

a

Cu-

Sun being

shell

of

tiie

for his

tainly the sacred navicular

As

of the deluge. in his

arms

mother, he

is

cup Argha, which

a maritime god, Cupid

is

are assigned to him as well as difterent mothers

,

He

is

cer-

an avowed copy of the Ship

when

always attended by the arkite dove.*

bottom of each account.

and

sometimes appears receiTing

as she rises out of the sea; and,

and Night, of Cronus and Astarte

:

great father

the shell or the cup, which transports Cupid over the mighty deep,

lurks at the

and

which was indifferently es-

wife, or the daughter,

teemed the mother, or the

his

:

Lucina hoAvever, or the goddess of parturition, was the very

habitation.'

Venus

fish,

a large con^

pid was the son of Lucina and the lover of Venus, and that the

once displeased

and

sometimes

All these representations have one and the same meaning

shell.*

who :

cup or pitcher while he expands

gliding along the surface of the ocean in a

cave

the Ark.

upon the back of a

sometimes driving over the waves a chariot drawn by two

his little

or

generally reckoned the son of Venus,

is

depicted, sometimes riding

is

vvere

the agitated dehigc, and,

was the same

for Astaitt

:

two persons)

and

;

in

company with

Different fathers

but the same

trutii

still

was not only the son of Chaos

of Maia, and of Lucina; but likewise

Mars and Venus, and His reputed parent Diana was doubtless the maof Jupiter and Venus.' ritime Diana, who was venerated as the queen of the waves, and who was By the ancient Italians she was called Jana : the same as Venus or Maia. of [Mercury and Diana, of ^Mercury and "\^enus, of

'

* ^

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

lib.

Montfauc. Ant. Expl. jElian. lib. xiv, c. 28.

*

Pausan.

'

Cicer. dc nat. dcor.

1

i.

c. 10.

vol.

i.

p.

Ill

et infra.

Sec Asiat. Res.

vol.

iii.

p. 186,

187.

Eliac. p. 307. lib. iii. c.

23.

Lactan.

lustit. lib.

i.

c, 17.

.

",

THK OUIOIN OF PASAN IDOLATRY, and indeed

tlie

compound Diana

but equivalent to

is

was therefore the corresponding female

we have

was Buddha.

seen,

Mercury, and Mars

The death

also

but Janus, as

:

Cronus, and

the character of

is

was Mercury or Thoth or Buddha.

of the Hindoo

Cama

by the hand of

Isvvara,

previous to

the ark and set afloat on the ocean, was solemnly la-

his being inclosed in

mented by

Janus

divinity to

She

divine Jana.

whence, agreeably to the system of mythologic ge-

:

nealogy, Cupid himself 5.

Such

i/ie

411

his consort Reti

:

and one of the sweetest measures

in Sanscrit

prosody bears the name of Rett's dirge.^ This

is

identical lamentation of the

certainly the

account of the supposed death of their Cupid,

and

it

tis,

and Dionusus

Egyptian

women on

tliey called

Alancros

not a

little

The

in Phenicia,

song,

it

either the words

how

it

to

other places

air, :

was of old

and Herodotus

Egyptians acquired

the

sonc

this

was of the remotest antiquity among them

he says, that they themselves called it

or the

He

resemble the dirge of Linus as used by the Greeks.

confesses however, that

believed

many

Cyprus, and

perplexed to learn,

so exactly did

it

the song

of'

Maneros, and

and

:

they

that

have been composed on account of the premature death of

Maneros who was

the only son of their

first

king.*

Maneros

therefore

the fabled offspring of Menes, or Phtha, or Helius, or Thoth; eay,

:

corresponds with the similar lamentations over Osiris, Adonis, At-

equally used is

whom

he was the same as each and every of these cognate gods.

was the allegorical death of Osiris or Noah: and he was Menes or

Menu

;

for

Maneros

is

his very

name

that

was

is

to

His death shews, that

equivalent to Cupid the

Menu-

Accordingly, like Noah, he was thought to have been the inventor of hus-

bandry; and, agreeably to the character of INIercury and the Celtic Hercules, 6.

he was esteemed the disciple of the Muses.'

As

the primeval

Cupid was the great

father,

he sometimes bore the

Vulcan and Pan, he was occasionally iden-

r]a.me

of Pappas.

tified

widi the Universe, and was esteemed the most ancient of

voL

Hence,

'

Asiat. Res.

'

Jul. Poll. lib. iv. c. 7.

iii.

p.

1

87-

like

*

Herod. Hist.

lib. ji. c.

79.

all

beings

*"'"'• '•

THE OniCIX OF PAGAN' IDOtATRV.

412 hence also

His amour

was reckoned the god of love and generation.'

lie

with the beautiful Psyche has been variously wrought up by different authors, ancient and modern, into an elegant mythological tale

seems

:

but the whole of

have been founded upon the allegorical love of

to

Psych^ was represented with the wings of a

mother.

womb

and the mystic regeneration from the

arkite consort,

Noah and

made

and

and

his restoration to life

When

7.

and, from

:

tlie

Egyptians

a symbol of the death of Osiris, his inclosure within his limiform

it

coffin,

liberty.

the waters of the deluge had retired,

God

set his

how

heavens as a token that they should never return to cover the earth the rainbow naturally

In the character of necting

it

became a concomitant of the

Iris

who

the

is

same

hend

import

its

;

as the navicular

this sign,

Yoni or Argha,

put bows into

fell

into the

same

error, giving

But,

bows

what was

by the bow of Cupid, and thence analogically by the bows of

really uieant

the other arkite deities,

is

decidedly shewn by the curious carvings in the

front of an ancient Mithratic grotto,

of which Thevenot has given us a de-

In the upper compartment appears a winged Cupid, not armed seated upon the arch of a rainbow.

bow and arrow, but

hand

to

Durga, and Bal-Rama.

a similar manner to Cama,

right

liave

most part they misappre-

Thus they were wont

The Hindoos

with a quiver of arrows.

with a

I

Diana, and Cupid, furnishing them also

the hands of Hercules, Apollo,

lineation.

for the

con-

transforming the rainbow into an offensive weapon, and

the arkite divinities into archers.

in

But

to be the waters of the flood. ^

hence

:

god and goddess.

arkite

the Greeks have faithfully preserved

both with Juno,

the

in

and with the oath of the hero-gods by the waters of Styx, which

shewn

his

of the great

butterfly

the remarkable physical changes which that insect undergoes,

it

is

On

his

seen the mysterious conical pillar or phallus, surmounted by

the head of the Mithratic bull circular columniform

on

:

his left,

altar blazing with fire

a

second phallus, and near

it

a

which ascends towards the solar

orb.'

'

cies,

Phurn. de that

nat. deor. c. 25.

Cupid received

the

Pappas

name from

^

Hesiod. Thcog. ver. 780.

*

See the plate in Thevenot par.

ii.

is

the

Homeric Jppa.

Phurnutus whimsically

the sound produced by kissing.

p.

145. or in Bryant's Anal, vol.

ii,

p.

426.

fan-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY. XXIII. From

manner

the conspicuous

in

413

which the Persian Cupid

is

exhibited on the very front of a Mithratic grotto, where he occupies the principal place pliant votary,

and appears

I think

god Mithras himself.

same

Buddha

as

stance,

we may reasonably infer, that he In this case we must conclude,

and

;

the act of receiving the adoration of a sup-

in

the conclusion

will

is

no other than the

that IMithras

the

is

be confirmed by the circum-

Buddha having been once estaancient Mahabad or great Buddha,

already noticed, of the worship of I take

blished in Persia.

the primeval

him

to be the

Aboudad who reappeared at Time

character of Taschter, and the Cala or

the time of the deluge in in

the

whose days the sacred books

of the Behdins assert that an universal flood took place.' Tiic .symbol of -Mithras

1.

man-bull

the Zend-Avesta, a

the heifer Isis or Astarte, crescent,

ized

was a

in the

we may

collect

from

those of

like

were thought to have a reference to the lunar

w hich was the a.stronomical type of the less

than by a bull

He

Ark.'' ;

was symbol-

agreeably to the

old

Mysteries which speaks of these two sacred animals as being

Sometimes also he was represented by a

mutually parents of each other.' lion,

or rather, as

and the horns of the animal,

:

however by a serpent, no

chaunt

bull,

which was very frequently used as an hieroglyphic of the solar great

father

:

and sometimes,

Egyptian Thoth or Buddha, he was exhi-

like the

bited in close connection with the

famous symbol of the globe, serpent, and

wings,'' 2.

of

His Mysteries appear

Isis,

ditions

and astronomical

have been of the very same nature as those

to

Ceres, and the Cabiri

chiefly

;

founded on a mixture of diluvian

Tliey were celebrated in deep caverns or grottos, sometimes natural

sometimes

artificial

the earliest of which

;

is

said by

Porphyry

consecrated to the god in the mountains of Persia. Mithratic grotto was a symbol of the World, and

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

^

Stat.

^

Jul. Finn, de error, prof. rel. p. 52.

Thebaid.

i.

p.

lib.

that

He it

to

and

have been

tells us,

that the

was dedicated

to

240.

i.

* Horapoll. Hieroz. lib.

M}'thol. vol. ii.p. 110.

tra-

reveries.

ver.

i.

720. Schol.

sect. 71.

in loc.

Clem. Alex. Cohort,

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

p. 11. c. •21.

Montfauc.

in

Banicr.

chap.

v.

414 lidUK IV.

THE ORIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Mithras as the great universal father who made the World.' lieve

him

Ark, as

Hence

ot the ^Vorld.

common

to

World

the

:

same symbols and

the

same

The

larger ship the

personirications aro

Consequently the grotto represented at once the just as

of

Ila the wife

Buddha

Universe and the diluvian ship Argha

sails

it

the

them both.

circle of tlie

though

this I be-

have frequently observed, was esteemed a Microcosm or epilom^

I

Ark and

In

be accurate, provided his assertion be rightly understood.

to

on the waters of the \V'orl(l,

flood,

;

both

is

wiiile the

Argha

yet considered as

is

the great itself,

being that

uhich Mas supposed to have once floated on the

bosonl of the mighty chaotic deep.

This seems necessarily to follow from the fabled birth of Mithras.

phyry the

that the cave was consecrated to him, because

says,

World which he created:

from a rock, that

is

to say,

it

yet he was also su|)posed to have been born

from a cavern hewn out of

we

are properly to understand the divine Creator of

could he himself be born out of that very cavern sented the

World

that Mithras

from

it.

first

But

this

him

as created by

It

.'

created the World,

in the

Now,

a rock.^

the greater world were alone intended by the Persic cavern, and thras

Por-

was a type of

ail

rock,

it'

if

by Mi-

things

how

;

which repre-

a contradiction in terms to say,

is

and was alteruards himself produced

contradiction will vanish,

if

by the cavern we mystically

World or the Ark. Of that Woild the diluvian god was indeed the creator yet was he himself, in the language of the understand

the smaller

:

Mysteries, born out of

The

it,

as from the

birth of Mitliras in short

the birth of

womb

of a great universal mother.

from the rocky cavern

is

The cavern and

the

egg each symbolizetl the World

the World, from which those kindred deities were born,

3.

same

that

same

as

Protogonus, of Eros, of Brahma, and of the Orphic Jupiter,

from the egg.

cosm

the very

:

but

was the Micro-

once floated on the waters.

As Mithras

is

the

same

as the transmigrating

as

Buddha

or

Menu, and consequently

Noah, an opinion

prevailed, that he triplicated

himself or multiplied his essence into three deities

'

Porph. de ant. liyniph. p. 253, 251.

* Just.

Mart. Dial,

cum

the

Trypli. p. :'j6.

:

whence he was called

THE OlUGI^r OF I'AOAN IDOLATRY.

A

the triplasian Mithras.

or Horniusdt

who uas

;

Jlormusdt,

the Persians had yet

Oromasdes

respecting

also thouijht, as Plutarch expresses

And

himself.

increased

similar notion prevailed

415

a third

it,

have thrice

to

composed of

triad,

and Ahriman.'

IVIithras,

many

All these triads are but so

arbitrary multiplications of one circum-

which was believed to occur at the beginning of every, new world

stance,

and they are severally the same both as the Buddhic menical

The

tiles.

and indeed as each and

triad,

triad

of the various triads of the

all

great father's triple multiplication of himself

plain language, than that he begot three sons after his

masdes does indeed appear

Satan

in that of

consequence of elevating men of the primeval tcujpter was

Gen-

means no more n likeness.

in

Oro-

the Zend-Avesta in the character of the Su-

in

preme Being, and Ahriman

o\\

:

and the Brah-

to the

at the

but this

:

is

only the necessary

rank of deity, w hile some recollection

same time preserved.

When

the sup-

posed transmigrating patriarch was profanely made to usurp the place of though he retained

the godliead, real

pagan

in

mythology the whole of

his

and original character, yet he was thence also inevitably compelled to

personate the Divinity and to claim his attributes.

XXIV. One

of the most connnon

Gaiitam, as the same radical intonation

we thence

and, since

:

find,

Now

Ilus.

letters are

Buddha

tells us,

of

Buddha

is

Codom

or

Cadam

or

i)ronounced with a slightly varied

undoubtedly Hermes or Mercury or Taut,

is

that that deity

Tzetzes

titles

was sometimes called Cadinilus or Cudam-

Cadmus and

that

Cadinilus are the

same

title

:

and he adds, that Cadmus was the name of Ilermes among the Beotians,

whose bore

capital city

Since

it.*

Cadmus

is

Thebes was feigned

Hermes

:

;

then was certainly the

be the same as Hermes

declared to

same as Buddha Cada??i or Codom

and, since

we know

there can be

hero was taken from

to have been built by the person that

this

little

Buddtiic

that

It

;

tjiat

seems

as

Buddha, and since

Cadmus must

Buddha

doubt,

title.

same

is

the to

also be the

even yet denominated

name of

the fabulous

have been written by

the Egyptians and Phenicians Cadmoii or Cadam-Oti, which denotes

'

Cudwoith's

*

Tzctz. in Lycoph.

Intell. Syst. b.

i.

vcr. 2 1 9-

c. 4.

p.

288.

Cadam

'^"^p-



THE OniaiN OF rAGAN IDOI.ATKY.

4lfi

Sun

the

and from

:'

monites of Palestine,

title

tlie

compounded

thus

who were prohably a branch

Philistim or Shepherds, derived their appellation

worshippers the Cad-

his

of

Scylhian Paih or

tlic

same manner as

in the

;

Cadmon

the Sacas called themselves so from their god Buddha-Saca.

Baal-Hermon

have been likewise denominated

pears to

ap-

whence another

:

name of Hermonites. Hermon is the Hermes of the Greeks, and the Hermaya of the Hindoos: but Hermon, Hermes, and Hermaya, are mere variations of one and the same Buddhic title. From this appellation the Greeks formed their //«r?»o«w; and made the person, who bore it, the wife of Cadmus or Hermon. As a kinch^ed tribe of his worshippers took the

female, she was the

Ark was

for the

same

indifferently

of the great father.

ter,

as

Maya

esteemed the parent, the

Hence we

the Luminary of

mother and as

or Heri-I\laya, the mother of

the

Buddha

and the daugh-

wife,

her celebrated, as the universal

find

World

lunar Crescent: hence

or the

spoken of as being one with the sea-nymph Nais,

also she

is

the old

Armenian Sacae and the Neith of the Egyptians

famous holy books of Hermes are likewise said

to

the Anais of

and hence the

:

be the books of

Harm-

These, like the Indian Vedas which the Brahmens assert to

onia.*

been carried into

may be

Egypt by Thoth or Hermes, were four

added, that, as they are indifferently ascribed

Harmonia, so ported to

letters themselves,

number

in

to

the reputed invention of

have

and

it

Hermes and

to

:

Hermes, are

re-

have been brought by Cadmus into Greece either from Egypt or

Cadmon then or Baal-Hermon being the deity of the Ark, mount Hermon was undoubtedly his high place; in other words, it was a Phenicia.'

transcript of the Paradisiacal Ararat.

of

this

tain

'

name.

of the

One

There seem

to have

been two

hills

of them was a peak of Lebanon, the Phenician moun-

Moon, where Venus and Adonis were worshipped, and which

Steph. Byzant. dc urb. p. 415.

he acknowledges, that

it

is

'The editor has indeed corrected Cadmon

contrary to the reading of every copy

to

Cadmus

:

but

both printed and manu-

iicript.

*

Nonni Dionys.

Schol. in '

A poll.

lib. xli. p.

Argon,

lib.

Hyg. Fab. 277. Herod.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

p. 200.

ii.

1068, IO7O. ver.

lib. xii.

p. 328. Lactant. Instit.

lib.

i.

c. 7- p. 'iO.

992.

Hist. lib. v.

c.

58.

Plin. Nat. Hist.

lib. vii. c.

56.

Diod.

THE ORIGi:^ OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. •abounded with the Mercurial columns denominated Bultijlia

neighbourhood of Tabor,

in the

or a holy place of the

itself also (as

417

.

:

the other was

word imports) a Ta-Baris

the

sliip Baris.'

Bochart, like myself, supposes an immediate connection between the

1.

names Cadmus and Harmonia, and lestine

me

but he seems to

:

hypothesis

in his

respecting the

Cadmus and Harmonia,

Insteafl of viewing

of that connection.

viode

have erred

to

Hcrmointes of Pa-

the Cadmoiiites and

as

the gods of the Cadmonites and Hermonites, and as having conferred their

own

on those neighbouring

divine appellations

be two

who

literal mortals,

Tiie one was

Joshua.

Cadmus

or

Cadmon

:

birth

of the land of Canaan

birth a

whence he was

;

Hermonite

;

Tradition, accordingly,

Cadmus

for

:

Cadmonite

a

was by

the other

denominated Harmo7iia.

similarly

he conceives them to

;

Greece when Palestine was invaded by

fled into

by

tribes

is

represented,

styled

whence she was brings tlicm out

as being an emigrant

from Phenicia.^

The

2.

dition

who

Tyriaus,

reverse of will

theory of Bochart would have been sufficiently plausible,

if tra-

had uniformly and exclusively described Cadmus and Harmonia as left their

which

this,

own country and

Cadmus was indeed

but he was likewise venerated

:

brought him into Greece no

Thus Diodorus

same account of

less

Greece

:

but the very

his origin

:

in

a Phenician, or rather a

Egypt

;

and popular fable

from that country than from Palestine.

was of Thebes

that he

tells us,

in

so necessary to the system of that eminent writer,

is

prove to be the case.

Phenician god

settled

in

Egypt

and Nonnus represents

his

:

Tzetzes gives

father Agenor,

tlie

who

made a king of Phenicia, as lesiding in that city.' It is remarkConon blends the two accounts together. He says, that the Phenicians once possessed the empire of Asia that they made Egyptian

is

usually

able,

that

;

Thebes

their capital

;

and that Cadmus, migrating thence into Europe,

Beotian Thebes, and called

it

Well's Geog. of O. Test. vol.

i.

'

'Bochart. Canaan, '

Diod. Bibl.

*

Conon. Narrat.

Vag.

Idol.

lib.

i.

lib.

i.

c.

p. 20.

x.xxvii. p,

18,

after the

p. 3i27>

name

built

Tli£re

of his native town.'*

328.

19.

Tzetz. in Lycoph. ver. 1206.

Nonni Dion.

lib. iv. p,

126.

279> Euscbius and SynccUus similarly connect the two eoun-

VOL.

I.

3

G

chap.

v.

418 iiouKiv.

is

THE ORIGiy OF PAGAN IDOLATHV.



much genuine

history conlainctl in this curious tradition, which connects

together Egypt and Pheuiciu in a

manner not unlike

The

logic narrative of Sanchoniatho.

Piienicians, the

the Palli, and the Egyptian Shepherd-kings,

tim,

mytho-

that of the old

were

Anakim, the

same people.

the

all

Philis-

They were of the line neither of Canaan nor of Mizraim, but descendants They were the founders of the first universal empire at Babel of Cush. and, under the name of Scut hs or Goths, they overran Palestine and Egypt, and more than once acquired the empire of Asia.'

Cadam

or

Buddha

Cadmus

hence

:

He

Egyptian and a Phenician.

Their great god was

have been an

indiflferently said to

is

was both, so

as his worship

far

was

esta-

by the adventurous Palli; but no further:

blished in either country

wherever the Scythians penetrated, there we

of Cad-

the veneration

find

for,

mus.

According world

to the

Hindoos, Buddha or

Cadam

over the whole

travelled

and they give much the same account of Siva and Deo-Naush.

:

Greeks and Egyptians

tell

The

and Bacchus and Cronus.

similar tales of Osiris

All these relate, not to any actual travels of Noah, but to the diffusion of idolatry in the infancy of the world

;

when each colony

travelled

under the

protection of the great father, whose oracular image was borne before them

Now,

in his consecrated ark.

as

Cadmus was

also said to have been an eminent wanderer ferent countries,

;

yet he

the lake Tritonis in Africa.*

Pelasgi

;

him

He was

is

likcAvise in

Thrace

in

many

is

dif-

are told,

among whom he had

and he even be-

:

a son called IlljjriusJ :

for Thrace, Sa-

were equally settlements of the Scuths,

who were indeed

the

ancestors

of a

Synctll. Chronog. p. 152.

This subject will be resumed hereafter, book

BibK

lib. v. p.

Apollod. Bibl.

vi.

329, 323. Nonn. Dionys.

lib. iii. c. 4.

§ 1. c. 5-

§4.

Palli,

or

considerable part of the

bringing Phcnix and Carlmus from Egyptian Thebes to Phenician Tyre.

* Diod. '

Cadam, he

Thus we

nothing more than might have been expected

mothrace, and Illyricum,

'

find

as

having espoused her at

also described as

is

the king of the lUyrians,

All this

p. 27.

and we

besides Phenicia, Greece, and Egypt.

married to Harmonia

tries,

same

Samothrace he was initiated into the Cabiric Mysteries and was

that in

came

:

the

c. 5. lib. xiii. p.

Strab. Gcog. lib.

372. .xiv.

p. 6S0.

Euseb. Chron.

THE ORIGIN' OF PAG.AN IDOLATRY. Hence we

Greeks,

find

the

Gette reckoned

419

among

the Thracians

\\\^p

;

spread themselves far beyond the narrow limits of geographical Thrace, and

who were

so numerous that Herodotus reckons them as nalionall}- inferior

Nor was

only to the Hindoos.'

The

thrown out at random.

this assertion

Gctae are undoubtedly the Goths: and the Goths are no less undoubtedly the Scuths, Scythians, or Cliasas in Casligar

or

{1(1)71

nicia,

The same god

and Bokhara.

Buddha

one of whose principal settlements was

;

By

Egypt, Cashgar, Thrace, and Illyricum.

made only a

whom

therefore,

sojourner

in

Thrace

who

the military caste and

thus subjected the lower ranks of people pro-

and adjuring him alone.

whom he Woden;

Thracian god,

Wud

was

equally the

or

same

Phenician deity

;

new

carried to the

Cadmeans

ple,

so,

and both

Hermaya

or

when Carthage was

settlement.

The

:

same name occurs

find,

in

the

is

in

same

temple of Stonehenge

and near

is

Herod. Hist.

lib. v. c. 3.

^

Horod. Hiit.

lib. v. c. 7-

Mos. Cliorcn.

'

Euseb. Chron.

ill

Hist. p.

;

Colchis

in

Colchians were a

the

their chief deity.*

A

another called Sida

it

Cadmus was

come

fabled to have

town of

:

and we

into that

Cadmea was so called from Sita, who in the mythology of

the goddess Sida or

called the circle

Armcn.

:

Argha.

for the

circle

She was venerof the Buddhic

of Sidee, while Sidee herself ,

Dionys. Pprieg. vcr. 195.

Eustath.

this

as Ida or Ila or Parvati or

'

'

As Cadmus was a name and worship were Cadmea ; and the peo-

w hich there was a notion that Cad-

ated under a kindred appellation in Britain

*

his

search of his sister Europa.*

Cadam, and Sida from Hindostan

the

was called

Cadam was

in Cilicia,

that Phenix the brother of

country while

Hermes Grecian Hermes were

Cadam.'

or

built,

but the reason was

colony of the Indo-Scytha;, and the

city

him

but the Gothic

:

There was likewise a Cadmea

or Cadnionites.^

established himself

Htrmes

or

worshij)ping

what Herodotus says of the

is

Woden and

below the high country of Armenia,

mus

Tliis

Mercury

calls

Buddha

as

Cadmus is who formed

the Greeks

bably of Japhetic origin, esteemed him their great father, principally,

Chasas of Phe-

but the Thracian nobility,

:

Ca-

thev called

Saca, was equally worshipped by the

or

Sil. Ital. lib.

i.

lib.i. c. 9j 10. Tzctt. in

ver. 6.

Lycoph.

30. Eustath. in Dion. Pcriug. vcr. 874.

Tcr. IJi.

is

de-

THE

420 liuoKiv.

OUrOlNT OF

PAGAN IDOLATRT.

Hu

clarcd to be the great mother and the ship within which

In

time of the deluge.

at the

Cadmus

siiort,

Buddha was venerated

or

from the extremity of Siam to the remote western

Codom

of Pegu, the

Egypt,

the

Gautam of

Cadmus and Cadmilus

Chadmel of

the ancient

Irish,

of 13eotia and

were

all

in the

for the

:

of Phenicia and

Samothrace, and the

one and the same character.'

might mention various other places, where

come

of Ireland

isle

Cadam-On

Ceylon, the

was preserved

Cadmus was

I

thought to have

course of his wanderings, such as Rhodes, Thera, Thasus, Eu-

hha, Sparta, Attica, Lesbos, and Ionia

:

but I must not neglect to observe,

some bring him from Egypt or Phenicia; others, preserving genuine tradition Avith greater accuracy, represent him as coming from Babylonia, the region whence also in their progress westward the Phenicians or

that, while

This was the seat of the

Palli migrated into Palestine.'

Chasas or Cuthites under Nirarod, superstitions branched

Buddha commenced

or

in

oft' :

the centre

every direction.

empire of the

first

whence the two primeval

Here

Cadam

the w orship of

and, in each country where they afterwards settled,

the enterprizing Shepherds of the Scuthic stock were always peculiarly de-

voted to 3.

it.

Cadmus

being the same divinity as

Cadam

being the husband of Ila or the nmndane Ark, the whole history of

Cadmus

built

we

or Buddha, and Buddiia shall not

wonder

to find

upon the hieroglyphical worship of the

great mother.

Europa, the daughter of Agenor king of Tyre, was carried off into Crete

by Jupiter

;

who assumed

for that purpose the

Agenor dispatched

her became the father of ]\Iinos.

mus and

Phenix,

in search of her.

over the whole world, at

lengtii

form of a

Cadmus, having

bull,

his

and who by

two sons, Cad-

fruitlessly

wandered

consulted the oracle of Apollo; and was

directed to settle in a country where he should find a heifer unbroken to the

yoke, and to build a city on the spot where that

The prophecy was accomplished and the

city of

Thebes was

'

Collect, dc rcb, Hib. vol.

*

Mos. Chorcn.

Hist.

Arm.

iii.

lib.

built,

in the

heifer should lead him.

region afterwards called

agreealjly to the directions

Bcotia

;

which he had

p. 636., i.

c. 9.

Herod. Hist.

lib.

i.

c.

1,

Just, Hist. lib. xviii. 0.3.

THK ORTGIK OF PAGAN IDOLATRY,

421

Afterwards, he and his consort migrated into Illyricum

received.

and, at

:

they were both changed into serpents and transported by Jupiter

length,

into the Elysian fields or the islands of the blessed.'

At

period of the discussion, the present fable cannot

this

Cadmus was

elucidation.

denoting

a?i oj:

or a heifer

and, in

:

his

conductor,

(we are

told)

cient city of the if

a heifer

signifies

same name

in

Cadmus came from Phcnicia

tlie

sequently

upper Egypt

Hence

with

same

the former

the

also

Tzetzes expressly informs wliicii

respected

it

cote,

signifies

lunar

l)ccause a

IMneuis,

asserted, that,

latter

must have been imposed.

:

which was

was thought

to

name of

and

cow was used

it

as

Con-

was imposed, Accordingly,

Beotian Tlicbes and every

were convertible:

and the cow,

crescent,

it

the Egyptian Thebes.

whatever idea the

that the

an Ark

Syrian dia-

evident, that the

thing

Now

the

only acquired the secondary a symbol of the Ark.

on the sphere, the Ark was typified by the Moon. ship Theba,

find

was a studied copy of the Egyptian Tiiebes.*

word Theba properly meaning of a

us,

in the

had previously come from

it is

Thebes was borrowed from that of sure, that, wiih

which

and we

:

into Greece, he

we may be

Bos or Bou

or

But there was a more an-

likewise.''

Egyptian Thebes into Phenicia.'

the Beotian

Bous

a similar manner, he was supposed to

have called his new-built city Thebes from Theba, lect

much

generally thought to have denominated the coun-

from the animal which was

try Beotia

require

Hence

the

But,

Moon,

the

and hence the figure of the

impressed on the sides of the bulls Apis and

have likewise adorned the flank of the heifer that

a clear proof of their theological connection with each conducted Cadmus The city of Theba therefore, whether in Greece or in Egypt, is the other.' ;

city of the

that leads

Ark

and both

:

'

bull that carries off Europa,

Cadmus, involve symbolical

the vessel within which he

*

tlie

Ovid. Metam.

was

lib. iii. lib. iv. ver.

Tzetz. in Lycoph. ver. 1206.

^

Diod. Bibl.

*

Tzetz. in Lycoph. vcr. 1206.

'

Pausan. Bocot. p. 559.

lib.

i.

p. 20.

allusions

to the great

and the heifer father

inclosed.

566

—602.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib. iii.c. 5.$-*.

Etym. Magn. vox. ©ijSa.

Euscb. Chron. p. 27. Syncell. Chronog. p. 152.

and to

'"*•"• '•

422

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Tl.'E

Agreeably to

TUeha

a conclusion,

siicli

sometimes said to have been

is

an ancient king both of the Egyi)tian and the Grecian

the wife of Ogyges,

Thebes, who flourished at the time of the deluge.'

doubt as the heifer Osiris

inclosed

same

;

Isis,

who

same

the

similarly described as the consort of the ark-

is

also as

universal mother

tlie

likewise as the Tauric Europa.

by the poets the daughter of

She was the same no

This

personage

last

Tyrian Agenor

liie

Cadmus

at Hierapolis in Syrin, as the sister of

Harmonia

;

and she was worsliipped

the

:

made

ujiually

is

the

;

pi^iest-i

however assured

Luciun, that she was the self-same character as Astarte and Rhea.'

was the great mother or

Astartfe

receptacle of the hero-gods

floating

as the heifer Baalath, was clearly no other than the heifer

The

transformation of

that these

two tauric

of tiiose reptiles points

may

It

:

them out

Cadmus and Harmonia

deities

and

as the deified

Mars, to this:

whom

tenants of the insular

him

Cadmilus, were

Cadmus founding

all,

or

as

for

:

it is

title

Cadmus and

another of his

titles

that

god,

the

whom

lib.

Apollon. Argon, ^

is

an

Cadmus: but she

The

fact \vas

iii.

lib.

Grutcr. liiscrip. vol.

c.

ii.

i.

that one of the titles of

same name somev\hat

Mercury or Buddha,

the oriental

Codom

12.

differently

the

or Cadam.'

same

in

Hence

was Theus or Theuth: for the Cushites

^

989— 99'1-

p. Ivi.

precisely

M'ife,

name

of Theus- Ares

Luc. dc dca Syra.

Pherccyd. apud Schol.

;

and shewed

Taut or Thoth or

Tzetz. in Lycoph. vcr. 29-

11. ver.

of

and

Camillus, Casmilus, and

they venerated, was

Tzttz. in Lycoph. vcr. 1206.

Apollod. Bibl.

find,

Camulus,

well known, the

of Arabia w^orshipped him under the

'

Ilium

Thebes.'

the wife of

Hence we

Menu.

and that name was a

find, that

evidently,

of the blessed

have been at once the daughter and the consort of

or Cadmilus

substance as the word

we

only,

Paradisiacal Ararat.

the double relation of daughter

in

Buddha

Mars was Camulus

;

isles

she bore the fabu'ous race of the Amazons.*

to

as Ila does to

jjronounced

to

and,

Ares was the same person as Cadmus or Buddha; and Har-

INIars or

monia stands

also

abreption to the

Harmonia was not only reckoned

was likewise thought

means

into serpents

to add, that the legend of Ilus founding

exact repetition of the legend of

XXV.

or

:

Isis.

were occasionally worshipped under the figure

their ultimate

not be improper

Theba

But

in loc.

THE ORIGIN OF PACAiV IDOLATRY.

423

Theuth or Duddha, by representing him under the prevailing Hermetic

He was

of a square black stone.' the Babylonians

we are

for

:

column or Mercurial

adored under the very same symbol by that they were the

told,

Mars and worshipped

pillar to

figure

it

first,

who

erected a

as the representative

Their notion of him was, that he was an ancient king of

of the god.*

Rhea

Assyria, the brother of

or the great mother, and the son of

Sames

and they supi)osed him to have been called Thourras, before he received the

of Ares?

He

which occur

in his

name

titles,

His father was the Sun, oriivinal tide

was one of

for

such

is

the import of the

Buddha

to be

;

in short

;

same

the

and

:

his

Tor and Tara-Nath

for

their

Thor and

was the same as I\lenu-Vaivaswata,

so called because he was esteemed the child of the

the Egyptian Phtha

word Sames

whence the Goths and Celts had

deity,

This sun-born god

Taranis.*

and the

:

genealogy, sufficiently point out his real character.

Thourras shews him

were names of that

their first fabulous sovereigns

in reality as

Sun

;

same

the

also as

Helius, for Ares was himself

astronomically no other than the solar orb. 1.

His connection with Mercury further appears, from the name which was

given to him, and from the worship which was paid to him at Edessa in Syria.

We

learn from the

emperor Julian, that the inhabitants of that place

venerated a triad composed of the Sun, iMonimus, and Aziz

on the authority of Jaml)lichus, that Monimus Mars.'

This

I

believe

Monimus and Aziz the Sun.

here advanced.

He

and he says

;

Manu.

is

Max. Tyr.

'

Chronic. Pasch.

*

Thourras

for

is

the

Julian. Oidi.

to

Monimus is

have been

perfectly risht in his

will tend directly to

or ^lonim

is

prove what

Mercury

but a variation of the oriental

or

is

Buddha:

name JMenu

JNIonim has been pronounced by more than one

Dissert, xxxviii. p. 374. p.

me

examined,

Monim

*

Suid. Lex.

Chronic. Alex. p. S9.

37.

Thor-Asa or Asa-Thor of the ancient Goths.

the corresponding feminine deity '

if

to

says, that

Accordingly,

'

triad

being mutually the same god, and each being one with

opinion: and that opinion,

or

and he adds,

:

Mercury, and Aziz

have been no other than the Buddhic

to

Jamblichus seems

truly

*v£is

apud Bochai:.

;

for the Phenicians

Can.

lib.

i.

Astoreth or Asa-Torath

were a Gothic or Indo-Scythic

c. 4'^. p. 6"6C,

66i.

tribe.

"^'^'

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

4!i4

i-.i)OK

IV.

writer to be

JManu or Maiii of Thibet, the Mercury (us they express

tlic

themselves) of that country

Menu

doubtedly

but the Thibctian legislator and god

:

So likewise he determines Aziz

Duddha.'

or

Mars nor is he wrong in his opinion, though it will lead Aziz is certainly the Hesus of the that Mars is Mercury. their deriving the

Hesus from guage

:

Bochart

greatly doubt the propriety of

I

word from the Hebrew.''

The Celts received the name who spoke the Hebrew lan-

and I think

same god

clear, as I

it

Now Esa

have already observed, that

it is

Esa

the

one of the names of Buddha: and Hesus was

is

as Teutates or Teutat-Esa, the

Taut of Phenicia, the Thoth of

Egypt, and the Tat or Datta of the Indo-Scythaj. is

Celts, as

the Scythians, not from a people

of the Hindoos. the

be

to

to the conclusion

:

and Schedius have well remarked, though

un-

is

the war-god of the Gothic or Teutonic tribes

Aziz or Mars therefore

whom

;

they called

JPud

or

JFoden, and whose character melts into that of Hercules, Mercury, and

He

Mars.

was the same as each of those

mutually the same as each other.

sometimes times

and we likewise

:

three divinities were

them.

Hence we

and

;

all

all

find,

those deities were

that the classical writers

find,

northern war-god Hercules, sometimes

call the

Mercury

deities

that in their

Mars, and some-

own mythology

reputed one, however the poets might have divided

Thus Macrobius informs

us,

that the

Roman

pontifices,

who

ceived the body of their theology from the old Etruscans, pronounced to be the

same

as Hercules

and he highly praises Virgil

:

knowledge which he displays

matter,

many arguments that the

Hercules.^

*

planet

Thus

Bayer. Osrhoen. p. 8.

Boch. Can.

lib.

suppose Aziz to be ^

of

or Buddha.

i.

c.

called that

that

god though

Varro proved

this

in corroboration of the

by the Chaldeans

the planet

Mars and Mercury were but one

Georg. dc Alph. Tibet, p. 507, 508. apuJ Vallanc.

iv. p.

Mars

Vind. in

507, 508.

42. p. 662.

Sched. in Lactant. Ins.

lib.

i.

c.

21. p. 113.

They

|iy?.

Macrob. Saturn,

Wud

and he further remarks,

Mars was

also he tells us,

Collect, dc rcb. Ilib. vol. ^

:

.He adds,

re-

for the antiquarian

in assigning the Salii to the latter

they are usually given to the former. point by

these

lib. iii. c. 12.

They probably

called

it

Bali or Pali, which was a

name

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. we have

god, wliich god was the

Sun: and

bears the Mercurial

of Camulus and Theuth.^

Nor

2.

we know

to

some

sort be

Mars with

recently seen,

Mars

the war-god of the Scythians,

whom

have been Woden, purely fanciful and imaginary, amounting

no more than

to

titles

the identity of

is

thus, as

this

deemed

war-god of one pagan nation may always

that the

;

the

same as the war-god of another

perly one primeval character the Greeks, and

that

there

is

jft

sufficient

are truly and pro-

worship among the Romans,

their

Goths, must have originated from a

common

source.

from Herodotus, that the Scythians or Goths venerated Mars, VVoden, under the symbol of a sword

to say,

is

tlie

and that

;

:

Woden

of an arbitrary nature to prove, that Mars and

We learn

425

;

which they placed on

the top of a rude pyramid constructed with faggots, and to which they sacrificed not only shee|)

The

Thracians, m

lio

and horses but likewise every hundredth captive.*

were of the Scythic race, or wlio

at least

were under

the government of Scylhic chieftains, used the same hit'roglypliic to represent

Ammianus

Marcellinus

tells us,

that they worshipped a naked

upright in the ground, considering tries

Woden

god of war, who was doubtless no other than WucI or

their

:

for

sword fixed

and Mars as the guardian of the coun"

it

through which they roved.'

Now origin,

the

Romans, whose ancestors

have

(I

adored their god Mars precisely

little

the

in

doubt) were of Scythic

same manner

:

for

we are

informed by Varro, Plutarch, and Arnobius, that he was worshipped under the form of a spear

mode

of worship

;

and Arnobius and Clemens very naturally mention the very

in

same sentence,

in

this

which they speak of the

Scythian veneration of a sword.*

A

similar superstition ()revailed at Cliei'ont^a in Bcotia,

have already seen) strongly addicted for Pausanias

was thought

tells us,

to

'

Macrob. Saturn,

Amm.

*

lib.

i.

c. 19.

^

we

worship of ('adam or Buddha:

that divine honours were there paid to a spear,

have been the sceptre of Agamemnon.*

'

* Varr.

to the

a country (as

Herod. Hist.

which

By AgamemnoO'

lib. iv. c. 6'2.

Miirccll. lib. x.xxi. c. 2.

apud Clem. Alex. Cohort,

p. 29, 30.

Plut. in

vit.

Rom. Arnob.

a
Paus. Bacot. p. 6o6, 607.

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

II.

3H

c>l\p.v.

THE ORIGIN OP PAGAN IDOLATRY.

426

f

we

they meant their principal deity: for that he

Lycophron and Tzetzes,

learn from

was the Jupiter of the Spartans, though fabled

have been at the

to

siege of Troy.'

The sword-worship

mentioned by Justin as being both very ancient

is

and such, no doubt, was the case

for the Scythians,

and very general

:

different periods,

from the building of Babel to the subversion of the

empire,

iiave penetrated into

first

universal

monarchy

at

Roman He says,

almost every quarter of the globe.

that from the very origin of things

the

;

(now the Scythians were the founders of worshipped spears

after the deluge) the ancients

as the representations of the immortal gods

and he attributes

;

to this super-

stition the practice of giving lances to the statues of the deities.*

It

is

curious to observe,

how

may

the Gothic war-god and his sword

be

traced not only to the settlements of the Chasas on the northern frontier of

Hindostan, but even to the island of Ceylon

and that too

;

in close

We

Somono-Codom.

tion with the worship of

Buddha

the Brahmanda-Purana,

that Shadanasa or Carticeya, the Indian

six faces,

was born

in the

or

mountains to the

to say, in the high tract of land,

connec-

are informed in

Mars with south and south-west of Meru ;

which has ever formed and which

that

is

still

forms the principal settlement of the Chasas.

Here he took

the re-

solution of going to the mountains of Crauncha, which coincide geographically witii

Germany and

part of Poland, in order that he miglit recreate

Having

himself after his fatigues in the war of the gods with the giants. arrived in this remote region of the uest, skirts

of Crauncha: and this weapon

is

he threw away that,

asserted, that he had found under a clod of

was placed

in his

tomb.'

Now

his

s^vord in

earth,

and which

after his death

the sword, which Attila pretended to have

Mars

found, was the well-known symbol of the Scythian

:

and the

prince, aware of the vast influence of superstition, interpreted

'

Lye. Cassan.

vpr.

1123, 1124.

believe, as the celebrated

Tzetz.

in

suspect to be a corruption oi Saca-Memnon

;

loc. et in

13fi9.

ver.

likewise brought to

Memnon, who was

Buil Iha

presently sec, was no other than the oriental

* Just. Hist. lib. xliii. c. 3.

the

which the conqueror Attila

:

for the

He was

Asiat. Res. vol.

Troy; but who,

viii.

p.

371, 372.

artful

accord-

the same, as

name Jgamenmon

and Saca was Buddha or Woden. *

it

I

we

1

shall

strongly

JHK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IJUOLATUY. iiigly

as the

and,

;

427

possessor of this roprescntation of the national

rii;litfiil

asserted his (hvinc and indcfcasihle claim to the dominion of the em'th.'

Siod,

Tlie sword

tiieii

of the In(han Carticeya

Mars

the sword of the Scythian

is

:

and the war-god, who travels far into the west from the land of the Indo-

must undoubtedly be that same war-god, who was worshipped

Scyti)a%

Roman

Ceylon he

In

empire.

Coomaura according to deity is clearly tlie same denominated

-S'cc/Wrt

in

subjugators of Europe and subverters of the

the west by the Scythian

Kandtkoomareyo,

called

is

mode

the Sanscrit

of writinsi the

as the Carticeya of the Chasas,

which

a

is

Scand-

or

name

for this

:

both because

of Carticeya, and because he

title

is

lie is

repre-

sented precisely in the same manner, namely, as having six heads and as

He

rfding on a peacock.

humour of

the prevailing in tiie

distinguished indeed from Buddha, agreeably to

dividing the

mythology of Ceylon, he

said to have obtained

is

is

into different persons: yet, for

;

he

from him very extraordinary powers which led to

The Indian

suljsequent adoration.*

his

same god

immediately connected with him

is

Carticeya then

is

certainly the

sword-god of the Scythians, and the spear-Mars venerated by the Romans.

'

Sec Gilibon's

*

Asiat. lies. vol.

those

compound

Ilist.

of the decline and

vii. p.

so

titles

wc do not

52, 53. vol.

i.

common among

if

Romans,

the Greeks, and the Esjyptians.

expected: for

tlie

iii

it

tlie

43.

The name of Carticeya seems when

the Hindoos: but,

Nor

in fact

is

Romans Mars, by

Antioch. Antholog.

vi.

The war-god

Italy.

the

apud Seiden.

it

is

resolved,

to

be one of

I

am much-

Greeks

yircs,

any thing more than might be

tiiis

Scytliian Shepherds once conquered Eiiypt

OT Pelasgi, colonized Greece and called by the

252.

rudiments of the war-god's appellation both among the

mistaken

find

fall. vol. vi. p.

p.

then,

and by

and, under the

;

name

of Palli

whose synibid was a sword, was Egyptians

tiie

lie appears also to have been

Velt. Val..

/tries.

denominated Ares by the

Cuthites of Babylonia: for we are told, that he was called by them T/iourras previous to bis

Chron. Pasch.

receiving the appellation of Ares.

He

p. 37.

is

likewise pretty evidently the'

Ileres or Ares of the Canaanites: and, from the circumstance of his being worshipped in the

Sun, the word Heres came altogether ditllrent.

same

the

Artes

I

title,

denote that luminary; though the primitive idea

properly expressed Art as

take to be Art-Esa, and

Art occurs

in Carticeya,

which

Mars is

to

the

be

to

me

word occurs

M'Ares

in

I

the

suspect,,

one and

the obli(|uc cases of Mars..

or the great Arcs.

probably no other than

is,

to be only variations of

But

this

same

title

Egyptian Artes with be pre-

Carticeya being C' Art-Esa or the illustrious Art-Esa, and Artes more simply Art-Esa

fixed

;

as

have remarked above.

I

to

Mars, Ares, and Aries, appear

As

for the

word Art,

it

signitied

among

the old Scythians a

*^"^

4t^

OU!Ciy OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

Tffli I

liOUK IT,

The sword or spear being thus the symbol of tlie war-god, we shall find, tliat the name of the deity was applied to the weapon both among the Romans and the Goths and the appellations, which they used, will serve :

additionally to establish the point contended for, that

Plutarch

that the

tells «s,

adds, that Quirinus was a

Romans

title

Mars was Buddha.

called the sacred spear

Mars

:

and he

of that god afterwards applied to the deified

Romulus, that the word was derived from Quiris, and that Quiris among the old Sabines denoted the head or dagger of a spear.^

same account,

Ovid

a Greek would

writing the word Quiris, as

much

gives

was

therefore, or (with a slight variation) Qt/irimis or Ciiretuis,

the

Curis

do, Curis.^

once the

at

name of the god and of the spear. But Quirinus was not only a title of Mars and Romulus, it was likewise one of the many designations of Janus. That god, as we learn from Macrobius, was called, as being the god of war, Quirinus from Curis the old Sabine name of a spear.' Tlius it appears, that jMars is the same as Janus, each bearing tlie name of Quirinus, and each being reputed the god of battles but Janus, as we have already seen, :

is

the Jain or

From

Buddha of the

the god Curis the

east.

Romans were

called Quirites, which

is tlie

name

same

and that

word

as Curetcs.

name

they seem to have borrowed fi-om the sword-god Curis; for they are

These were the Cabiri under a

different

.

represented as dancing with drawn swords in their hands,

whom

the

Roman

pontifices associated with

Mars

or

:

same

Buddha

or

as

the import therefore of the war-god's

doubt

to

name :

will be the illustrious ship-deilt/ Eta.

him who was worshipped

in the is

Sun. said

I

Rom.

^

Macrob. Saturn,

vit.

lib.

* i.

c.


Ovid. Fast.

p. 159.

lib.

ii.

vcr.

title

Sun

This

sailing in

a

suspect, that the Cuthite

by the Rabbins

a peacock, was no other than the Carticeya of the Indo-Scythae. Plut. in

its

sword-god.

for the ancients represented ihe

god Tarlak, worshipped with Adraramclech, whose form

'

are

This Cres I

Minos and Minotaur, Cres being the

in his quality of the

will exactly accord with his solar character ship, allusively no

They

and from the same god Cuiis both the island and

:

believe to have been the

ship

Salii

worshipped under

fabled original sovereign Cres or Cures borrowed their names.

of Minos or Menu

the

like

Hercules.

usually placed in Crete, because the Cabiri were there that denomination

:

475—477.

to

have been

THE OUIGUV OF PAOAX IDOLATRY.

We As

sliall

be brought to just the same conclusion,

we turn

if

Goths,

to the

the old Saxons or Sacas \vorshij)pcd their war-god under the symbol of a

sword

so the name, by whicii in their language they expressed a dagger,

;

was Sa.ra or

Sea.ra.*

and reputed father: tiieir

to

429

war-god and as

But for his

Buddha

fhem

called

is

Saca qt Saxa

own

their

it

national

;

many wonderful

own by some

his

was

name

was not unnatural

it

properties to those sacred weapons.

heroes were wont to stamp them with mysterious characters designated his

as he

and,

title.

ancient Scythians thus deifying their swords,

to ascribe

of their great god

symbol was a sword, they at once applied

a dagger and took from

The

this is the precise appellation

:

for

Their

and each

formidable proper name, which he thought likely

to inspire his enemies with

terror/

Hence, when mythology melted into

and almost animated swords of the

romance, originated the inchanted

Gothic cavaliers: such, for instance, as the Caliburn of king Arthur; and the Durindana, the Fusberta, and the marvellous golden lance, which

so conspicuous a tigure in the divine

poem

I greatly mistake, sprang the warlike superstition,

of Orleans to refuse

all

vulgar swords, and to

weapon which would be found of

St.

Catharine de Fierbois

covery of the sword of

;

in

Hence

of Ariosto.

make unless

also,

which prompted the maid

demand a mysterious holy

a tomb behind the high

altar of the

church

a circumstance strongly resembling the dis-

Mars by

So again

Attila.^

the sword

:

being the

symbolical war-god of the Scythians, they were led from the earliest times to

swear by

it

Hence Shakespeare, with

as by a deity.*

presents his prince

Hamlet

as requiring his companions to take an oath

The custom was

secrecy upon his sword.'

singular propriety, re-

preserved,

of

when the weapon had

ceased to be worshipped by the Christianized warriors of the north.* '

At

the war-cry of

Nemed

under Henoist suddenly drew

cure Saxet or Take your daggers, our perfidious forefathers

and assassinated at

iheir swords,

p. 161, 162. *

MalK t's North. Ant.

* Mallet's *

and Davies's Mythol.

I

am

North. Ant.

vol. vol.

i.

i.

p.

three

hundred of the i.

308. '

p. 239. p.

least

See Turnt-r's Hist, of the Anglo-Saxons, vol.

unsuspecting Briiish nobility at Stonchcnge.

'

217.

Gifford's Hist, of France, vol.

Hamlet Act

i.

ii.

p.

548.

scene ult.

not without suspicion, that the old chivalric oath before the ladies and the peacock,

by which the knights bound ihcrasclvcs

to

attempt some haiardous adventure, has originated

from the peacock of the war-god Cariiceya.

chap.

v.

THE OniGIN or PAGAN JDOLATKV.

430 I!(I()K

IV.

Mars,

3.

like

in the character

Woden and

Hercules, being the diluvian patriarch viewed

logical propriety represented as the

was born from the the hero-gods

:

wc

of the lord of battles,

him always with

find

strict

mytho-

paramour of Venus; the goddess, who

and who was esteemed the maritime receptacle of

sea,

whence, in the old

rites

of the Romans,

they were

shipped conjointly, he as the great father, and she as the great mother the idea was so familiar, that his tion

Mars

Marspitcr ov father

As an

the shape of a

Dagon,

as

Vishncu

is

in the

war of the gods with Typhon or

said,

This points him out

fish.*

to

like

of the

as

to

Buddha

Nor

fish.

when he

the period,

:

Venus,

have assumed

be the same as the fish-god

Matsya Avatar, and

of the sovereign prince in the belly purely accidental or imaginary

and

frequently expressed in composi-

in the

and, on that occasion, he

:

;

to denote his paternity.'

he was engaged

arkite deity,

the deluge

name was

all

wor-

himself, sufficiently explains the import of the fable

;

it

is

thus

in his this

character

resemblance

metamorphosed

was the age of Typhon

who compelled Osiris to enter into an ark, and who for a time put to flight the whole body of the hero-gods. The war of the giants alludes to the same event as the war of Typhon and here we have the escape of Mars described in a somewhat more literal form. or the unrestrained ocean,

:

Those

allegorical children of

Neptune

or the sea,

\\

hose growth increased so

rapidly that they soon overtopped the highest mountains, are said to have

forced

Mars

to enter into a tub.'

This

What

repetition of the fable of Osiris

is

manifestly nothing

more than a

the classical mythologists have con-

verted into a tub, was the round dish or goblet which the Hindoos consider '

Macrob. Saturn,

lib.

i.

c.

12. p. 170. c. ip. p. 203.

gods were simihirly compounded,

when analyzed, shews him

to

jind,

I

believe, for the

be the great father.

The names

of

many

other of the

same reason: the character of each,

The

title

of Jupiter or Jovispiter

familiar to every one: but Lucilius will teach us, that he was by no

bore the appellation oifather.

Ut nemo

sit

nostrum, quin paler optijniis divum.

Ut Neptunus

pater, Liber, Saturnus pater,

Janus, Quirinus pater,

nomen

Lucil, "

Anton. Liber. Metam.

'

Hyg. Poet. Astron.

c.

dicatur ad

apud Lactan.

lib. ii.

c.

40. p. 415.

Mars,

unum. Instit. lib. iv. c. 3. p.

28.

Hyg. Fab. 28.

is

means the only god who

353.

THE ORIGIN as a copy of the ship Argha.

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

01'

4J

was the same as the cup of Hercules and

It

Helius, in which tiiey vvere thou^lit to have sailed in safety over the surface

of the ocean

in other

:

words,

it

was the Ark,

preserved the great

wiiicli

father from the fury of those Maters, the mighty children of the sea,

that in

the short space of forty days prevailed above the summits of the loftiest

That which

was

the circular tub of JMars it

occupies on the sphere

really

we

for

:

a cup,

is

hills.

evident from the place

some supposed

are told, that

be the goblet, which appears near the Centaur and the ship Argo.' opinion seems to

me

very probable

sedly a copy of the Argha,

it is

:

since the sacrificial cup

for,

is

it

to

This profes-

reasonable to believe, that the mythological

astronomers should have placed the one in the immediate vicinity of the other.

XXVI.

There

a remarkable peculiarity in the fabled birth of Mars,

is

which must by no means be omitted, chain, which binds together

Italy,

as

it

forms a link

in a

mythological

China, Hindostan, Greece, Egypt, and

the various countries that profess the religion of Buddha. 1

.

Mars

is

sometimes said to have been the son of Juno by Jupiter

;

but

he was likewise thought to have been born of the goddess alone without the

Ovid informs

instrumentality of a father. Jupiter's production of

husband

to the

comfort her

:

us,

Juno,

that

Minerva without a mother, went

On

Ocean.

her

way she met with

to

indignant

at

complain of her

who attempted

Flora,

to

but Juno declared, that nothing could give her consolation ex-

cept a complete conjugal retort

;

as Jupiter had produced a daughter without

a mother, she would compass heaven and earth to retaliate by producing a

son without a father.

Flora, pitying the whimsical distress of the exasperated

goddess, undertook to gratify her wishes, provided she would swear by the

waters of Styx faithfully to keep her secret from Jupiter.

Juno complied

and Flora forthwith produced a flower of marvellous potency.

me

this,

said she, told

should become a inother

The experiment was

me :

to touch xvith

I

obeyed ;

and,

a barren lo,

heifer,

and

it

;

journeyed into Thrace

Ilyg. Poet. Astron. lib.

ii.

assuredly

the heifer became a mother.

repeated upon Juno, and with equal success.

Flora in a state of pregnancy

'

it

lie zvho gave

c. 40. p.

;

414, 415.

and

in

She

left

due time,

*^"*''- *•

THE OKIOIN OF PAGAN'

43S HOOK

ly.

^^Q

gijjQj^g

became

Scythians,

warlike

IDOI-ATttV, exulting mother

tlie

god

of the

Mars.'

This curious, though somewhat ludicrous, fable relates to the allegorical

Noah

birth of

from the Ark or great mother, a birth obviously effected

without the intervention of a father

and

the heifer introduced into

Ark,

accidentally

it

Nor

in hieroglyphics.

the goddess journeyed into Thrace fable originated

it

;

meet with a

same

Yoni or

as

mens of

It

the sect of

more or

but the story of

is

yet are M-e told without reason, that

circumstance shews, whence the

this

:

adorned by the pen of

story,

less

worshipped,

is

Buddha maintained

god

their

to

have been born through

Tliis virgin, like the sole parent of Mars, was the

Noah The

birth of

through the door, which was fashioned in the side of that vessel.' Ovid. Fast.

Ratramn. de

lib.

v.

'

It is

231—258..

ver.

He

nat. Christ, c. 3.

putablc, that he meant

we

Mars

resembling that of the nativity of

and the birth of Buddha through her side was the



is

was long since observed by Ratramnus, that the Brah-

the side of a virgin.*

*

Isi

Nor

that animal symbolized the

almost every region where Buddha

tale

without a father.

:

as

:

was a Scythian or Gothic

2. Accordingly, in

Ark

the

is

but truly relating to the Cuthic god Buddha.

classical writer,

shall

Juno

supposed parturition by the touch of the flower

its

Juno repeated

a

for

:

took the form of the ship Argha at the time of the deluge.

Isi

by mistake Bubda; but

calls the deity

it

indiV

is

Buddha.

easy to see, that this fable in particular and other points in the legend of Buddha,

produced that monstrous heresy, which the Manicheans

whole

spreail over the

east.

Christ was pronounced to be an incarnation of Buddha, and Christianity was strangely uigrafted

and gave himself out

to be

name Manes, by which he J\Iencs,

I

it

to be

Oxon.

generally

a

is

known title

This

is

first

at

of

no proper name, but rather a

be an appearance

it

leiist in liie

the west,

the

Buddha.

ark-god

title

is

titles

of the Paraclete

Ten

binthus

author of the heresy.

same appellation as Bp. Pearson rightly

assunud by the heresiarch

:

from the Hebrew and in supposing

he it

is

to

how-

denote

This circumstance

is

is

said to have had a master denominated Scyihianus,

Bp. Pearson on the Creed.

extremely curious.

of Christianity upon a Scythian superstition

;

Theheresy

for the

Art.

I.

;

The

he assumed.

evident from the appellation assumed by his predecessor Terebinth us,

called himself BudJ/is.

was the

is

conceive, totally mistaken in deriving

aheretic.

to

an incarnitlion of the god Buddha, whose

Menu ; which

Manes, oi

pronounces ever,

Manes himself claimed

upon Paganibni.

note

c. vol.

itself consisted of

ii.

p.

who who 76.

an ingraftation

Chusas were by the Greeks called Scy-

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRV. same notion

Buddha and Mahiman

prevails in the east.

still

indeed indiscriminately said to have stood father and son

thtaiis

but the

:

and, what evidently shews

;

ginated,

birth

his

is

common

in

Buddha

that

Buddha had no

fable of Alars ori-

According to the

Lamas

him of a

not only that

insisted,

Manes had twelve

disciples

;

and educated

virgin,

their master also

was called Salivahana, which

the second

Maya

Salivahana; Bhat or Baddas, to identify Christ

with

Buddha was

is

one of the

way

Hermas

tlie

who

German

in

which part of

titles

of that god.

Of

these

of copying' the Buddhic triad, he called

or Hcrmias, and the third

Thomas or

rather

three sons of

or Heri-Maya, and Thaimaz or Thamaz.

The attempt

is

still

to be

Tashta or Twashta, who was though

further.

represented as being the parent of

Manu

from

whom'

undoubtedly the Teutat of the Celts and the Tuisto of the

Tuisto

was esteemed the great ;

is

In imita-

a transcript of the

carried

have journeytd into the west, who

were born three sons, and (for

was

and, being esteemed an incarnation of Buddhu,

For Mr. Wilford rightly pronounces them

of the Ark

like

but that he himself was afterwards born again, in the same manner with

;

Buddha or Addas,

Germans

bom

Buddha,

twelve he gave the precedence to three: and, by

Thaimaz.

is

did the matter stop here: the disciples of Maries, and those

of Thibet, in the person of his successor Buddas-Addas or Adda-Menes.

in India

he thence

Nor

he had perverted, strongly

regenerated

tion of Christ,

sons),

is,

Buddas-Tcrebinthus, closely copying the doctrines of his Scythian

a mountain.

whom

Christians

to

idea

whence the preceding

Chusa or Scuth.

by angels

first

relation of

similarly connected with a flower."

instructor, pretended to be an incarnation of

the

are sometimes

in the

hence the instructor of Terebinthus was thought to have been one Scythianus, that

:

to say, a

the

each other

to

a species of genealogical confusion, which I have frequently

;

observed and accounted for father

433

artist

is

Mannus who had

said to have been the father of

three

and fabricator of the world, because Noah was the builder

his character

he coincides with the Pluha or Vulcan of Egypt.

This artizan Twashta the mischievous ingenuity of the Buddhists of the Manichean school converted into the carpenter Joseph, the husband of the virgin

Mary

:

and, blending the an-

cient worship of the serpent with Christianity, they asserted, that Christ, the reputed son of

the carpenter, was, like Salivahana or Saca, an incarnation of the great serpent.

His mother

conceived at the age of a year and a half, the sacred serpent gently gliding over her while she

was asleep

in her cradle.

They have various other

legends,

which seem evidently

been borrowed from the crude fables contained in the apocryphal gospels. to pursue the matter

any

further,

I

subject in Asiat. Res. \ol. ix. p. 212 '

The

Dalai

Prester

Lama

John

He

— 221.

and vol. x.

me

p.

to

hill,

where the Ark was feigned

Pag.

Idol.

wish

27

et infra.

have been clearly no other than the

was frequently supposed to reside

of the Moon: but there was an Ethiopia or Cusha-dwip every

hav^

beg to refer him to Mr. Wilford's Dissertations on the

of the middle ages seems to

of Thibet.

to

If the reader

to

in

in

Ethiopia near the mountain

Asia as well as in Africa; and

have landed, was esteemed a lunar mountain.

VOL.

II.

3 1

Such

THE ORIGIff OF PARAN TDOIATHA'.

434 fcouK IV,

Buddha

j^jn^Qo account, which has been already given at large, reofion of souls in the

When

Mava. in a

month of Magh, and entered

labour came upon her

:

but

in

was walking

Buddha

whom

Fo-Hi,

into the world.'

have identified

I

As

said to have been born without a father.

like him,

is,

IMaha-

spontaneously declining their branches,

similar legend occurs in China.

with Buddha,

the

Suddenly the pains of

gathering flowers.

the trees,

concealed her venerated person while she brought

A

womb of

the time of his nativity approached, his mother

garden and was employed

3.

into the

left

his

mother was walking on the bank of a lake, that constant symbol of the deluge,

she was suddenly encompassed by a rainbow

That

but the deficiency

:

sumamed The flower-loving

:

been born from the

Moon

by

Buddha

that

ISIartini,

supplied by de Premare.

mother of Fo-Hi was

worthy of observation,

it is

mythological system of the Hindoos,

in the

that,

sometimes feigned to have

is

and the nymph Rohini, one of whose

titles is

or She that delights in the y:aterfloxcer?

Cumudanayaca 4.

is

father adds to the narrative of Martini, that the

and

result was,

Tliis tale, as given

she conceived and brought forth Fo-IIi."

does not mention the flower

and the

:

Just the same notion was entertained by the Mexicans respecting the

birth of their great

god Mexitli.

While

mother was walking

his

in the

court

©f the temple, she suddenly beheld a plume descend from heaven bright with Receiving it as it floated down, she placed the various hues of the rainbow. it

in her

bosom

it

there,

it

and the

Lama.

an ornament for the

was no wliere her

fruit of

accordingly the

as

is

to be found.

womb was

the character of

'J'lie

altar of her

Mexitli

for

Meru, which geogmphically coincides with

a Christian priest or pope.

both by the ingraftation of Christianity upon applied to this celebrated personage

which approximates

when she sought

who, as we have seen above, was

;

striking resemblance between the ceremoniul of the

Lama

but,

:

She herself however became pregnant

of the Romish church has often been noticed, so that

mistake the

god

:

so nearly to the

1

Buddhic

travellers of the

am

the

more confirmed

John seems

French Jean as

to

and that

dark ages would easily

to be the

in this opinion,

name which was

Buddhism, and by the very

his appellation

the dominions of religion

Buddhic titk 7a«»,

be in fact the same word.

Just as

there were two Ethiopia?, so a notion prevailed, that there was a Prester John both in Asia

and

in Africa.

See Purch. Pilgr. p. 400, 4-03, 428, 410, 6'6S, 67O.

'

Asiat. Res. vol.

ii.

p.

383—386.

*

Asiat. Res. vol.

ii,

p.

375, 376.

*

Martin. Hist. Sin.

lib.

i.

p.

51.

THE ORIOTN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. earned by as the

Amnion

Doubtless the ancestors of the Mexi-

or Osiris of Egypt.'

cans brought with them out of eastern Asia

vir^n-bom ark-god have altered the Hindostan,

and

:

fable,

as

it it

how

in all the colours

tliey

very slightly they

Greece, China, and

exists in the mythologies of

For an impregnating flower

of feathers steeped

remarkable worship of a

this

to observe,

curious

is

same manner

in the

an ark from place to place, just

his priests in

43.^

have merely substituted a plume

of the rainbow.

The nativity of Vulcan or Phtlia, whom I have shewn to be the same as Buddha and consequently the same as Mars, affords another example of The Greeks made him, the widely-extended tenet now under consideration. 6.

Mars, the son of Juno, and believed him

like

goddess without a father

to

have been born from that

him

the Egyptians supposed

:

an egg, which ])roceeded out of the mouth of the

These two accounts are explain the other

;

same

substantially the

for the

is

have sprung from

and the one may serve to

egg was a symbol of the Ark

assumed the form of the ship Argha of observation, that Juno

;

to

primeval god Cnepb.*

and Juno or Yoni

;

at the time of the deluge.

equally said to have produced

It

is

worthy

Mars and Vulcan

without a father, because she was indignant that Jupiter should have produced

Such a coincidence tends additionally

Minerva without a mother.'

to

prove

the identity of those two divinities,

We

6.

seus

find a similar speculation prevalent with regard to the birth of

and the reason of

;

as Mars and Buddha,

Danae

its

prevalence

He

is

that Perseus

is,

commonly

the daughter of Acrisius

;

Per-

was the same character

eaid to be the son of Jupiter

but Justin Martyr

tells us,

that he

by

was

likewise feigned to have been born of a virgin and to have had no father,* 7,

Such an universal opinion respecting the mysterious

birth of the chief

made by the conqueror The Scythian worship of

hero-god will serve to explain the singular appeal Zingis

the superstition of his countrymen.

to

Buddha

prevailed

Torquemad,

'

Claviger.

*

Apollod. Bibl.

Evan, '

lib,

iii.

among most of

lib,

i,

lib, vi, c, 1,

c, 3.

j 5.

the Tatar tribes, and has penetrated to

See Southey's Madoc. vo',

Hyg.

Praef.

in Fab. p. 9,

ii.

p. 39, 40, 199.

Porph. apud Euseb. Praep.

c. 11.

Hesiod. Theog.

ver.927—929.

* Just. Dial,

cum Tryph,

p.

297.

THE OaiOIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

436

Aware of

the utmost recesses of Siberia.'

sure stabihty to his empire, erected

on the

it

gave out, that he was born of a virgin

an Avatar of Buddha.

god

in the

this

to

whom

readily acknowledged that miraculous conception of

him above the

name of

level of

human nature

the deity invested

he pretended to be

the successive births of the

Lamas were

Asiatic

persons of the various

He

basis of popular belief.

in other words,

:

His followers,

circumstance, Zingis, to iiv

his

perfectly familiar,

mother, which raised

who

: and the naked prophet,

him with the empire of the world,

in the

that empire

which every nation ascribed to the great father as an universal sovereign^ pointed the valour of the ^loguls with irresistible enthusiasm.^

XXVII. Though

the

Greeks considered the virgin-born Perseus only as

he was really a a hero, and though they transferred his history to Argo:, most ancient god both of l\gypt and Babylonia. There was a temple dedi;

cated to him at Chenmiis

time of Herodotus, the inhabitants

in the

and,

:

affirmed that he often visibly appeared

pretended to find one of his sandals, and represented tic

len"th of two cubits.'

It

is

not

foot,

which

|->earance

of fact,

far

exceeded

among

his travels, there in size

the inhabitants of

If

we may

the Hungarians

and

;

his

Ih'

a literal matter

I believe,

Buddha

in the

further asserted, that he

was a

iiUowcd to draw a conjecture from identity of names,

The

frequent ap-

similarity of their language

it

seems also to have

and accent

Laplanders

theinsi-lvcs

call

Samen-Almatjah

their national appellation.

borrow

Somen

is

:

et infra.

I

think

it

all

undoubtedly a

the north of that vast continent.

likely, that the Siberian

Samoeds

of

title

vol. vi. p.

42.

of

Now

;

This seems at

Buddha.

and we know, that Buddhism

Sec Coxe's Travels, vol.

also took

their

name from

Saman. Gibbon's Hist, of the Decline,

men

and, from whatever source they might

be certain, that they migrated at some period from Asia

has overspread almost

'

to those of

such, as to have led a native of Lapland and anative of Hungary, both

is

to adopt the same opinion, that the La|)landcrs were originally a tribe of Huns.

letters,

least to

an impression of his sacred

was,

The Egyptians

been established among the Laplanders.

the

left

into whatsoever

that,

belief,,

mere mortal

Chemmis

as being of the gigan-

it

bcin" indeed no other than the similar appearance of

person of the Dalai Lama. '

that of a

he

also

account for these notions

difficult to

the fable of the vast sandal originated from the

country Buddha directed

They sometimes

among them.

'

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

91.

iv. p.

58

the god

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. native of their country

whicii

;

same

sense, that

Cadmus

but he was not more

:

was the god of every nation where Buddha was supposed

their deity, than he

have travelled and where

consequence he was worshipped.

in

Herodotus accordingly

1.

true exactly in the

He was their chief deity

and Osiris were Egyptians.'

to

is

437

tells us,

that Perseus

Persians as to the Greeks antl Egyptians

was

for the Persians

:

known

as well

to the

contended that

he was by birth an Assyrian or Babylonian, just as the Greeks and Egyptians

him

respectively claimed

We

as their countryman.^

hnd him

also

among

the Hyperboreans assisting at a sacrifice of asses to Apollo, and afterwards in the

same country

have expected seus

is

for

:

slaying the Gorgon.'

Buddha was

This

is

what wc

precisely

the great god of the Scythians

mitrht

hence Per-

;

naturally transported into the country of those blessed vien, as Pindar

calls the

widely-spreading family

among

the different branches of which the

We

worship of Buddha especially prevailed. of which

Cilicia;

founder

according to Solinus and

city,

but Eustathius makes

:

in search of lo

it

when

in

Antipatcr,

at

Tarsus

in

he was the

who were sent came Cilix, the

a colony of those Argives,

the daughter of Inachus.'^

brother of Cadmus,

him

likewise find

To

this

city

These various

quest of his sister Europa.'

legends amount to the same thing: for Perseus and Caduius and Inachus

were

all

one person, just as lo and Danae and Europa were equally the

great mother; hence there was a very vivid tradition of the deluge at Tarsus.*

He

was also

in

both the Ethiopias, eastern and western

:

and, in the former

of these regions, he was thought to have slain the cetus and to have delivered

What

Andromeda.^

minate the land of Cusli

Cuthic regions. Ilcrod. Hist. lib.

'.

Find. Pyth. Od. x.

ii.

c.

Eustath.

^

Ovid de

lie is

.lit.

amand.

in

*

Eustalh.

Dion. Pcrieg. lib.

i.

in

is,

refers.

"

Metani.

See Mctam.

lib.

the two Ethropias, being peopled by the

common.

lib. vi. c.

Dionvs. Pcrieg. vcr. SfO.

vcr. 87-i.

vcr. 53.

Herod. Hist.

54.

Anlip. Epig.

Euststh. in Dion. Pcrieg. ver. 87-t. lib. iv. ver.

often thought to have performed the exploit

himself more than once fact

deno-

and they make mention of more than one of these

;

91.

* Solin. Polyhist. c. 58. in

\vriters

In exact accordance with them the Hindoo geographers

'

^

Greeks called Ethiopia, the sacred

the

in the

iv. ver.

same

668. comp.

670.

race,

lib. v. ver. 17.

Yet

African Ethiopia, to whicli Ovid

had

lib. v. vcr.

17, 75, 137.

their legends

The

and superstitions

<'"*»'•

*•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAK IDOLATRY.

438 HOOK

IV.

speak of Cusha-duip within and

Cmha-chvip mthoul

meaning by the

:

former the vast tract of country which comprehends Persia, Babylonia, Boutan, and Thibet

Bactria, Cashgar,

India,

African

districts

name

oriental

by the

Perseus therefore

of Ethiopia.

Cusha-dwip: and,

whom

at present exclusively apply

eminently to be sought for in the

is

in that country,

both by the old Buddhic Persians to

we

doubtless find him, venerated

be eommunicated his name, and

The

scene

sometimes

laid,

by the warlike Chasas or Indo-Scythae of Cashgar and Thibet. of not

his

Andromeda and

adventure with

in India,

The

ascertained.

the sea-monster

Of this

but at Joppa in Palestine.'

tlie

is

reason

whose country Joppa was

Philistim, in

may

easily

be

were a

situated,

who subjugated Egypt; and

Palli or Scythian Shepherds,

branch of the

those

iutlcr,

separated from tliem by the sea, which were also colonized

by the descendants of Cush, and to which we the

and,

;

they were members of the very same family as the Cliasas or Goths of

Hence Tzetzes

northern India.

calls

Joppa a

of Ethiopia or Chusis'

Being thus brought into the land of Palestine, he there espouses

tan.''

Astart^ or Astoreth, the Astartfe are

one character

Brimo or Hecat^, who

is

Magna Mater

the triple Cali or is

afterwards

island Dclos, a legend which requires no

Diana of

brother of Eetes king of Colchis.'

origin.*

Hence

its

and

triplq

still

into the floating

Brimo

Cali or

child

tlie

Thus we are

Buddha, the great god of the Scythians for

metamorphosed

and, accordingly,

described as being also a king of Taurica,

Colchis was one;

for Asleria

;

Devi of the Hindoos and the

comment.*

Tauric Soythians:

the

of the Plienicians

and by her he becomes the father of the

:

His wife Astcria

Chasas.'

the

city

we

of the

is

find

clearly

Perseus

Sun, and the

led to identify

in all their settlements.

him with

Of these,

inhabitants are said to have been of Indo-Scythic

there was a

mount Caucasus

Coh-Chasa near

or

Colchis,

as well as one in northern India and another to the south of the Caspian or

Chasic sea.

We

find

him

also

penetrating to the western ocean, to the

utmost extremities of Africa and Spain

:

and here

it

was, according to some,

Paus. Messen. p. 284. Tzetz. in Lye. vcr. 836.

^

Tzttz. in Lye. ver. 836.

^

Lycoph. Cassan.

"

Hyg. Fab.

53.,

'

Schol. in

lib. iv, p.

248.



Tzeta. in Lye. ver. 174.

'

ver.

1175, 1176. Tzetg. in loc.

ApoU. Argon,

lib. iii. ver.

199.

Diod. Bibl.

THE

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

OJIIOIN OF

Gorgons and cut

that he destroyed the

/^S9

Medusa's head.'

off

theology of the Atlantians and that of the Scythians were the

Perseus

is

indifferently

said

to

In

the

fact,

same

hence

:

have slain the Gorgons upon the western

ocean and among the Hyperhoreans, just as Atlas himself and

tlie

garden of

the Hesperides are sometimes placed in Mauritania and sometimes in Scythia. 2.

Since Perseus then was the same as

why

readily perceive

Buddha

or

Mercury, we

Greeks represented him precisely

the

in the

shall

same man-

ner as their Hermes.

Mercury was depicted with a winged helmet on

with winged

his head,

sandals on his feet; with a bag and a crooked sword suspended to his side,

and with a rod

in his

in

a w inged globe and encircled

his expedition against

winged sandals

Gorgons, the nymphs furnished him with

lent

him

Meicury

;

To

his

adamantine sabre

these he afterwards

calls

;

the helmet

of

an ark, depended

added the Gorgon's head surrounded

with serpents, which I suspect to be nearly allied to the head of Osiris the hieroglyphic

liy

he set out

the

Pluto guarded his head; and a wallet, which Tzetzes at his side.

When

Such also was the equipment of Perseus.

two serpents.' on

hand terminating

The helmet

of the globe serpent and wings.'

and

of Pluto

unequivocally intimates the infernal character of Perseus, and points him out to be, like Mercury, the fabled conductor of the dead. to possess the

power of rendering

him the black shades of

night.*

its

This,

was thought

It

wearer invisible by diffusing around if I

mistake not, alludes to the cele-

brated a[)hanism or disappearance of the great father, which subject of

the mournful part of the Mysteries.

same

ascribed the

virtue

'

Tzetz. in Lye. ver. 838.

Albric. Philus. de door. imag.

'

Tzetz. in Lye. vcr. 838.

Sometimes the ancients

a ring, as in the romantic story of Gyges

to

^

formed the

Oviii.

Metam.

lib. iv. vcr.

;

a

6l5— 6Gl, 770— 7S4.

c. 6.

What

Tzc-tzes calls xijSturoj

and

xijSicrij,

llcsiod ca.\h y.i^vinf.

See his spirited dt.bcripti(;n of Perseus in the usual attitude of feathered INIertury. Scut. Here. Ter.

2l6

— 237-

lod. Bibl. lib.

of Mercury. *

It is

ii.

According

Herac. de Incied.

Apoll. Bibl.

c. 19.

observable that he gives his hero two serpents

c. 4.

lib. ii.

c. 4.

c.

§ 3.

to Ileraclitus,

the

in his belt.

See also Apol-

winged sandals of Perseus were the

gift

<)•

Hesiod. Scut. Here. vcr. 2'i7.

Hyg. Poet. Astron.

lib.

ii,

'^""^^ v-

THK OKTOiy OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

440 BOOK

IT.

fiction,

which has been duly transferred into various modern

fairy-tales.'

reason was, because a ring was a symbol of the Ark, Mithin the inclosure

The

Hence

of which the great father lay for u season invisible.

Buddha

was sacred to

:

and hence

esteemed the lla-vratta or mundane

the ring or circle

navicular consort Ila or

his

circle of the

Ark on

the

Argha was

summit of mount

Meru.

We

3.

only in the same manner

that

astronomical, and the great father in

This

that

:

liis

is

was the Sun however

Osiris,

Bacchus, and

to say,

he was the Sun in

Buddha, Iswara,

the other chief gods of the Gentiles were liis

He

are told, that Perseus was the Sun.*

human,

character.

evident from the fable of his exposure in the ark, which has been

is

They inform

by the Greeks.

faithfully preserved

us,

that his grandfather

Acrisius king of Argos, enraged at the dislionour tjrought

Danae, placed her and her infant sea

but

:

all

an

.son in

and was

drifted to the island Scriphus,

it

a person named Dictys?

its

that this

on the

is

the

is

but

by

tiie

by

many femi-

the reputed builder and navigator of the Argo, which

Danaus

communicated

afloat

safely brought to land

and that Daoa^

;

his family

which be set

I need scarcely observe,

times repeated story of Osiris or Bacchus

nine form of

ark,

upon

name

to the city

where Perseus was feigned

to

have been

born. 4.

'

It

is

probable, that wings were attributed to Mercury and Perseus in

Gygcs, according to Plato, found a brazen horse

in

Within the horse was the

a cavern.

body of a man of

gigantic stature, having a brazen ring on his finger.

and found that

rendered the wearer invisible.

it

whence

pretty evidently,

who Ark.

The

bore

Hu

in safety

The dead inclosure of

giant

rites

is

the gigantic

him within

the

the

Buddha during

mare amounts

wooden cow.

And

to the

the period of his deathlike slumber.

same thing

as the inclosure of the

dead

the cavern was one of those sacred grottos, within

of the great father were perpetually celebrated, and from which both he and

his initiated votaries

were feigned to be born again.

*

Tzetz. in Lye. vcr. 17.

^

Strab. Geog. lib. x. p. 487-

Apollod. Bibl.

of Ceres or Hippa,

was also a form of the ship-goddess Ceridwen,

through the waters of the deluge: the mare therefore symbolized the

Osiris within the ark or

which the

it

Thi? ring Gygcs took,

cavern, the ring, and the giant, shew

The mare was a form

this fable originated.

mystic nurse of the ark-cxposed Bacchus;

The

lil>. ii. c.

4.

Nonni Dionys.

lib.

x.w. p. 425.

Tzclz. in Lye. ver. 838.

THE OUIOIN OV PAGAN IDOLATRy.

44!

and consequently that they mark those

allusion to the sails of ships,

deities

Albricus seems to insinuate some such idea, uhen

to have been navigators.

he compares the winged Perseus to a ship running before the wind and

who

describes him as a powerful king of Asia

The

and conquered Africa.'

fable of his turning

ing before their eyes the formidable head of

of the production of

and

flood,

to that of

the rock-worship of

men from

many

men into

Medusa,

is

stones,

by display-

stones by Pyrrha and Deucalion after the

Buddha, Mercury, or storj-

different regions

nearly allied to that

Saturn swallowing the stone Baitylus

In a similar manner, the

IMithras,

of his liberating

upon the symbolical worship of the

is built

sailed to

fish

seems

each of them

in

:

to

be alluded

Andromeda from

repetition of the Iliensian tale,

from a sea-monster

is

which a

in

The It

observe, that the crooked sword, given alike to called

Harpe

From

this

;

and that Harpe

am

circumstance I

5.

From

priests of

identity of Cronus,

the

size

may

not be improper to

IMercury and Perseus,

a scythe or

is

sickle.''

led to suspect, that the faulchion in question

was no other than the scythe of Cronus

by the common

story itself is a complete

also said to denote

is

sacrifices

deUverance of Hesion^

parallel

ascribed to Hercules.

Buddha

within whose belly

once lay concealed, with a reference perhaps to those bloody human

which so generally disgraced the pagan world.

to.

the cetus

:

and the conjecture

is

strengthened

Mercury, Perseus, and Buddha.

of the sandal of Perseus, according to the Egyptian

Chemmis, the hero must have been some

six yards high.

have

I

considered the ascription of such a stature to him as one of the proofs of his

being the same as Buddha,

who

is

usually represented either under the form

of a massy stone or as a person of gigantic altitude.

We find

evident traces

of both these modes of representation, wherever the worsliip of Buddha prevailed.

Thus, from such a

style of exhibiting the god,

popular notion, that the vast columns of Stonehengc giants

:

stupendous image of Nebuchadnezzar.

less

indeed of Colossus points out the deity,

'

Albric. Philos. de deor. imag. c. 21.

*

Schol. in Iliad,

/alx.

Poet. Astron.

Pag.

were the work of

and thus we may trace to the same source the stupendous Rhodian

Colossus and the no

name

originated the

Idol.

lib. xix.

ver.

lib. iii. c.

350.

Ilcsj'ch. Lc-x.

who was

The

very

so represented from

Hyginus expressly

calls his

sword

11.

VOL.

II.

3

K

<""*•'• *•

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY.

442 BOOK

IV.

Hindostan

Coll or Cala, and another

One

Britain in the west.

the east to

in

Esa

is

of Buddha's

titles Is

from Col-Esa, the compound of these

:

two, was probably derived the word Colossus.

These remarks

will serve as

a clue to the real history of the Cyclopes.

XXVIII. The ture,

Cyclopes are usually described as being of a gigantic

and as each having a

single eye in the centre of the forehead.

were shepherds and musicians cruelty, devouring without

thought

to

also

most

skilful

mechanics

Stonehenge, so to them

have framed

They were

Mycen£E,

They

and Hermione.

same

as the Telchines,

they could

and, as giants are

They were

the builders

forged the thunder of Jupiter, the miracu-

They were

evidently

Id^i Dactyli, or Corybantes: both because they

are similarly represented as very skilful workmen, and because there

manifest correspondence

bantes are called by

neus,

and Cdmis

Delas

:

in the

calls the three Idei or

were the

Virgil calls one of the three Cyclopes

The

poets

commonly

common

Ovid. Metara.

Troad. Dionys. '

vtr.

1087.

lib. xli. p.

Nonni Dion.

'

Hyg. Fab. 153.

a

is

of the Cory-

Danmamtneus : the Acmon, Damname-

workers

in brass

and iron

v\as

and

:

Pyracmon^ and partly carry on

without reason, that

it

mount Etna,

this

country

is

have very early received a colony of

with them a tradition of the deluge, and

local appropriation asserted in after ages that their country-

lib. xiii.

to the

Homer. Odyss.

Senec. Thyest.

233.

lib. x. c. 6.

Yet

summit of Etna.'

act.

lib. ix.

ver.

ii.

1068. Strab. Geog.lib.

lib. xiii. p.

Euscb. Pra;p. Evan.

Nor

who brought

man Deucalion escaped '

first

for Sicily appears to

Scythian Shepherds, M'ho by a

Telchines

their occupation of shepherds,

their business of artizans. :

or

Two

place them in Sicily in the region of

where they partly follow assigned to them

bear.

Eusebius denominates them Telmis, Damnamtneus, and

and says, that they

;

names which they

Nonnus Acmoji and Danmeus

author of the Phoronis

re-

likewise the architects of Argos,

lous helmet of Pluto, and the trident of Neptune." the

:

whom

were ascribed many

markable works by the superstition of the ancients. of the vast walls of Tiryns.

They

yet they are said to have been monsters of

:

remorse every stranger upon

They were

lay their hands.

sta-

ApoUod.

4C6.

viii. p.

Here.

Lucian expressly

calls

Bibl. lib.

ii.

fur. act. iv.

372, 373. Apollod. Bibl.

Phoron. apud Schol.

Virg. jEocid. lib.

the preceding remarks,

viii.

ver.

in

ApoU. Argon,

c. 2. § 1.

ver.

996.

lib. i.e. 2.

lib.

i.

ver.

424.

Deucalion a Sct/thian.

Luc. dc dea Syr.

Eurip.

Nonni $

1.

1129.

THE ORIGIN' OF PAHAN IDOLATUV. may be added

even exclusive of others which

443

to them, are sufficient to shew,

we must by no means confine tlie Cyclopes to Sicily. ApoUodorus says, that, when they had built the walls of Tiryns, they inhabited the whole They were likewise, according to Aristotle and the country of Argolis.' that

scholiast

on Euripides, a Thracian or Scythian race

that they were excellent

They

Cyclops.*

workmen and its

an ancient king of the country.' deities

:

latter adds,

name from their king we are told by Hermip-

received their

Egypt

are also to be found in

pus, that the river Nile received

and the

;

:

for

appellation from Nilus the son of Cyclo|>s

They were

and the gigantic Cyclops

in short

their chief,

Cuthic or Scythian

who was

venerated by the

Thracians, was no other than Coll or Buddha.

Sometimes he was called Polypheme, as the Greeks wrote the word, and was described as a shepherd; an occupation, which

The

understanding of the name.

we

But

tlie

pyramids

;

occupied

own language is PalU, Pali, or Bali : hence by whose name the Egj-ptians distinguished and hence we find a country, the southern part of which name

in their

read of a shepherd

their

Scythians delighted to style themselves

under which appellation they once conquered and

Shepherds,

Egypt.

will lead us to the right

Philitis,

was colonized by the Scythic Philistim, designated by the appellation of Palestine or (as

tlie

Hindoo geographers

write the word) PalUsthan,

The shepherd

to say the land of the PalU.*

Philitis

was the same as

Egyptian king Cyclops, and as the Sicilian shepherd Polypheme

Greeks have formed the herd.

Polyphema from Pali which

title

That Polypheme

is

to be

and

Illyrius;

rians, ter,

He

is

from

whom

'

Apollod. Bibl.

"

Aristot. dc niir. ausc. p. 732.

lib.

ii.

c. C. J

ApoU. Argon,

Herod. Hist,

is

sufficiently evident

This genealogy at once points out

already shewn to be the Scythic

*

a Shep-

from

his

the nations of the Gauls, the Celts, and the Illy-

and identifies him with Hercules and

Schol. in

for the

said to have been the father of three sons, Galatus, Celtus,

were descended.'

'

signifies

is

old

esteemed a Scythian and therefore of the

same race as the Egyptian Shepherd-kings, offipring.

:

that tlie

lib. ii. c.

Buddha

:

his real charac-

Cadmus, both of whom have been for the Cuthic Hercules

1.

Schol. in Eiirip. Orest. ver. ^66.

lib. iv. ver. C6£).

128.

'

Natal.

Com.

lib, ix. p.

510,

was

simi^

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

444

larly the father of three sons,

been called Celtus very lUyrius,

who

one of

and Cadmus

;

also

is

must

also have

This

may be deduced,

been the

is

whom

said by Parthenius to have

is

described as being the parent of that

made one of the children of Polyplieiue." Cyclops same as Cronus and have been worshipped in Crete.

not only in a general manner from the identity of

Cronus and Buddha, but likewise from the correspondence of the Cyclopes

These Telchines or Corybantes were the same

with the Telchines.

But

Curetes of Crete.

]

latter.

we

If vve further inquire into the history of the Cyclopes,

.

same

Cronus the head of the former must be the same as Cyclops

as the Cyclopes,

head of the

Cretan Curetes sacrificed children to Cronus as

Therefore, since the Curetes or Telchines were the

their chief deity.*

tile

tlic

as the

shall

still

be

led to a similar conclusion.

Hesiod and ApoUodorus represent them as very ancient personages, three in

number, and the children of Uranus and

Ge

Hesiod and the scholiast on Eschylus agree

that

or Argus, which

A general

is

and

:

may be remarked,

it

in calling

one of them Arges

a name of Buddha as the mariner god of the Argha.'

notion indeed prevailed, that there were three of them, born from

a yet older deity their

common head and father.

Since then the three Cyclopes

were the sons of Polypheme, and since they were also the sons of Uranus

Polypheme and Uranus are obviously the same

Arhan or Buddha like

Ge,

greater is

and

:

signifies the

World

consort

his

Earth or the

Ge

is

Ila the wife of

IVorld.

Ila

the wife and daughter of one universal deluge.

Ge means

and arily

from

The

Noah and

birth therefore of the three

from

for Ila,

or the

Ark

;

as

Adam

the prevalence of an

Cyclopes from Uranus

and the Earth, and second-

the Ark, agreeably to the doctrine of the transmigratory

lib. iv. c.

10.

"

Porphyr. de abstin.

*

Hesiod. Thccg. vcr. 139,

^a.351.

;

and from her being esteemed

reappearance of the great father and his three sons

Herod. Hist.

World

who was saved during

their birth, primarily

Buddha

;

is

however was not only the

or the Earth, but likewise the smaller

evident, both from her being the ship Argha,

But Uranus

person.

lib.

ii.

Partlicn. Erot. c. 30.

and, since their parent

:

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

iii.

c. 5. « 4.

§ 56.

MO.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

c. ].

^

2.

Schol.in Prom, vinct.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. Arhan

is

Noah

we

considered as a

This point

2.

investigate

safely conclude

like all the other triads

which originated, of

we may

or Buddlia,

new

them

445

to be the

Buddhic

triad

;

of the Gentiles, from the three sons

Adam.

manifestation of the three sons of

be the more firmly established, the more thoroughly

will

their history.

We find

them esteemed, not only the sons of Uranus, but likewise the children of the Ocean by which was meant Noah, for in the pantheistic ;

theology the water on which he floated was reckoned

whence Typhon or the

him

sort identified with

Argha,

is

who

sea, ;

yet said to be the ocean

They

same event

itself.'

We

also

some

in the ship

them ascribed

find

to

the arkite gods, reputed to be infernal

all

assisted Jupiter in his

as the

of his forms

and Iswara, who sailed over the ocean

the era of the deluge, and, like deities.

one

forced Osiris into the ark, was yet in

war against the Titans, which was the

war of the hero-gods with Typhon

and the

:

altar of the

upon which he took a solemn oath by the waters of Styx previous to attacking his enemies or (as some more justly say) after he had conquered

sphere, his

them, was their workmanship.*

Noah

offered

up a

But

this altar

was

waters should no more prevail to cover the earth placed close to the ship Argo and taur

is

it,

Eratosthenes observes from old tradition.' his three sons built this altar,

other than the transmigrating

As

infernal gods, the

their father artizans,

Uranus

see not

Noah and still

for they built the lofty walls

Eurip. Cyclop, vcr.

in

for, ;

the

that

the sphere,

it

is

and the fabulous Cen-

a great proof of his piety,

as

Since therefore the Cyclops and

how we

can esteem them to be any

his triple offspring.

Cyclopes are said to have been cast into Tartarus by

and here they

:

The

ness from those of misery."*

'

I

:

near the raven

depicted as the sacrificer upon

upon which

when God swore

the deluge,

sacrifice after

certainly that

•2\, .22.

Homer,

continued to exercise their craft as

which separated the regions of happi-

descent however into in like map.ncr,

hell, as

we have seen

makes Polyphcme the son of Nep-

tune or the sea. *

Apollod, Bibl.

lib.

i.

c. 2. § 1.

Ilyg. Poet. Astron. lib.

ii.

c.

39.

p. 52. ^

*

Eratost. Catast. 40.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

c.

1.

\'irg.

/Encid.

lib. vi. vei. C.JO,

631.

Schol. in Aral. Ph.-cil.

c"*''- ^•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRV.

44(> BOOK

IV.

^ remarkable uniformity in the various histories of the arkite

^^,jj|^

same

the

as the fabled death of Osiris or Bacchus

:

deities,

and that death means

only the inclosure within the Ark, which was viewed in the light of a

Hence

who

must denote the

perish,

sides of the

which the ancients occasionally described as the sacred and these sides or

by the same ascribes

and the

walls,

A

architects.'

similar allusion

city of

Argo

or the

Ark

Sometimes we

styles

Buddha

this

Argos, like

Argos.

city with its walls

:

and gates

and door.

sides

Polypheme the one-eyed Charon

for

infernal regions

Thus Lyco-

Tzetzes rightly

r.

luarks,

But Charon and

one-eyed Charon he meant the Cyclops.'

are alike described as the conveyers of souls over the infernal waters

the Ganges, the Nile, and the Styx, hell,

ot

legend uf the Cyclopes.

in the

gods:

city of the

two ideas of the deluge and the

find the

immediately connected together

by

its

Ark,

contained in the fable, which

and a

:

was a symbol of the Ship of Noah with

phron

is

who

were doubtless constructed

sacrificial altar,

Cyclopes the building of the walls

to the

Theba, was the

that

coffin.

the walls of Hades, which irrevocably separate between those

are preserved and those

is

are equally the rivers of ihe

:

mystic

and equally shadow out the streams of the widely-prevailing deluge

and the ship of Charon Baris,

is

declared

by Diodorus

which was also the ship of Osiris,

to

be no

Argo of

the

otiier

the

than the

Greeks and

Egyptians, the Argha of the Hindoos.'

The

principal Cyclops then being the

to ferry souls in the Baris over the

dations of

the

which corresponds with a part of noticed.

'

as Charon,

must be esteemed Egyptian their genealogy that has

Cyclops was reckoned the son of Nilus

The answer

protection of

:

walls,

is, I

think, clearly constructed

deities

;

been already

but the Egyptians called

of the oracle to the Atheniatis, that they should

wooden

who was supposed

Acherusian marshes formed by the inun-

the Cyclopes

Nile,

same

commit themselves

to the

upon the established principles of

old mythology, which symbolized the inclosure of a ship by the inclo^ure of a city and therefore the sides of the

As a maritime

one by the walls of the other.

plrtcly naturalized the phrase in

our

own

language

;

phical. *

Lycoph. Cassand.

ver.

'

Diod. Bib),

p. 87.

lib.

i.

659,660.

Scbol. in loc.

but the

turn

nation,

of

it

we have now cnm-

is

purely hierogly-

THE their sacred river the

Ark of

Ocean, because

the

same reference

to the

and

;

the solar

The Nile

Noah.

Buddha: and Buddha sented by the

Nile,

is

is

their |)antheistic diluvian

hence we find the origin of the

Nile and sometimes from the Ocean.

tJie

Hindoos

call

that the

feign,

the Nila or blue

Sun resided on

its

name of Buddha, considered founder of a new era and Buddha himself is

banks immediately after the flood. as the author of time or as the

:

deluge, the

stream of Africa the river of Call

447

symbolized the deluge on which the

it

the real Osiris was once set afloat

Cyclopes deduced sometimes from

With

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

OIIIGIN OF

Call

is

a

;

therefore, being the river of Cali,

the god

Nilus

;

Water

for

is

the river of

or the Ocean, repre-

thought by the Hindoos to be one of the forms of god.

Egyptians the greatest of gods.

Theuth, and as

Siris or Osiris.

withstanding he

is

said to be the

Accordingly, the Nile was esteemed by the

He He

was reckoned the same as Zeuth or was also

Ocean

:

identified with the Sun,

not-

a circumstance apparently involving

a contradiction, yet perfectly according with the notions of the old mythologists

;

for the

same person, who was the Ocean and

was astronomically the Sun.' being a very ancient prince sea,

;

the god of the Ocean,

From this source arose the fables of the Sun who sailed in a ship over the waters of the

and who flourished on the banks of the Nile immediately after the

deluge. 3.

The Cyclops

then being the god Nilus,

we

shall easily trace

the con-

nection of his children the Cyclopes with Vulcan.

As each of whom, as we such, he must be identified with Thoth and Vulcan Accordingly Vulcan, who is have already seen, was the same as Buddha. Nilus or Cali was esteemed one of the oldest sovereigns of Egypt.* ;

sometimes said to have been produced from an egg, sented as the Sun of Nilus or Cyclops.' three Cabiri or Telchines

:

He was

is

at other times repre-

esteemed the parent of the

but these were the same as the three Cyclopes:

consequently Vulcan was the chief Cyclopian deity.

Hence we

find

him

presiding over the three Cyclopes, and directing their labours.*

'

*

Parmcn. apud Athcn. Deipnos.

lib. v. p.

203. Eustath.

in

Dion. Perieg. ver. 221, 223.

Eustath. in Dion. Perieg. vcr. 221.

^Cicer. de

iiat.

dtor.

lib. iii. c.

22.

* ^ its. .Eneid. lib. viii. ver.

4l6.

'^" ^'*

^'"

THE ORrciN' of pagan idolatuv.

448 nooK

IV.

This however

we may

liis

connec-

number and ;

head of their family, they make up the eight great gods of Egypt.

But of those great gods Vulcan was reputed the chief and pying the place of the venerable patriarch, w ho

is

that,

the oldest, as occu-

inditierently described as

Now

being born from the ocean and from the arkite egg.

cumstance,

trace

Tiie Cabiri are sometimes said to be seven in

tion with them. thus, with the

not the only moilc, in which

is

it is

a curious

cir-

although the Cyclopes arc generally represented as being

tlu'ee brothers, the children of one father

they are sometimes also spoken

;

of as constituting a company of seven persons, for such was the supposed

number of

the Cyclopes

who

built the walls

dered therefore, that they were Egyptian

Nilus or Cali or Vulcan, we

deities,

can scarcely doubt,

were the seven Cabiri, and that with

their

"When

of Tiryns.'

and that

it is

consi-

their chief

was

that the seven Cyclopes

head they constituted the eight

Their parent in short, the principal Cyclops, was Buddha

great gods.

his character of the wonderful artizan their being expert

workmen

Twashta or Taut

:

in

and the notion of

originated from the Notitic family being the

builders of the Ark. 4.

One

thing remains to be accounted for in the legend of the Cyclopes,

the circumstance of their each having only a single eye in the centre of their foreheads.

This mode of representing them seems to have arisen from the attach-

ment of the ancients

to symbols,

stood and perverted.

Plutarch

tells us,

in his quality of the universal lord

eye and a sceptre

:

size,

the Egyptians

:

that the Egyptians depicted Osiris,

and governor, by the hieroglyj)hic of an

this

manner of exhibiting

fable in question probably originated.

of a gigantic

niisundei"^

whence an eye was frequently carved over the

From

of their temples.*

which the Greeks perpetually

and a

single eye

The

portals

their principal deity the

statues of

Buddha

or Pali were

was the hieroglyphic of the great god of

the Greeks united the two ideas, and thus of the vShepherd

Pali they formed the one-eyed Shepherd Polypheme.

XXIX. oflfering

such arguments in favour of

lect togetlier



have supposed the chief Cyclops to be

I

:

my

viii.

p.

372, 373.

or Buddha,

opinion as I have been able to col-

and, agreeably to this conjecture,

Strab. Geog. hb.

Mahiman

it is

excellently observed

' Plut. de Isid. p. 354.

by

THK ORFGIX OF PAOAX IDOLATRY. Mr. Wllford, Ji7id

many

of Persia, Syria, and Asia Minor,

that, in the counti-ies

Mahiman and

traces of

/lis

foUffwers in the stupendous

remarkable for their magnificence and to

Memnon and :

solidity,

Zi-hich

But, as he afterwards truly states,

the Cyclopes.^

buildings were also given I think

to the

we have

whom

person,

xve

edifices,

the Greeks ascribed

many

of these same

the classical writers call

only to investigate the history of this fabulous

hero to assent to his opinion, that IMemnon and

name and

445

character, and consequently that

Mahiman

Memnon

is

are one both in

same

the

as Cyclops

or Vulcan.

The word Mahiman signifies the great Manes ox Menu and the Sanscrit Maha, which denotes great, was pronounced by the Greeks as one 1.

:

syllable

Hesychius

for

;

Indians, and

tells us,

Mai

that

bears the same import

it still

Mahiman

is

in

great

in

the language of the

Now

modern Coptic.

one of

Mahimna or Maimna, which the Greeks could have pronounced in no other way than Maimna or Memna and hence, Mr. ^Vilford supposes, that the name of Memnon originated.* I am willing to assent to his conjecture with a slight alteration or rather addition. Buddha or Mahiman is allowed by the Hindoos to be the triad expressed by their sacred monosyllable Om. But Om is evidently the On the oblique cases of

or

Alaiman

is

:

of the Egyptians

;

which was a

title

of the Sun, from the circumstance of

the great father and his triple offspring being venerated in that luminary. Me77i7ion then

Maiman compounded with On, than from the oblique case Mai77ina : whence MaimanOn, Maim7i-0n, or Menm-On, will signify the great solar Menu. This

Phenicia

is

was the father of

Hindoos,

the

Samana-Cadam by his we have already seen,

or

dam, as

while

should conceive to be formed rather from

according to

I)erson,

dama

I

wife is

]Maha-Manya.

Cadmus

the

and the Somono-Codom or

;

Maha-Manya,

which

is

the great arkite mother, the

clearly

But Samana-Ca-

of Greece, Egypt,

Buddha

the

of

of

Mahi-Man,

both of the east and of

the west.

'

Fag.

Asiat. Res. vol.

Idol.

iii.

-

p. i^OO.

VOL.

II.

and

Pegu and Ceylon

feminine form

Maya and Mania

Sharmana-Car-

Ibid. p. 19$.

3

L

<^h*''' ^'•

THE OnlGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

'^50 BouK

IV.

2.

Etymology however must by no means be allowed

though

it

may

be usefully added to circumstantial evidence as a secondary

Let us proceed then

and subsidiary argument.

Memnon

to decide a point,

which have come down

to us,

that

to

examine the accounts of

we may be enabled

how far we are warranted in adopting the conclusion that he Mahiman or Buddha. ( .) The general story is, that Tithonus was the brother of 1

is

to judge,

the

same as

Pi iam king of

Troy, that he engaged the affections of Aurora, and that by her he became the father of

Memnon.

Aurora conferred upon him the

but unluckily forgot to render her

gift really

was, that he experienced

the inconveniences of Swift's immortals of Laputa, without

of being released from them

of immortality,

valuable by exempting him from

The consequence

the infirmities of old age.

gift

tiie

by the friendly hand of death.

all

possibility

At

length

Aurora, pitying his deplorable situation, changed him into a grasshopper.

During

the period of their mutual passion she had,

to Ethiopia

which

lies

son Memnon, though tant

make

to the southward of

himself sovereign. :

:

seems, conveyed him

and of

this

country his

a foreigner by descent and a mere cadet of the dis-

royal family of Troy,

lucky circumstance

Egypt

it

for,

contrived

in

some unaccountable manner

His uncle Priam experienced the benefit of as

we

to

this

are told in the true history of the siege of

Troy, the swarthy warrior brought a considerable body of Ethiopian troops In

to the assistance of the Iliensians.

this

noble

field

of chivalrous adven-

ture he approved himself the worthy successor of Hector

an

evil

hour having

slain

much

until at length, in

Antilochus the son of Nestor, he himself

the invincible hand of the vengeful Achilles. funeral pile with

:

solemnity

:

fell

by

His body was burned on a

and, at the request of his disconsolate

mother Aurora, Jupiter conferred upon him an honour of a very peculiar nature, such as

the blazing pile

had never been heretofore bestowed on mortal man. While

consumed the

earthly remains of the hero, a flight of birds

suddenly issued from the flames.

which had given them birth

:

they fought with such fury that into the

fire.

But

this

Thrice they circled the burning mass

when, dividing themselves into two armies,

was not

more than half of them dropped dead all

:

the sanje mysterious occurrence took

THE ORTOIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

451

Memnon was

place every year, and the angry gliost of

annually propi-

by the blood of the winged combatants.'

tiated

When

(3.)

the ancient historians seriously considered the legend of

how he

non, they naturally enough wondered

army of Ethiopians

way from

the

all

the banks of the Hellespont

Memnon seems to me

which

is

placed

all

by

far the

;

manage

could

to

the southern extremity of

Mem-

march an Egypt

to

and well they might, considering the age in

:

though

making himself king of Ethiopia at

his

most marvellous exploit of the two.

However,

by way of mending the matter, they shifted the scene from the African to

Thus Diodorus

Ethiopia.

Asiatic

the

army fiom Troas

into

tells

tlie

Memnon who

afterwards assisted his uncle Priam with a body of Asiatic

He

Ethiopian troops.'

however

elsewhere gives the narrative more at large, dropping

entirely the emigration of

petty sovereign of the Iliensians,

Memnon

who had

prince,

Greeks.

many

was dispatched by In

this

Susiani

;

called

upon

expedition he

his his

name was

tiiat

and Priam, the

his vassals.

Persia,

At

that time

and was held

master to the assistance of the Trojati superior lord for protection against the ten thousand Ethiopians and as

out of Persia and

Hindoos

As a

their head.

at

the Asiatic Ethiopia, out of

Cusha-dwip within, Diodorus

call

he built a palace in the citadel of Susa

styled

;

invading the territories of Priam,

commanded

that country, in short, which the

informs us,

Asia

and at length perished, fighting bravely

Memnon came

proof that

all

was one of

Agamemnon

high esteem by the king.

in

over

was captain-general of

the son of Tithonus,

When Teutamus

Tithonus from Troy.

was king of Assyria, his empire extended

Memnon,

an

Aurora being the mother

as Ethiopia, and that this gave rise to the fable of

of

that Tithonus led

us,

eastern regions of Asia, that he penetrated as far

Alemnonia, and which continued

He

Persians obtained the sovereignty of the east.

in

;

which after

his

own

existence until the

also constructed a very

magnificent public road, which even in the days of the historian continued to bear '

the appellation

Tzctz. in Lycoph. vcr. 18.

Mosch.

Idyll,

iii.

Alian. deanini. *

Diod. Bibl.

vcr.

43—15.

lib. v.

lib. iv. p.

276.

of

To

Mevmonium.

Apollod. Bibl. Ovid. Metani.

lib.

lib.

iii.

c.

these circumstances 1

xiii. vcr.

1

.

§ 4.

Strabo

Hesiod. Tbeog. ver. 58t.

576—622.

Hyg. Fab. 270, 112.

'"*''•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUr.

452 iiooK IV.

adds,

who

tliat his

tomb was siiewn

province of Susiana

in the

likewise brings him, not from the African Ethiopia,

march

the banks of the Choaspes, says, that his hne of

to

questionably established by the traditions of the Phrygians,

nued

to

point

out to

curious

the

traveller

and Pausanias,

:

but from Susa and

Troy was un-

who

still

conti-

several successive

his

en-

campments.'

The

(3.)

story

now

of genuine history

:

more of the semblance

begins to assume something

but unluckily the airy fabric

dissipated, ere

is

it is

well

The Ethiopians Upper Egypt obstinately refused to subscribe to the truth of this detail. They claimed the redoubtable Memnon as tlicir countryman and, more constructed, by the candid statement of Diodorus himself.

of

:

than their Cuthic brethren of Asia, they added to his twenty thou-

liberal

sand infantry two hundred war-chariots.

But •

to this claim those brethren

stantial evidence

:

might demur on the score of circum-

and they might shame the nationality of the Africans by

Memnonian

adducing, as stubborn witnesses, the road, and the

Menmotiian tomb,

all

palace,

the

Jllemnoman

within the limits of the province Su-

siana.

So we might imagine

much

:

but

we

shall find,

that the Africans have just as

They

evidence of this description to produce as the Asiatics.

equally, as Diodorus

and Strabo

name of Memnoniwn

:

fairly allow,

had.

a palace illustrated by the

and they could moreover boast of a stupendous

colossal statue of the hero,

which possessed the singular quality of uttering

musical sounds when the morning and evening rays of the Sun played upon

They were likewise every fifth year witnesses to the mysterious battle of the Memnonian birds, which occurred in their country no less than in it.

Troas

:

and they could even produce one of

signated by the appellation of

Thus

it

tribes,

which was de-

appears, that the claims of the two rival Ethiopias, the Cusha-

(Uvip within

and the Cusha-dwip without, are balanced with the

"

Diod. Bibl.

*

Diod. Bibl.

c. '26.

their

Memnones.^

109.

Strab. Geog.

p. 109.

Strab. Gcog.

lib. ii.p. lib.

ii.

Plin. lib. vi. c. 30.

lib.

xv. p. 728.

lib. xvii. p.

813.

Pausan. Phoc.

nicest accu-

p.

669.

Ciement. apud Plin.

lib.

ii.

THE OUIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. racy

453

each adduces tradition, and each corroborates tradition by circum-

:

Yet

stantial evidence.

the Greeks,

lieve

anxiety of appropriation,

this

all

we

are to be-

of an emigrant

was occasioned by the son

brother of a petty prince, whose territory

if

younger

was situated on the eastern shore

of the Hellespont.

But we have not yet finished the history of our fortunate adventurer.

(4.)

This captain-general of the Persians,

prince of Asiatic Ethiopia, and

this

this sovereign of African Ethiopia, contrives to add to the latter

the ancient kingdom of Egypt

and thus we

:

the Egyptians and the Ethiopians

over

;

that

is

find

we

to say,

find

Hindoos

whole of that country which the

the

him reigning

at

monarchy once over

him presiding

style

Cusha-dwip

mthout. Eusebius, following Africanus, says, that the INIemnon, whose colossal

was a king of Egypt

statue uttered musical sounds,

to be a prevailing opinion, that the

at the siege of Troy,

Ismamks

or

:

and Strabo

Egyptians called the

states

it

Memnon, who was But Mendes or

Maindes or Meudes.^

Pan, as we have seen, was an ancient god and fabulous prince of the coun-

same

the

try,

have

built

Buddha

or

Labyrinth

the

Thoth or Menu or Minos.^

:

same

which

Memnon,

as

to

and we have a story of another Labyrinth

in

only

Memnon Mai

or

Memnonium

;

by

understand a temple contrived with numerous intricate passages for

I

Mennon

INIendes therefore being

Labyrinth must have been a

the

In fact Metides and

the celebration of the Mysteries. title,

He

was thought

connected with Minos and the Minotaur.

Crete,

the

as

somewhat

difierently

is

Alai-Men-On.

or

Menon, which

Greats There

is

compounded

This is

Mai-Men-On

much

the

:

for

Mendes

last appellation

same

Memnon is

are one

Mend-Esa; and

was occasionally written

with the omission of the epithet

difference

between the appellations

Mendes and Istnandes, as there is between Jllenoti and Memnon for Mendes is Mend-Esa, and Istnandesh Isa-Mend-Esa. Memnon being thus identified with Mendes or Ismandes, and Memnon and Mendes being alike declared :



Euseb. Chron.

^Diod. Bibl. '

J'lin.

p. 72.

lib. i. p.

Nat. Hist.

Strab. Gcog.

lib. xvii.

p. 811,

813.

35.

lib. vi. c.

35.

lib.

xx.wi.c. 7- Harduin.

<^"'"'' *•

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

454 BOOK

IV.

an ancient sovereign of Egypt, we

to be

Ismandes

racter attributed also to

am

:

for the

appellation,

dyas

Ismandes and Osymandyas being evidently one

;

I

bears that com-

persuaded, no other than the renowned

Osyman-

differently written

title,

Memnon

according to a somewhat different pronunciation.

same

who

person,

pouod

is,

same cha-

shall find precisely the

therefore

the

is

as Osymandyas and the fabled tomb of Osymandyas was really a Memnonian temple. Thus decidedly was Memnon esteemed an Egyptian king. :

Accordingly, the description, which Diodorus gives of the colossal statue

Osymandyas

of

entrance of the magnificent building said to be his

at the

tomb, clearly proves

to

it

Memnon.

have been a statue of Ismandes or

In

a passage, which appears to have suffered some corruption,' he says, that At

'

eiiroSoy

least

avJfiavraj

eiva.i rjeif,

the central colossal statue

they

now

stand,

statues, all

The words of Diodorus

such has been thought to be the case.

^t Memnon

as follows,

of a single stone, [ihe work] of

reading, proposes the following emendation.

The

stone. is

that

is,

the Sucnite

Ethiopia, were

makes excellent

it.

;

Why

traordinary edifices to the Cyclopes.

suppose that

am it,

this statue

was reputed

may

observe,

I

have

little

in the

then

it

may

is

be doubted, whether there

and

in

statue

called the

African

the

many

ex-

common meaning, and works of Memnon ? It was, I

not retain the

;

both from the description given of

Memnon and Osymandyas

artist

vavra; XiSsa

same manner as the Greeks gave

may we

the

hewn out of one block of Syenite

works, both in the Asiatic

Memnonian

duubt that

that the supposed

sense: but

is

with the

dissatisfied

rcEij, ej ivo; rou{

tivdi

all

be one of the various

to

persuaded, in point of design, a

and because

AvS^ixvra;

Many stupendous attributed to Memnon just for

accordingly, such

:

But Salmasius,

There are three statues,

alteration certainly

any occasion

Ti;y

since

the avenue of entrance there are three

sense given to them in the annexed Latin translation.

:

Ss

Now,

afterwards said to be the image of Osymandyas, these words, as

is

must be translated

VBI/.VOJJ.SVOUS 2(;);vir(5u

ITafa

are,

rouj Ttavfxs AjSsu, MBfj-vovos rou Suxvirou.

ef eVaj

title

A

reason to suspect, that Salmasius has been too hasty in his correction.

or African Ethiopians were called Suchim, according to

gives

me

additional

tribe of the

Masoretic

the

We

were the same person.

This

Sucnite.

Cushim

punctuation

and

:

they are mentioned with the Lubim, as forming part of the army of Shishak king of Egypt.

2 Chron.

whom

xii. 3.

These seem evidently

to be

what Ptolemy has Grecized

he places after the Ethiopia Memnones. Geog.

calling

Memnon

title

clearly of Scytiiic origin.

is

p. 1X4.

I

take

it

a Sucnite, means to say, that he was an Ethiopia Suchi or Scenite.

The Suchim,

and

into the Scenites,

then, that Diodorus, in

This

or Sachim, or Sacanites, or Scenites, arc a

branch of the great Scythian family, called by the Hindoos Sacas and Sacasenas, and known in their

European settlements under the denomination of Saxe and Saious.

name from

the god

Saca or Sacya,

as the

They took

the

Memnonites did from the god Maiman-On or Memn-

,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. was

this Statue

measure of figures of

and that

in a sitting attitude,

foot

its

much

exceeded seven

was hewn out of a ;

a

single stone

and

:

his

as high as

The whole stupendous group

I am

was inscribed,

it

assumed on account of

title

on account of

particularly

and reaching

according to the popular account, for

Osymandyas.

the mother and daughter of

were two other

either side

inferior dimensions, standing erect

the knees of the colossus, designed,

king of kings

bulk was so vast that the

its

On

cubits.

4:55

Osymandyas,

conquests, and

his extensive

wars with the Scythians of Bactria or upper

India.'

Such was the colossus of Osymandyas statues of

us

let

:

now compare

Memnon.

Memnonium

According to Mr. Norden, who himself surveyed the palace in the

that

Memnon

Thebais, the vocal statue of

its

with the

it

original posture cannot be

is

now

so wholly dismantled,

determined by bare inspection

:

for the

body

alone remains formed out of a single piece of black granite, and at present

thrown down and half buried curately marks out as

made up by it

was

in

as being

a

in the precise place

scite

its

when complete

made

posture

when he

and Pliny and Philostratus agree

:

relates his visit to

mysterious music, clearly intimates, :

for

that

it

its

he says, that the upper parts

from

to

seat.^

Nor

issue every

within or Asiatic Ethiopia.

Diodorus as the genuine one:

whom

Perhaps then we in

which

may

case, his

ihe Hindoos apply the titles of

'

Diod. Bibl.

Paus. Aitic. p. 78. Plin. Nat. Hist.

*

Strab. Geog.

i.

in

upper Egypt

:

for, as

are expressly told, that the African Cuths, and consequently

*

lib.

day from that part

be distinctly traced from the mountainous

the Memnonites, emigrated out of the very

Sachim and

personage, to

we

may

it

the seat had fallen down,

need we \¥onder at finding a race of Sachim or Saxons

regions of northern India; so

the

So

in describing

likewise the language

posture was that of a person

of the colossus which remained upon the

the progress of the EuropJsan Saxons and Golhs

amply

is

for the purpose of hearing the

and that a melodious sound was believed

On.

deficiency

this

of a black or iron-coloured stone.*

used by Strabo,

sitting

but

:

Pausanias expressly says, that

the testimony of the ancients.

sitting

which Philostratus most ac-

venture

same country of Cusha-dwip

to retain the

Memnon-Sucnites

will

common

reading of

be no other than the

Mahiman and Sacya.

p. 44.

lib. xvii. p.

310.

lib.

xxxvi.

c. 7- Philost. in rit.

ApoU. Tyan.

lib. vi. c. 4.

^"^''•

THE

456 BOOK

IV.

gjjjj ^yg

have to learn, whether the statue of

figures standing

tion given

OF PAGAJT IDOLATRY.

OlllGI^'

on

each side of

by Diodorus of the statue of Osymandyas.

cannot be positively ascertained .

mark, that we in the

Memnon

may

:

Mr.

Norden

This point,

we may come

yet

consider the question as

affirmative.

had two smaller

so as to answer perfectly to the descrip-

it,

little

an

gives

I believe,

so very near to

tiie

short of being determined

engraving of two stupendous

colossi, which yet remain in a perfect state, at a very short distance from

the palace

Memnonium.

They

are

removed asunder no more than twenty

one paces, so that they must clearly be considered as connected with each other

:

Greek

and upon the

legs of

one of them are

still

to be seen a

had heard the musical sounds

inscriptions, attesting that the writers

which issued from the neighbouring statue of the hero. can be the musical' statue

Neither of them

because, to say nothing of their situation,

itself ;

Memnon was

they are each entire, but the celebrated image of

broken short from the seat even in the time of Strabo.' their

no

variety of

With

already

respect to

form, they represent, the one a man, and the other a woman. They are

less

than

fifty feet in

height

each

:

in

is

a

sitting attitude

and each,

:

actly according to Diodorus's description of the statue of Osymandyas, has

ex-

two

smaller figures standing on either side and reaching with their heads to the

knees of the large statue.* colossi,

It

a male and a female

:

is

and

appears to have been the usual ther.

We learn

dyas, or (if I

to be observed,

mode

in

venture to say so) of

tached statue of a woman, hewn like the

this

and wearing upon

the statue

of

Strab. Geog.

And,

Memnon lib. xvii.

its

See Plate

'

Diod. Bibl.

II.

Fig. 4. lib.

i,

in a similar

Memnon, firsc

head

there was

To Mcmnone

p. 44.

this

another de-

out of a single stone, twenr^^ tliree

diadems, to denote that

manner, we are

told

did not stand alone, but that near

p. 8l6.

Dimidio magicEe resonant ubi ^

here two

which they were associated toge-

supposed mother of Osymandyas was the daughter, the

parent, of a king.'

"

we have

from Diodorus, that near the colossal statue of Osyman-

may

cubits in height,

that

a remarkable circumstance, that such

it is

wife,

and the

by Strabo, that it

was a second

circumstance also Juvenal alludes, when he says,

chorda;.

Sat. xv. vcr. 5.

THE ORIGIN OF PAG.aX IDOLATRV.

having escaped the mutilation which had been

at that time entire,

colossus,

the fate of

Hence, when we consider the perfect resem-

companion.'

its

457

blance both in sex and form which subsists between the two yet remaining colossi

can

and those described by Diodorus

tomb of Osymandyas, we

at the

scarcely, I think, doubt, that the three pair,

namely that

at the

nium, that near the Memnonium, and tnat at the tomb, were with the

same

idea

;

presented

Memnon, him

representing

as undoubtedly ;

which

If then one of the male statues re-

be.

did,

it

exactly

And

the three

all

coincides

Osymandyas, being the same as Ismandes,

Memnon.

is

widi

must be considered the

similarly be

(5.)

Memnon himself,

;

that

same

again, if one of the female statues represented the

as

mother

the three

all

esteemed as representations of the same personage. being thus a king of Egypt, as well

of Asia and Africa, a fresh perplexity arises origin

opinion,

thence also the

of Osymandyas, that daughter, wife, and parent, of a king

must

constructed

and consequently that each represented the same male

and female, whoever they might

as

all

Memno-

;

as an Ethiopian both

how he could be

and how he could bring succours to Priam.

of Trojan Perizonius,

esteeming the war of Troy a portion of genuine history, endeavours to

make

out,

thatTithonus was the Proteus mentioned by Herodotus as being

the king of

Egypt

only

serves

to

render

Memnon was

and that

at that period,

confusion

confounded

worse

:

his son.*

for

the

But

this

Egyptian

Proteus received the diluvian Bacchus when he wandered over the whole world, long before the siege of Troy, supposing such a siege to have taken

olace

;

Proteus

in short,

the old

man

of the ocean, was the same as Phtha

^nd Buddha.' Wearied out probably by these

eternal contradictions,

cut the Gordian knot instead of loosing

some

writers have

Thus, as the Egyptians assured

it.

Herodotus, that Helen never came near Troy, but was detained by Proteus while

was sent home without her

Paris

Memnon had '

Strab. Geog.

* Periz. ^

Pag.

:

so

Philostratus declares,

that

no concern with the siege of that place, but that he quietly p. 8l6.

Orig. ^'Egypt. c. xv. p. 28*).

ApoUod.

Idol.

lib. xvii.

Bibl. lib.

iii.

c. 5. § 1.

VOL.

11.

3M

THE ORIGIN OF TAOAN IDOLATIIV.

458 and died

lived

He

ations.

war

that he

indeed,

allows

but he

:

where he reigned during the space of

in Ethiopia,

that the

saj's,

was contemporary

Memnon, who

so

him a god, and duly

IMemnon, the Egyptians and Ethiopians esteemed brated sacred

We have

(6.)

honour of him

rites in

of

its

is

the legend

and as the paramour of Aurora

count of him widely different to shew, that the

father of

Hersa, engaged the into Syria

;

affisctions

was the

nous, of Sandochus

father of

:

Phaethon

(if this

the

same

in

the difference between

them

is,

substituted for

is

Memnon, and

transported into Cilicia,

then

that

it shifts

for

He

Phaethon, of Astyndus

genealogy

for Cinyras,

;

is

into Assyria, ;

whose

off

adds,

Asty-

and

;

be esteemed sober

to

It

is

evident,

substance as that of the Trojan Tithat

The scene

Cephalus

the one occupies

in

maimer

similar

in a

is

laid

is

said to

is

by which

Syria

in

:

next

it

is

have migrated into that

I take

it

that the province of

and the son of the wandering Sandochus

suddenly becomes king of Assyria ;

him

Aurora becomes the parent of Tithonus

Sandochus

Babylonia was specially meant

Cyprus

;

the other, that Tithonus

of being his paramour.

:

Mercury and

of

the goddess carried

that

;

sufficient

is

usually esteemed the

is

with his people into Cyprus, of Adonis.'

the place of Tithonus in

instead

there

Sandochus, of Cinyras king of the Assyrians

;

that the preceding legend

country

of Aurora

who most unaccountably

truth) emigrates

thonus

meant, who

yet

and that there she bore him a son called Tithonus.

that Tithonus

Cinyras,

is

;

that Cephalus, the son

tells us,

as the bro-

Apollodorus gives an ac-

:

in all these particulars

same Tithonus

He

Memnon.

Laomedon,

the son of

not always represented as

ther of Priam,

it

to admit

siege into the page of genuine history.

Tithonus

in

Troy and

to

we be ad-

to encounter, if

difficulties

Memnon

venturously determined to bring

cele-

Mcro^ and Memphis.'

at

however yet further

with the Trojan

much distinguished himperson. As for the Ethiopic

Greeks, Avas quite another

self against the

gener-

five

:

lastly

it is

erratic propensities

once more removed into

seem

to

have been as strong

as his father's, not satisfied with his splendid eastern monarchy, both emi-

grates himself, and contrives to persuade his people to emigrate \\ith him. '

c.

Herod. Hist.

iii.

§4,.

lib.

ii.

c.

113

— 120.

Philost. in vit. Apoll. *

Tyan.

Apollod. Bibl.

lib. vi.

lib.

iii.

c.

4. Heroic,

c. 13. J. 3.

THE

the daughter of the Cyprian king,

Here he marries yet Adonis

He

is

ORIGI.V OF PACrAX IDULATKV.

also said to have been

born both

459

and by her has Adonis:

in

Assyria and Phenicia.

was moreover, as we have already seen, the same person as Osiris and

Bacchus, the same

in short as

Noah who was

preserved in an Ark.

Such are the mythologic genealogies of the ancients understood,

will

Adonis or Osiris

:

consequently,

3.

The

to be the scriptural

is

siege

tlie

of the Phenician and Assyrian deity,

lias

if

yet

literally

made

into

usually

is

the remote ancestor of

of Troy long j)recedes the epoch

whose whole history plainly demon-

Noah.

truth of the matter seems to be, that in

insensibly melted

who

In the present instance, Tithonus,

represented as the brotlier of Priam,

him

which,

ever be found to bid defiance to the utmost efforts of the

most acute chronologer.

strates

;

all

countries

mythology

romance, and that the age of the hero-gods

is

separated from that of the heroes by a line as imperceptible as that which colours of

divides the

war, the superstructure

which can never be

Memnon

have

to

certainly a

is

tried

Whatever be the

rainbow.

tlie

basis of the

mass of disguised ancient mytholog}',

by the rules of authentic history.

literally

Trojan

If

we suppose we must

fought and died in the plains of Ilium,

be content to give easy credence to a tissue of impossible absurdities if

we adopt

both in

title

and person as

be removed, and each

difticulty will

with curious

(1.)

Mahiman

written by the

or Buddha,

part of the fable will

accommodate

Greeks

:

Cissia, as

the

name was

but Cissia was doubtless so called as being the land

of Cush; which the Greeks denominated Ethiopia, but which

the

doos, accurately preserving the scriptural name, term the country of

word Chusistan.

distinguish

It

by the appellation of Cusha-dxvip within, as being

the

disthiguished

Buddha wonder

or

name of

;

Chusa

the eastern or Asiatic Ethiopia,

him

at Susa.

of the

as specially contra-

ever the great god of the Chasas,

to rind such distinct traces of

full

and which the Greeks

from the south-western or African Ethiopia.

Mahiman was

Hin-

was a part of the large region, which they

various settlements of the Chusas, Chasas, or Scuths

knew by

every

facility.

Susa was the capital of the province of

or in one

but,

the opinion that he was an ancient god of the Chasas and that

he was the same

itself

:

Hence, since

we need not

There was not only a

THK ORIGIN OF PAGAJ^ IDOLATRY,

400 iiooK IV.

palace, or rather temple,

cent road, attributed to

we

at that place,

tlie

called

and called

hero,

Memnonia

after

and a magnifi-

;

him Alemnonium :

as

but,

are told by Herodotus vvho flourished long prior to Diodorus, Susa itself

of Memnon and the royal habitation of Memnon.^ The Chasas also penetrated into Asia Minor, and as usual carried

was

styled the

cili/

Hence we

religion with them.

hence we may

satisfactorily

find a

Memnon

connected with Troy

their

and

:

account for the various encampments pointed

out by the Phrygians as the works of that hero, which were to be seen in the route from

Babylonia or eastern Ethiopia into the

They were thrown

up, not by

of their progress westward.

Hindoo

us by the

writers.

Memnon,

district

of Troas.

but by his worshippers in the course

This exactly accords with the account given

They

which

say, that Bactria,

is

part

of the

high Indo-Scythic tract of country that constitutes the sacred mountain of

Meru crowned

with the holy circular lange of Ida-vratta,

try of the Sacas or Sacasenas chis

;

in the

:

and that they also emigrated bulous history of Troy led

is

of the same enterprizing family

Cadmus

is

11a or Ida.

the

same

the

Cadam

Ilus, the

of his future

scite

Cadmus, of whom an exactly

similar story

of the Buddhists

;

Cadmon and

reputed founder of Ilium,

city,

is

is

the

same person as

told in regard to

and Ilus

Both are the same as Buddha or

also as the

is

Thebes.

the husband of their

Memnon

or Saca

:

both are

Ilus of the Phenicians, the latter of

whom

Dagon or Siton for Chasas, who came from Babylonia

represented by Sanchoniatho as being the brother of

is

the Phenicians were another colony of

and the borders of the Erythr^an '

the

Herod. Hist.

same word

by the

is

lib. v. c.

53, 54. lib.

*

to be

vii. c.

151.

to say,

is

In the :

denominatad

Hence, when

his palace^

Asiat. Res. vol. vi. p. 5l6.

;

from the in)mediate

Memnon was

vi-

Hebrew or Babylonic language,

and the ancients were wont

of a house, both the ordinary habitation of a mortal

erected in honour of a god.

came

sea, that

used to denote a palace and a ttinple

common name

r

Accordingly, the whole fa-

Saca-dzvip.*

Indo-Scythic.

by a cow to the

hill

Placsha-dwip or Asia Minor, which from

into

them was afterwards denominated

is

the native coun-

neighbourhood of which we meet with another Caucasus or

of the Chasas and numerous indications

who

is

from thence they penetrated into Col-

that

to

call,

and a building

degraded into a hero, his temple

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN" IDOLATRY.

46l

and out of the eastern Ethiopia or Cusha-dwip.

cinity of Siisa

uiaiiner, the appellations of the

In a similar

Trojan, the Cretan, and the Gothic,

mount

were alike brought by different branches of the same potent family

Ida,

from the Ida-vratta of Cashgar and Bactria

for the Iliensians, the Cretans,

:

and the Goths of more modern times, were equally Scythians, or Chasas, or eastern Ethiopians, from to the north of

our

own

mount Meru or

Hindostan. Hence the favourite

ancestors in

Ila or Ida

Chusfean origin.

as the ship

since they were

this,

as I

;

Argha

:

is

less,

all

have frequently had occasion to observe, was, :

The

that

common emblems. Now it into the history of Memnon, no

The

Buddha.

birth of

Memnon

from Aurora or the

goddess of the dawn certainly means no more than that his origin in the east

We

'

or (as the Hindoos

must look

call it)

scribed as the son of Ida.

for

him

Mahiman

it is^

:

and

country

in that

She

in

we

or Buddlia by being de-

fabled) he left the

whom

had a daughter named Ida,

the emigrant Trojan prince.

to be

Teutamus, king of Assyria or Babylonia,

Tithonus repaired when (as

brother Priam,

is

therefore in eastern Ethio-

Cusha-duip within

shall find him, evidently identified with

whom

Ark

the

were perpetually represented by

less than into that of

pia,

reason

whence the two Worlds, the greater

a curious circumstance, that Ida enters

sought for

She

circle of the

be a symbol.

to

is

equally of Scythic or

and she was accounted the

was esteemed an epitome^ of the World and the

Romans and of

of the

was the wife and daughter of Buddha.

World, of which the Argha was also supposed of

fiction

the middle ages, that their forefathers were Trojans,

not altogether void of foundation

was the same

the high region which stretches

kingdom of

to his

he gave in marriage to

due time became the mother of

Mem-

non the captain-general of the Persians, who led a body of Ethiopic and Susan warriors that

Memnon

saine account

to the assistance of his uncle

Priam. ^

Now we

is

given of each of

them being born from Aurora,

agreeably to the pagan system of fabulous genealogies, the one as the son of the other.

'

have seen,

and Tithonus must be the same person, because exactly the

See Diod. Bibl.

lib.

iv. p.

The 276.

introduction of Ida however

^

Han.

Mj tUjl.

is

described

seems

\ol. iv. p.

though,,

Z^J.

to nic

*'"**• *•

THE OUICIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

462 BOOK

IV.

hists

She

settle the matter.

finally to

evidently the

is

and the notion of her complicated relationship

:

will best explain the character

which she supports

Menu

to

or

Budd-

Buddha

The

in the present fable.

the mother, the wife, and the daughter of Noa'h, accord-

Ark was esteemed

ing to the different aspects under which is

or Ida of the

I la

the triple relationship, in

which Ida

it

was viewed

and exactly such

:

She

here exhibited.

is

the mother

is

Memnon, the wife of Tithonus, and the daughter of Teutamus. But Memnon, Tithonus, and Teutamus, as their history and their names alike for Tithon is Tath declare, are all equally Buddha or Mahiman or Taut

of

:

On, the Titan of the Greeks and the Teithan of the old and Teutam is the same word pronounced Teut in composition with

in composition with

Celts

;

Om,

which

is

Hindoo mode of

but the

writing

On ;

Teutam are in fact one appellation. Another colony of the Chasas established themselves hence we

;

to

another v^hich bore the

membrance of

this

tribe of Ethiopians

name

Memnon,

This

herd-kings southward.

Thebais

:

and

will it

tlie

called

of Sachim or Sacas.

migration has been distinctly preserved

of the African Cushim was formed by

in the

:

have been an ancient prince, and who was venerated

hence likewise we meet with a

nones, and

IVIemnon

African Ethiopia

in

find also in that country very vivid traditions respecting

who was supposed as a god

so that Tithon and

:

Mem-

The

re-

and the nation

secession of a part of the Shep-

account for the statue and temple of

will likewise

account for that hero being

equally esteemed a king of Egypt and of Ethiopia.' (2.) first

Though

the Ethiopians of Africa doubtless brougiit with

instance the worship of

dwip

;

Memnon or

subsequent to their settlement

modern geography. The

intercourse

by the Erythr&an ocean, or through

Hence we may The

them

in the

the Asiatic Cusha-

yet they seem also to have kept up a considerable intercourse with

their oriental brethren,

'

Mahiman from

was probably carried tlie

medium of

trace the origin of a singular

settlement of African Ethiopia will be discussed

iJV. 6.(1.)

in the

Ethiopia

of

on, either directly

the Arabian

Cushim.

discordance respecting the

hereafter.

Vide

infra b. vi. c, 5.

THE ORIGIN OF PACiAX IDOLATRV. and complexion of Buddha

features

Buddha, Jain, or Mahiman,

which perfectly resembles

in the east,

Memnon

a similar discordance respecting those of

463

in the west.

perpetually represented by his oriental

is

worshippers uith the complexion, the features, and the crisped

Yet

African negro.'

no means

this

mode of exhibiting

Sometimes he

universal.

him, however

hut formed into neat

straight

is

without any hair.

I think

it

Sir

prevailed.

complexion

William Jones

Buddha

of

is

plaits,

:

diffeient tribes,

among which

but I doubt,

v\

who

The

a Tatar.

hether

much

the

ingly,

humour

we have

as

this,

recently observed,

others have argued just

is

is

:

it

whom

and

cast,

that the worship of

Buddha has

that India and Cashgar have from time

;

ern

limits of

Tatars,

unsatisfactorily,

because his comin ap-

and certainly no more

prevailed in different countries,

modes of exhibiting the god and immemorial been the centrical point ;

and the many wandering

Hence

originated

tribes to the

these

utmost north-

were votaries of Buddha and his worship was by the Indo-Scythic or Shepherd kings into Egypt and

Siberia,

equally imported

African Ethiopia. opposite modes

But

and, accord-

:

and dress Ethiopic

is this,

of intercourse for his widely extended followers.

The

was

had Buddha been imiver-

or Ethiopian

such variations really prove,

in

seems to have been very

and just as

his features

the

(so far as I can

the natives of which lesemble the several

varieties.

ruddy

more towards we are warranted

by no means the case

as strenuously,

his hair woolly,

What

pearance. this

black,

white and

of idolaters to depict their gods like themselves.

Buddha must have been an Egyptian

plexion

than

valid,

represented with such a complexion; for

jfl//y

that

have been

his

worship

his

great legislator and god of the

calls the last

inference might

by

exhibitin<^

lie

adopting his inference from thence, that Buddha,

judge) he erroneously

is

sometimes

:

modes of

rightly observes, that the

that of the Tatars,

north than his Indian votaries

common,

and sometimes he appears

evident, that these different

him have been borrowed from the

of an

represented with a yellow com-

is

plexion, and sometimes with a complexion white and ruddy hair

hair,

We

:

may therefore be

tolerably sure, that the

of representing the god have been borrowed

'

See Plate

II.

Fig. 3.

two

directly

from Tatary

"''^''* ^•

THE

464 HOOK

IV.

Africa

j^p(j

mode

Of these

the complexions are yellow or tawney, and the hair

lati-

long

is

of them, as the Chinese, shave the head except a single

Some

straight.

braid pendent from behind

:

and we may add,

both priests

dotus, the Egyptians, that,

the intermediate

that

sure,

has been taken from nations inhabiting intermediate degrees of

tude.

and

we may be equally

and, I think,

:

PAGAV IDOLATUV.

OllIGIN OF

and

laity,

of Hero-

in the days

that,

wore the hair so closely shorn,

had they been represented by the statuary, they must have appeared

bald.'

The

very great antiquity of the worship of in opposition to those

be decidedly proved, tively

late origin to

Buddha seems

who would

me

to

to

ascribe a compara-

by the circumstance of the intercourse between

it,

African Ethiopia and Hindostan having long been suspended and apparently forgotten.

The Brahmens

attribute,

cient statues, which have the hair but,

as they highly

retics,

truth, those an-

and features of negroes, to the Buddhists

little

offended, whenever this resemblance to the Afri-

Nor

is pointed out.

they peculiar in thus expressing their

are

abhorrence of such a surmise, which might perhaps be accounted

on

for

the ground of their being Brahmenists in contradistinction to Buddhists for the decided Buddhists of ticular.

When

Ceylon perfectly agree with them

the crisped hair of their god was pointed out to

Mackenzie, with an inquiry whether

it

attempted to account for

them by Mr.

was meant to represent the hair of

peculiar appearance by saying, that

its

signed to exhibit the hair of

Buddha

Mr. Wilford

But, as

statues

which occur

in

after

he had cut

justly remarks,

hair will account for the thick lips

Hindostan

and ;

:

in this par-

an Abyssinian, the priests answered in the negative with abhorrence

sword.

:

venerate Buddha, though they esteem his votaries he-

they are not a

can race

and (I believe) with

flat

At

and

was de-

short with a golden

no evasions respecting the

noses of

for these

features of the genuine African Ethiopian.

it

it

;

many of

the

ancient

are clearly the well-known the

same

time, for the rea-

sons above given, I can see no solid grounds for his inference, that a race

of negroes had

formerly

the

preeminence

in

that country.

blance, which he mentions as subsisting betweeu that race

'

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

tually delineated as bald.

36.

The

resena-

and some of the

Accordingly, the priest of tbe tauric Osiris sometimes

See a prinkin Bryant's Anal. vol. ii.p. 432.

is

ac-

THE ORIGIN OF PAOAN IDOLATRV. Indian mountaineers even to that Hindostan

this day,

was once subject

cannot, I think, establish his opinion,

to the sceptre of the Ethiopians of Africa.

common

Since the Chasas and those Ethiopians were of (as the classical writers

us) they resembled each

tell

but their hair and dialect

46.5

origin,

and since

other in every thing

since moreover the supposed ancient intercourse

;

between them would both produce many emigrations, and bring into India

Buddhic statues with African

Mr. Wilford may

hair

and features

accounted

easily be

events, if

history

ancestors of the

for the

:

That

any such invasion took place,

Asiatic Ethiopia

;

to the

who subdued Egypt, and who pene-

after»vards turned their

the land of their ancestors.

subjugated

the similarity mentioned by

without having recourse

for,

hypothesis, that the Scythian warriors, trated southward into Ethiopia,

:

is

this

arms eastward and

must be the order of

certain

fi-om

testimony of

tlie

African Ethiopians migrated

from the

Egypt which they once held

and, passing through

in sub-

jection, established themselves in the torrid region, which, until their arrival,

was not known by the name of Ethiopia.

Nay more:

must have remained under the burning sun long enough l)efore

aspect,

their

descendants

to acquire the negro

they returned and conquered their native country, for that

aspect they could have inherited but partially from their Indo-Scythic forefathers

;

and yet such

is

the precise aspect, which

On

by the oriental statues of Buddha.

the

different course, at the conclusion of Sir

of Mr. Wilford.

Though

I

is

so frequently exhibited

whole,

I arrive,

though by a

William Jones, rather than that

see no sufficient proof for believing, that India

was ever conquered by the Ethiopians of Africa yet it ;

is clear,

both that the

Chasas and the western Ethiopians were of the same great family, and that

much

intercourse

must have subsisted between them

at a very

remote

period.'

The same

variety of opinions respecting the complexion of ISIemnon pre-

vailed in the west.

who was

Virgil, tells

'

us,

that

Memnon

See Asiat. Res. vol.

vol. vii. p.

a profound mythologist as well as a great poet, expressly

i.

p.

was a negro 427- vol.

ii.

;

though,, like Diodorus, he brings

p. 32,

122. vol.

iii.

p. 122, 198. vol.

vi.

p.

422, 423.

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

II.

tJ

N

him 452.

466 HOOK

lY.

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATItV.

THli

from the regions of the the same, though

testimony

his

that the vocal statue

What

east.'

Philostratus says appears to intimate

not

is

was of black stone

Memnon

whicli prevailed, that

;

himself was metamorphosed into a stone of

because a massy black

Buddha or Mercury apparently without any

stone was the symbol of his

complexion

though

it

strongly tends to prove the point for which I

so that the supposed

namely that that hero

tending,

is

same

the

Buddha

as

not perhaps equally prove that he was esteemed of his vocal statue being black, like

of

by

repre sent

as

it

appeared

it

lostratus tells us, that

and that

his

stathius,

who

skin

ought, (3.)

the

that I

The discrepancy

and, as I believe

I think,

am

as

to be to

priests already no-

and that the statues

In a similar manner, Phi-

was

also of a fair complexion

This

is

mentioned by Eu-

it

to

in the

same manner.

or Ismandes,

likewise so

greatly inclined to consider

verally to identify

much them

whom we

the

as

have seen

to be

counterpart to Sesostris,

one person, and thence

se-

them with Buddha.

Both Osymandyas and

Sesostris

are described as conquerors,

trated to almost every part of the habitable world,



^i^ncid. lib.

'

Eustath. in Dioii. Perieg. ver. 248.

ver.

thus

have originated from the same source,

accounted for

is

the Ethiopians was

all

resembles that respecting the complexion

Osymandyas

Memnon, he

i.

in Philostratus,

cut off his hair as a votive oflFering to the

prevailed, that he

and he adds, that he alone of

:

With respect

same

I think

informs us, that, although he was an Ethiopian by birth, his

was white

:

off with a golden sword,

Memnon

himself.

seen, for the crisped hair of their deity

person was singularly handsome.

distinguished.'

of Buddha

it

will

Memnon

after that operation.

Yet an opinion

god Nilus.

it

we have

saying, that he once cut

Mahiman,

or

was crisped from a passage

also collect that his hair

Thej/ account, as

con-

Yet the colour Buddha in the east,

which singularly resembles the legend of the Buddhic ticed.

am generally

a negro.

many images

seems to shew what complexion was ascribed to

we may

refer-

metamorphosis of Memnon,

ence to

:

informs, us,

and he further mentions a notion

I call this testimony less decisive,

that colour.*

He

equally decisive.

493.

* Philost. in vit.

who pene-

and yet whose exploits ApoU. Tyan.

lib. vi. c. 4.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. can only be referred consistently to the age of

who

character they closely resemble Buddha,

whole earth, leaving

in every country

The conquests

his gigantic foot.

In

fable.

over the

where he reposed himself the print of Sesostris are the verj

Each subdues

same with regard to the regions over which they extend. whole of Asia

of their

this part

travelled

similai-ly

Osymandyas and

of

467

the

each penetrates far eastward into the country of the Chasas

:

or Indo-Scythffi

whom

each upbraids the effeminacy of the enemies,

:

vanquishes, in a manner nearly similar

:

and the prowess ef each

is

he

cele-

brated almost by the same inscription.'

of Osymandyas and his supposed mother form the same

(4.) Tlie statues

duad, as the two colossal statues described by Norden near the palace of

Memnon, and

as the vocal statue of

M emnon himself and

ciate which Strabo mentions as being close by

resemblance to each other we

their decided

what the one

pair

was intended

Now, from concerning Memnon,

describe.

pair

was designed

to say,

to describe,

is

to exhibit the great father

or

Buddha and

:

all

is

Ila.

of the

he says, that she was celebrated, as the

Such was Ida, the mother

the daughter of Teutamus, and the consort of Tithonus

;

whom

one and the same character, namely Teut, or Mahi-

The

man, or Buddha.

that

;

confirmed by the character, which Diodorus gives

have shew n to be

ther,

be a doubt, that each

and the great mother

parent, the wife, and the daughter, of a king.

Memnon,

safely conclude, that,

the others were also intended to

there can scarcely, I think,

pretended mother of Osymandyas

I

may

a retrospective view of the whole that has been said

Mahiman and Mahamania,

This opinion

of

gigantic asso-

these pairs of

which represent a male and a female, I have already remarked, that

statues,

from

its

On

side.

its

description

is

precisely that of the great arkite

according to the different degrees of relationship,

in

mo-

which she was

supposed by the allegorizing genius of ancient mythology to stand to the

He was

diluvian patriarch. tion,

as being indifferently the father, the son,

rious female,



that universal sovereign so

Diod. Bibl.

vol. vi. p. 455.

whose history lib.

i.

p.

44.,

45,

is

ever found

48—51.

in

every na-

and the husband, of a myste-

more

Herod. Hist.

famed

or less to

lib.

ii.

c.

be connected with

102—105.

Asiat. Res.

*^***»'-

'•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

468 BOOK

IV.

a ship and a tradition of a deluge

:

and from

originated, as I have often remarked,

complicated relationship

this

those numerous fables which

we meet

with in the mythology of the Gentiles respecting certain incestuous connections

and

The god and goddess

alliances.

who were but two

Cabiri,

number, and whose joint veneration occurs

in

The

every region of the globe.

with those of the Earth and the

M'ith

Heaven and which he

pairs, us,

that the

Moon,

pronounces

Uranus and

and the Ida or

Ila or

Ge

or

Gaia

that

;

these were the great polyonymous deities,

and

as the Serapis

is to

Isis

Greeks

say, the Cailas or

Arhan,

He

states,

that

whose worship formed the

basis

and he adds, that they were the

:

of Egypt, the Tautes and Astart^ of the Phe-

and the Saturn and Ops of the old Etruscan

nicians,

tells

as the

or,

Gaya, of the Chasas and Hindoos.

of the Cabiric Mysteries of Samothrace

He

fundamentally the same.

to be

most ancient gods were Coelus and Terra,

called them,

same

as that of the great father does

Varro accordingly enumerates many of these

Sun.

rightly

in

character of the great arkite mother blends

itself

the

thus eissociated were the most ancient

Latins."

The Indo-Scythag delighted to represent them by stupendous colossal images nor can we be surprized to find such statues occur in oriental Ethiopia, when we recollect that the framers of those images in the Thebais, which we are now considering, were themselves a colony from the eastern Cusha-dwip. Of these I may mention the two colossal statues of :

Gomat-Esvvar or Jain highly revered India

:

one of them, thirty eight

times the height of a man.^

feet

may

I

[)y

his votaries

in

height

;

in

difterent

and the other, eighteen

also mention two of vast dimensions iu

Japan, the one at Dabis, and the other at Meaco, representing

Amida,

that

to say, Buddlia

is

parts of

and Mahiinan

:

the chair alone,

Xaca and upon which

Memnon, in a sitting posture), Nor must I omit the image of Dai-

the larger of these sits (for they are both, like is

seventy feet

Bod

higli

and eighty wide.'

or the god Buddh, also in a Japanese temple

;

stupendous, that, according to Kaempfer, three mats the palm of

its

He

hand.



Varr. de

'

Bryant's Anal. vol.

ling. Latin,

describes

lib. iv. p.

iii.

p.

17.

569, 370.

the bulk of which

may

lie

is

so

conveniently in

as sitting cross-legged on a Tarate

it,

'^

Abial. Res. vol. ix. p. 256, 285.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IPOLATUV. flower which

be a species of the aquatic lotos, and as having the

I take to

hair short and curled.'

Sacva

in

But father

is

no

less

nor does

them, as

likewise notice the colossus of Kiakiack or

man

sleeping in a recumbent posture,

than sixty feet in length/

Buddha

these are single statues, designed to exhibit

all :

may

I

Pegu, which represents a

and which

is

appear, that a second female statue

it

the case with the Memnonian images

mayan however, which Mr. Wilford

469

is

is

in the

or the great

added

of the east, there are two

any of

At Ba-

and which

the holy city of the Buddhic Chasas,

justly calls the Thebes

to

Thebais.

colossal statues

close to each other, which perfectly accord with the duplicated images ot

From

Egypt.

Their posture

their

is

have been hewn.

erect

magnitude they are seen at a considerable distance.

and they adhere to the mountain, out of which they

;

They stand

equal to the tliickness of the statues size has

been exaggerated,

is

the depth of which

in a sort of niches, :

and

their true

yet allowed to be

fifty

is

height,

much

cubits

or seventy five

as

their

tioned them, agree neither about their sex nor their

who have menThe Hindoos, names.

who

Bhim and

It

feet.

seems, that the natives, and the Persian authors

live in their vicinity,

that they represent

say,

Buddha assert, disciple Salsala. The Mussulmans Samana and his or Key-Umursh and his consort, or Adam and Eve and

while the followers of

:

third smaller statue,

Seth

;

as old as cient

which stands

whose tomb, or the days of

woman

called

tenance of a vulture.

at

at least the

According

near Bahlac.

insist,

they pretend,

some distance from them,

place where

it

Noah

who

They

is



:

is

zeal of the

much

defaced, partly by time,

Musulmans, that

a beardless youth

whence there

KsEinpfcr's Japan, vol.

ii.

son

shewn

more generally depicted with the coun-

are at present so

that the swelling of the breasts

wards the east

is

and he supposes the third to represent an an-

:

Nesr,

at least

that a

their

is

formerly stood,

ascertain their sex, yet perhaps not altogether inipossible.

them

that they are

to the author of the Pharangh-Jehanghiri, they are

and partly by the iconoclast

that one of

his consort

that they are the images of Shahama

p. 553.

is

:

difficult to

it is

Travellers agree,

and some particularly

remarkably obvious.

They both

insist,

look to-

prevails a wildly romantic opinion, that they

*

Bryant's Anal, xol,

iii.

p.

558.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

470

smile at sunrise, but

a

that

gloom overcasts

terrific

Mr. Wilford did not view them himself: but the account, which

evening.

Mohammedan who had

he received from a well-informed and opulent

them

sited

their features in the

mine, that the one

is

a male, and the other a female.

municated by him was, that the two statues are about forty paces distant from each other

in

The two

information comdifferent

that the drapery

:

vi-

seems positively to deter-

at least ten or twelve different times,

is

niches,

covered with

embroidery and figured work formerly painted of different colours, traces of

which are colour

still

visible

to have

that the one appears

:

been painted

of a red

and that the other either retains the original hue of the stone, or

;

was painted grey

:

one of them certainly represents a female, from

that

the beauty and smoothness of the features and the swelling of the breasts that

statue of their supposed son

tlie

twenty feet high

nearly half a mile distant and about

is

and that between the

:

door leading into

legs of the

male figure there

a temple of extraordinary dimensions,

is

a

but dark and

gloomy.' It

is

impossible, I think, not to be struck with the palpable resemblance

between

Osymandyas and male

his

Diodorus indeed

monument

:

but I have

little

manner

as

ramids of

it

doubt, that

male colossus,

is

structed with

teries

;

a place of wor-

its

being a

toijib originated

is

by a door between

certainly no other than a Mithiatic grotto

temple behind Osymandyas,

which has been discovered

all

in reality

much in the same the similar notion respecting the temples of Buddha and the pyThe Egypt, which are clearly what the Hindoos call pagodas.

believe, that tlie

were

were, the entrance into the

was

it

rock-temple at Bamayan, to which the access of the

fe-

behind the two images a tomb

calls the building

and that the notion of

ship,

In both, we have a colossal male and

mother.

and, in both, these statues guard, as

:

temple. or

and that which Diodorus gives of the statues of

this description,

a similar idea

in the heart

and

and each of them devoted

and

the

to

AsiaU Res.

vol. vi. p.



464

466.

and

I

were con-

purposes.

the celebration of the ancient

which scenically exhibited the death of the great

'

:

legs

gloomy cliamber

of the great pyramid,

for similar theological

tiie

They Mys-

father, his inclosure

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUY.

471

within an ark or coffin, his descent into the infernal regions, and

Hence arose

quent revival or regeneration.

may be proved

opinion which

ramids were

similarly originated

mandyas and respect to

the idea, that the

two images

the

literal

and

I

his consort,

mania

:

Typhon

and the

is

to say,

I

third

A

or Hayagriva.

the statues of Osy-

seems

Buddha and

Ida,

or

sta-

Saman Mahiman and Mahato represent

strongly inclined to consider as the effigies of

close resemblance between certain mythological

in various

tural misprision of terms.

With

formed the several pairs of

names of the most early

appellations and the in Scripture

am

and hence

or place of sepulture.

have no doubt of their being designed that

:

Bamayan, which were constructed by the

at

oriental branch of the wonderful people that

tues in Egypt,

Egyptian kings

temple behind

monument

mother, was his

his

the very old opinion, though an

wholly without foundation, that the py-

to be

tombs of certain

literally

his subse-

patriarchs that are mentioned

instances to have given rise to a not unna-

Thus, because the Canaanites and other eastern

nations worshipped the solar arkite god under the

name

of Abel or Abellion

which me&ns Jather Bel, an imaginary tomb of Abel the brother of Cain is^

shewn

in the

land of Palestine.*

And

thus, in several cases, because the

Egyptians called Typhon Seth, the patriarch has been confounded with the

demon-god.

Hence

I suspect,

that the

third statue, traditionally said to

be the image of Seth the son of Adam, was really the image of Seth or

Typhon

;

whose children or

that Seth,

votaries are mentioned

in the pro-

phecy of Balaam, who was the same as Baal-Peor, and who was sometimes also identified with Osiris because water

stance of the masculine

name

was esteemed one of the forms of

This opinion

the pantheistic diluvian god.'

6'e//i

is

confirmed by the circum-

or Sida being actually used by the Indo-

Scythse of the east, no less than by the Pallic shepherds of the west.

See Maundrell's Journey, p. 133, structure on ihe top of a

high

hill,

be proportioned to the size of Abel.

tomb on the top of

134.

He

describes the supposed

thirty yards in

length.

Belus; and the god was most probably there exhibited, as

*

Numb,

xxiv, IJ.

east,

was

This account does not require

the hill was a high-place of the gigantic

occur throughout the

It

tomb

as an ancient

traditionally thought

much comment.

Buddha, or Mahiman, or in

many

under the form of a colossus wrapt

in

Siva,

parallel instances

a dL-athlike sleep.

to

The father

which

"*'

*'•

472 iiooK IV.

jijg

ORIGIN Of PAGAN IDOLATRy.

TIIK

mariner of the ship Argha,

frequently styled Sida-Siva

is

feminine form of the word, Sita or Seta or Set/ia,

who

of his consort Parvati,

at the

is

:

while the

one of the appellations

time of the deluge metamorjihosed herself

into that celebrated vessel."

Mr. Wilford remarks, described to hin),

is

that the dress of the statues at

much

same

the

Tuct-Rustum near Istachar

There

that the female figure has no head-dress is

worn by the supposed

as

it

was

as that of the two figures, half buried at

Persia.

in

Bamayan,

;

is

however

but the male has such a tiara, as

Tuct-Rustum.*

female figure at

this difference,

Here then we have

another pair of similar statues, male and female; and in a region likewise,

where the worship of Buddha was early established by a branch of the Chasas or Cuthites eastern Ethiopians

we have them,

:

Memnon, and produced

to

in short,

in the

very country of those

who, equally with the Ethiopians of Africa, laid claim

;

as

much

circumstantial evidence of his having

resided at Susa. (5.)

Nearly

allied to

these statues, though not absolutely the same, are

the pillars, which Sesostris was said to have erected in the various countries

That such ancient monuments

that he subdued.

disputed

;

for

Herodotus declares, that he had himself seen them

whether they were erected by a

They

quite another question.

them

to be,

literal

king of Egypt

being so marked,

is

for the tale, by

;

:

which the Greeks accounted

:

to

man, holding a spear

have

for their

one was

in the

road from

Phocea, and the other was between Sardis and Smyrna. :

is

Herodotus particularly

unworthy of serious confutation.

were but of small dimensions

but,

Sesostris,

and they evidently appear

mentions two of them, each hewn out of a rock to

named

:

were marked in a manner which designated

some male and some female

been phallic Hernife

Ephesus

actually existed, cannot be

They

and both of them represented the figure of a

in his right

hand and a bow

in his left,

partly after the Egyptian and partly after the Ethiopic fashion.

and armed

He

adds,

that across the breast, traced from shoulder to shoulder, there was an inscription in the sacred characters of qf'viy '

arms I subdued

Mor's Hind.

Panth.

Egypt

this country.

\>.

41.

to the following effect;

The *

Bi/ the force

historian acknowledges, that there Asiat. Res. vol.

vi. p.

465.

THE ORIGIN or PAGAN IDOLATRY.

473

w as great uncertainty respecting the person thus represented

and he

:

tells us,

though he peremptorily rejects their opinion, that some asserted these statues to have been designed for

suspect however, that, although he

I

pronouncing them to be representations of Sesostris, he

right in

is

Memnon.'

Memnon was

hasty in rejecting the tradition that

the subject of

If

we

we

and Memnon, are

Sesostris

supposed to have reigned,

is

we

if

further pursue our investigation,

Eusebius

the sacred ship Argo.

the whole world, and then Sesostris

conquered the world, though

The

decessor.'

it

who

;

yet

is

who conquered

represented as having again

was already subdued by

his

immediate pre-

who

scholiast upon Apollonius omits Thules,

the same person as Sesostris

Vulcan reigned

that after

tells us,

the Sun, then Sosis, then Osiris, then Horus, then Thules

Theopompus Scsosti'is,

The author of

And John

of Antioch adds to this

Cham

character of Sesostiis, between

whom

lib.

* Joseph, coiit. *

sufficiently point

and the scriptural Sesac

He

of father, brother,

Ramesses or Ram-Esa: which

Euseb. Chron.

that reigned in Egypt.'

the

is

same

at

I

out the real can scarcely

once as Buddha

for mythological genealogies perpetually represent

:

the different lights

*

Ham

particular, that he was contemporary with

discover even a shadow of resemblance.

Diod. Bibl.

or

These various testimonies

or Thoth.*

and as Danaus

to be the first navigator of the

the Paschal Chronicle says, that Sesostris was

the earliest king of the family of

Hermes

and he adds, that he was the bro-

;

Danaus or Armais, who was reputed

ship Argo.*

p.

i.

p. 50, 51.

'

lib.

i.

a Buddhic

Herod. Hist.

".

Apion.

is

c. 15.

Hence he

and son. title,

lib. ii. c.

the

same

one person is

Idol.

\02, 106.

ApoU. Argon,

'

Schol. in

'

Chron. Pasch.

VOL.11.

called

in substance as

p.

lib. \y. ver.

IS.

Johan. .Antioch. Opcr. p. 28.

Pag.

that

he denominates Sethosis as Diodorus styles him Seikoosis,

was the same as Ramesses and Egyptus ther of

whom

was he

Josephus informs us from Manetho,

calls Sesostris?

whom

evidently

is

and places that hero under the name of Seson-

;

chosis next in succession to Horus, telling us that Sesonchosis

*

for I

shall be brought into the mythologic age of the fabulous first kings of

Egypt and

in

:

generations between the accounts given

and,

:

them

one person.

when

many

shall find a discrepancy of

by Herodotus and Diodorus

we

ell

inquire into the period

far too

Osymandyas, Ismandes,

think there are strong reasons for believing, that Sesostris,

is

3

27?.

THK OHICllN OF PAGAK IDOLATRY.

474

Bal-Rama, and which was brought by the

may

collect

from

were constrained

its

name of one

being the

Greek Hermes and

is

denominated Armuis

Hindoo Hennaya

the

to us, as the navigator of the ship

declared to be contemporary with first

of the

Egyptian king of the

of

line

which

:

Hermes

is

nounced

and both

the

And hence

and

-S'o.y/*

is

therefore to conclude, that Sethosis

This conclusion

Isa.

is

It is also

Osiris.

Ram-Esa, and by

is,

in short,

the

same

Sethosis or Scmosis

Sos-Isa or Thoth- Isa is

as

Thoth or

evidently in a

is

:

we may venture

warranted by his being declared to be contemporary

his lieing ascribed to the

The

tlie

same

list

with Vulean, Helius,

His history

age of the ship Argo.*

various remote conquests, which he

have made, are but a repetition of the

pillars,

said to

Bacchus and

which he erects as marking the boundaries of

progress, are no other than the

:

Hercules and Bacchus, which occur both for Hercules, Bali, Sesostris,

his

Hermae or Buddhic columns which make so

conspicuous a figure in old mythology

Bacchus seems properly

is

Buddha and Cronus, and of

travels of

the military exploits of Hercules and Osiris and Thules and

The

pro-

warranted by his being identified with Ramesses or

accords with his name.

Deo-NaMsh.

is

Se-Thoth-Isa or the illustrious Thoth-

with Hermes, and by his being placed in

and

he

which occurs in the fabulous dynasty between

title Sosis,

Helius and Osiris;

described as the

name, and the various particulars related of him,

his

perfectly accord with this supposition.

compound form

is

is

namely Vulcan or Phtha, Helius,

;

He

Sothis or Thoth, Osiris, and Horus. :

exhibited

is

same dynasty, as those clearly mythological princes

to belong to the

the Egyptians venerated as gods

Hermes

title

equivalent to his being re-

presented as the earliest sovereign of the country.

whom

same

the

also,

Hence moreover he

or Thoth, and

Ham, which

is

Hence

and thus he

:

Argo or Argha.

we

that the Israelite*

cities

by the tyranny of those intruders.'

to build

considered as Danaus, he as the

Sliephercl-kings into Egypt, as

they are the far to the

and Buddha, are

all

same

as the pillars of

west and far to the east;

one person

;

and, though

to belong to another system of mythology,

yet both

those systems are closely blended and connected together, and Bacchus and Osiris,

transmigrating '

Buddha and Hercules, are The age, in which he patriarch.

as well as

Exod.

i.

11. xii. 37.

*

ultimately the is

placed,

is

Tzetz. in Lycoph. vcr. 1206.

same great

that of Thoth,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRr. and the Argo;

Danaiis,

Ark

:

we

and, accordingly,

Theba

heifer-goddess

Egyptus

;

who

is

his

the age of the deluge and the

it is is

said to have been the son of the

declared to be the same as Harnesses and

Argonautic brother Danaus were the children

truly represented as flourishing at the period of Deucalion's

is

Such being

flood.'

;

that he

find,

he

for

and Egyptus and

of Theba,

other words,

in

475

among

his place

the ancient kings of Egypt,

we may

naturally expect to find him, like Tiioth, Vulcan, and Pan, connected with

whose prototypes are doubtless the eight persons

primitive eight gods,

tlie

Ark

preserved in the gives us

and

his

much

and

:

that Herodotus, though undesignedly,

He

reason to believe that this was the case.

queen as being the parents of

him the head of an ogdoad against

I think,

him by

and he

:

which

his brother,

six children,

represents

and consequently makes

relates a story respecting a plot

I suspect to

him

formed

have originated from the same

source as the fable of Typhon's machinations against his brother Osiris.*

Now, when we

consider that Sesostris belongs to the age of Theba, Argo,

Thoth, Osiris, Inachus, and Deucalion

It is a curious circumstance,

Ionia to be statues of statues of Sesostris

;

we can

;

scarcely,

I think,

hesitate

ogdoad over which he presides.

as to the interpretation of the

that, just as

some pronounced

the statues in

Memnon, which Herodotus contends

so that vocal statue

in the

universally said to have been a representation of

to

have been

Thebais, which

Memnon, was

is

yet,

almost accord-

ing to Pausanias, sometimes thought to have been an image either of Sesostris

These coincidences were not the

or Phamenophis.'

the different accounts

discordant

;

Memnon,

of

various



were equally representations of Sesostris and

for all the statues

One and

Osymandyas and Buddha. Hence we

find

Memnon

The pretended voyage of Danaus

importation of the worship of

to

Danau and

all,

man

of that period

*

;

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

Vide 107.

infra

Greece

in

the ship

:

.

to

have occurred at

but the character Danaus was no his

votaries

vi. c. 5. $ V'l. 1. *

.

same age

Argo means very evidently the

The fact seems

the sacred ship.

book

same person under

carried back exactly to the

he was the deified hero of the Ark, and

Danauas or Danai.

the

whatever part of the world

in

the era of the final expulsion of the Shepherds from Egypt

called

of pure accident

were, I believe, perfectly right, though apparently

names was the subject of them

they occur.

eflFect

Pauian. Attic,

p. 7f^.

were from him

<^"'*'''

"•

THK

476 HOOK

IV.

ORIGliV Oi

which Sesostris

as that in

PAGAN IDOtATRV. If the latter be ascribed to the period

placed.

is

of Argo, Theba, and Deucalion

and

;

consisting exactly of eight persons

if

he be placed

yet said in the Great Chronicle to have been one,

at the siege of Troy,

is

and indeed the

of the great gods of Egypt.'

first,

He

associate of Pan, and Thoth, and Vulcan, and Osiris

was the

principal Cabiric

we

deluge,

invention

share of which

Cadmus

the apparently contending claims

Cadmus, and Menmon, are

all

may

Memnon

I

:

mean

over his funeral

but

:

it

that there the notion, that, their

epoch of the

invention likewise for a

this there is

be easily reconciled

no

real rivality

pile,

:

Buddha, Hermes,

:

to

be noticed in the fabulous history of

the curious legend relative to the birds, which

first

fought

and which afterwards annually renewed their combat

in honour of the deceased hero.

Troas

to the

words, he

one person.

A single particular yet remains

(6.)

In

puts in his claim.'

was therefore the in other

:

inventor of the alphabet; an

original

Buddha and Hermes, an

given to

also

Thus thrown back

deity.

him described as the

find

head of a family

notwithstanding his exploits

the former,

:

at the

This mysterious transaction occurred

in

likewise occurred in African Ethiopia, only with the difterence

There was

also a

Troas, they every year

made

combat took place only every besides their annual

appearance on

one particular

fight in

fifth

day, and

year.

cleansed a space of ground

about the tomb of jNIemnon, suffering neither shrubs nor weeds to grow there,

and afterwards watering Esopus.

who

Such,

it

with their wings which they dipped in the river

according to Pausanias,

was the account given by those

inhabited the shores of the Hellespont

were shaped

birds were black, that they

:

and Elian informs

like

us,

that the

hawks, and that they came

every autumn from Cyzicus on the Propontis.' Actions like these are evidently the actions, not of birds, but of and, since the same ceremonies also took place in Ethiopia, sure that men were the agents, and we may perhaps throw some light on the nature of what they did.

The

find

it

we may

men

:

both be

not impossible to

theology of the ancient Babylonic Cuthites or Scythians dealt

much

in

symbols or hieroglyphics, partly arbitrary, and partly borrowed from the '

Chron. Magii. apud Banier's Mythol. Anticlid.

^

apud

Pausan. Phoc.

Plin. lib. p. 66£).

vii.

c.

vol.

i.

p. 49."}.

56.

/Elian, de animal, lib.

v.

TH£ OKICIN OF i-AGAN IDOLATRY, Hence originated

and the deluge.

histories of tiie creation

Among

of Egypt, Persia, India, and Assyria. the eagle, and

:

among

and

fishes

dog

:

the raven, the dove,

:

the cetus

reptiles,

mention these as a few only among many

the sacred animals

among beasts, the lion, among insects, the bee and

hawk, were highly venerated

horse, the goat, and the

the bull, the

the butterfly

tlie

birds,

477

for

:

and

serpent,

tlie

I

such was the propensity

of the old Ciithic idolaters to bestial synibolizatlon, in the understanding

of which their boasted M'isdom largely consisted, that the language of the

prophet

no

is

exaggeration,

poetical

beholding ina Mithratic beasts.'

Now

cell

name

whom

it

:

as the priests called themselves

for,

Venus was JMylitta

Hence

or

Thus

word Melitta came

the

Horus was

name of that

being nourished in his infancy by bees,

the lion.

animal.

.

Hence

Exactly

as dogs, swine, and ravens

Of

doves. tus.

The

this last

Thus

we have

priestesses of

;

the priests

in the

to signify

;

and declared

of Mithras were called by the

same manner we

it

find priests described

and priestesses assuming the appellation of

Dodona,

The

it ;

seems, asserted, that two black doves of which the one took up

The

to be the will of Jupiter,

latter

and

it

was

fully

that

abode

in

perched on a

that an oracle should

;

and

Such was the narrative of the Dodon^an

explained to Herodotus in the

transaction given by the

its

former, which flew into Africa, similarly enjoined

the inhabitants of that country to establish another oracle

of Jupiter- Ammon.

to various

likewise the symbol of Mithras

Africa, while the other settled with themselves.

be there established.

and

rise to

a very curious elucidation given us by Herodo-

once flew from Egyptian Thebes

beech-tree

the

Melissa, and her symbol

properly denotes the female principle of generation

other fictions of a similar description. or

have

to

and hence her priestesses were called Melissa or bees ; which gave the story of Jupiter

as

they worshipped, so they appropriated to

appears to have been a bee. that insect, though

himself

emblems by which he was designated.

the peculiar

of the Assyrian

represents

most instances, seem at once

represented the deity and his priests

themselves

he

every form of creeping things and abominable

these animals, in

by the name of the god

when

priests of the

two priestesses were carried '

off

Theban

literal

this

was that

priestesses

account of the same

Jupiter.

These told him,

from Thebes by the Phenicians

Ezek.

viii.

10.

;

that

«"*'•

*•

TUK ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

478 ROOK

IV.

one of them was sold into Greece, and the other into Africa

them the foundation of the two oracles was doves then were priestesses

to

and they were said

;

to

and that to

;

The pretended

be ascribed."

be black, because

sucli

was the colour of the two Egyptian or Ethiopic females. Thi»,relation will lead us to the right understanding of what

Memnonian

the

They were

birds.

priests,

who

in another quinquennially,

performed certain

Memnon.

his high-place

Troas

This tomb was

was on

it

tlie

originated from the

top of a mountain

same

:

rites at the

pretended tomb of

accordingly, Elian

and the notion of

;

meant by

is

one region annually, and

in

tells us, that in

its

being a

tomb

cause, as the similar notion respecting the ()yramids

and the vast building behind the statue of Osymandyas.

Doubtless what

the psalmist calls the offerings of the dead formed a part of the worship of

Memnon, no was

of Baal-Peor, Adonis, and Osiris.

less than

regularly bewailed at certain stated

was supposed

lamentations took place,

as those over the slain or lost Osiris

same season of the

themselves were,

it

two Egyptian

into the ark to

of Cyzicus imitated

priestesses,

I

cither

it,

am

also

who assumed

vizors

by staining

much

the

made of

the

same

which com-

Moon

for Elian

;

The

birds

hawk and

:

both cases. :

and

it is

their skins or

and the reason

The

sacerdotal

probable, that those

by arraying themselves

inclined to believe, that the priests

names and characters of

wood

or pasteboard

such a conjecture.

:

the sacred animals,

at least,

it is

not difficult

Plutarch expressly

the ball were sacred to Osiris

and the hippopotamus, were to Typhon

;

;

as the ass,

and the dog,

tells us,

the cro-

to Anubis.'

Now,

in

table,

various semi-human figures occur in attitudes of adoration before



that curious

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

relic

54, 55.

and

might be, their figures by means of certain

light

to give plausible reasons for

that both the

into the

Dodona and Jupiter-Ammon

actually imitated, as far as

masks or

festivals

Troas every autumn.

birds of Ethiopia were of a black complexion

codile,

and

opinion was, I believe, the same in

in black robes.

They were

seems, of a black colour, like the two doves or priestesses

that established the oracles of for this

where such

the edifice,

and they were performed at the very

came from Cyzicus

says, that the birds

;

tomb.

to be his

:

year, as one of the

memorated the entrance of Osiris

seasons

Since his death

of Egyptian antiquity, the Bembine or Isiac

* Plut. de Isid.

tlic

THE OIUOIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV. ofCuthic

bestial deities

the head of an

sacred bull

Among

superstition.

and I think

:

which they were thus disguised was by

They :

the one with

worships the

first

figures thus disguised

mode

that the

likely,

of the ancient pageants in the middle ages

in

strongly resemble the

and

not improba-

it is

assumed by those buffoons were borrowed from the

that the disguises

ble,

it vei-y

vizors.

the

The

the second, the mystic scarabeus.

;

therefore are certainly priests

mummers

these are two;

hawk :

the other with that of a

ibis,

479

obsolete superstition of our Scythian ancestors.'

The

canine phantoms of

the Mysteries, mentioned by Pletho and Psellus, and alluded to by Virgil,

seem and

to

have been

them

I take

officiating ministers

of Thoth or Anubis, of

The

decorated with the heads of dogs

to be nearly allied to the cynocephali or

whom

there

dog-headed

was a whole college

in

black hawks of Cyzicus then were certainly priests of

priests

upper Egypt.

Memnon

:

and,

while thev officiated, they probably wore vizors imitating the heads of hawks, like the priests

But

who appear

Bcmbine

in the

table.

what we are to understand by the bloody

the question will be,

still

which they are represented as annually or quinquennially fighting in

battles,

honour of

A very moderate acquaintance

their deity.

with the

of pagan

rites

superstition will be sufficient to aftbrd an answer to this question.

The up

priests, in the

worship of their gods were wont to work themselves

to a sort of phrenzy.

Attis

death, as

is

still

the worship of

Mr.

Sirutt, in his ;

in

ponderous

Memnon, who

and Jagan-Nath.

mummers

John

in

Of

fact

was the very same deity

priests first

the

Bembine

table

group of these

birds, bulls,

and agreeably

to

buch pageants were fashionable

faithfully paints the

as

wound themselves up

work on the ancient pastimes of the English,

and Shakespeare

Falstaff with a

to certain

such a nature, I apprehend, was

which they appear with the heads of dogs,

disguises of the priests to have been, :

car.

His disguised

closely resembling the figures on

Elisabeth

of

madly throwing themselves beneath the

propitiated by his votaries

is

in the contest

and sometimes devoted themselves

;

Cybel^,

the case in the bloody suicidal adoration of Jagan-Nath

rolling wheels of his

'

sometimes mutilated them-

sometimes gashed themselves with knives, as

;

the priests of Baal with Elijah

who

this state, they

as at the time of their dedication to the service of Bellona,

selves,

and

While in

to a high

gives a print of these

and

lions, in

what

I

a manner

conjecture the

so late as the days of

manners of the times

fantastic apparition!.

Buddha

in terrifying his Sir

See the merry wives of Windsor.

chap, v,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATUV.

480

pitch of religious enthusiasm

many

until

and then turned

;

perished in the furious contest.

the practice of cutting the flesh with knives

which

strictly prohibits to

it

their

arms against each other,

Scripture

of allusions to

is full

a superstitious abomination,

;

the priests of Jehovah

and Herodotus has

:

preserved an account of an Egyptian ceremony, which perfectly resembles the battle of

Memnon's hawk-priests

Meranon and Mars

are one deity.

;

or rather which

He

is

same

the

rite,

for

during the festival of

tells us, that,

Mars which was celebrated at Papremis, and towards the close of the day, a small number of priests were accustomed to arrange themselves as attendants upon the statue of the god. Meanwhile a greater number, armed with planted themselves at the door of the temple.

clubs,

also with

might be seen at least a thousand men,

Opposite to them

clubs in their hands,

tumultuously assembled to discharge the vows by which they were bound.

These preparations being completed, the attendant ministers of the deity placed his gold-enshrined image on a four-wheeled carriage, and bi gan to draw

it

Those, who were stationed at the door of the temple, endea-

along.

voured to prevent

its

entrance

:

who were under

but the others,

the obligation

Upon

of vows, immediately rushed forward to the assistance of the god. this,

a furious battle took place between the opposite parties

:

and many

indi-

Hero-

viduals never failed to have at least their heads broken in the scuffle.

dotus supposes, reasonably enough from the nature and obstinacy of the conflict,

that several lives must also be

Egyptians positively denied any such

lost

:

he adds however, that the

consequences.'

fatal

It

seems to

me

sufficiently evident from the preceding account of the Egyptian Mars, that

he

is

the

same

as

the Indian

who may The mode,

Jagan-Nath

;

Buddha, and consequently with Memnon. solemnly drawn in his car on the high day of rites

attendant upon his

worship though they

reason to doubt of their

the Orissan deity

the

two

is this

:

common

the votaries •

original.

in

liis festival,

differ

in

which he was

and the bloody

some respects from

too clgse a resemblance to the

those of Ja»an-Nath, bear on the whole horrid manner, in which

be identitied with

is

venerated, to leave us

In fact, the sole difference

much

between

of Jagan-Nath throw themselves beneath the

Herod. Hist.

lib.

ii.

c.

63,

THE wheels of

liis

huge

worshippers of

bore of '

it

PAGAN IDOLATRY.

and propitiate

Mars attended upon

their

481

god by a voluntary suicide; the

his image,

as the sacred car similarly

along in solemn procession, and honoured him, like the hawk-priests

Memnon, by Tht

car,

OllIGIN OF

reader

shedding their blood

may see

in furious conflicts.'

the terrific worship of Jagan-Nath

amply described by an eye-witness

in Dr. Buchanan's Christian Researches in Asia.

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

II.

3

P

'""*'' *•

CHAPTER

VI.

Respecting the vnion of the two great superstitions in the worship of Jagan-Nath, Saturn, and Baal.

J.

HOUGH

the ancient idolaters were early divided

they differed rather in the

mode, than

in the object,

into

two great

sects,

The

of their worship.

various gods both of the Buddhic and of the Bacchic superstitions were

mately one and the same person

:

great father, who, under different names,

Such being the

case,

we may

traces of a point of union shall

we be disappointed

was

alike venerated

by each party.

not unnaturally expect to find some distinct

between the adherents of the

in

ulti-

and that person was the transmigrating

our expectation

:

Nor

rival systems.

these traces occur with remark-

able clearness in the very extraordinary worship of Jagan-Nath; nor are they

wholly obliterated in the notices,

which have come down

to us, respecting

the western Cronus or Saturn and the Asiatic Baal or jNIolech. I.

The

Adonis,

present observation might perhaps be further extended to Attis,

Hu, and Mexitli

:

but the propriety of

it

consideration of the avowed principles, on which

will best

the god

appear from a

Jagan-Nath

is

venerated. 1.

In

all

parts of Hindostan, save Orissa, sectarian distinctions are care-

fully observed,

and the difference of castes

is

sedulously attended to

:

but

the temple of Jagan-Nath, the famous resort for pilgrims of every sect and

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. caste,

is

a converging point,

may

whatever terms

with the Sudra

father

was

for a season

(1.)

is

is

upon

century after the destruction of the

every quarter of the globe,

here

:

all

Here

points.

join together in worship-

its

have been built in the eleventh

to

it

erection to the very beginning

temple of Sumn-Nath.'

determine the point, which in fact

and

in

mysterious great

Respecting the antiquity of Jagan-Nath's pagoda, contrary opinions

of the Cali age, and others supposing

cussion

or

sects,

equally the god of each system of old Babylonic idolatry.

have been entertained; some carrying back

to

The same

modes and subordinate

in

confessed, and acted

who

tribes,

castes,

renounces his superiority to mix

by every idolater

whatever differences might exist

ping him,

all

object of pagan adoration.

alike venerated

the principle

do

harmony

and here the Buddhist kneels by his side before the acknow-

:

common

ledged

the contending parties unite in

best include the whole race of Hindoos, eat and drink

Here the Brahmen

together.

all

Here, and here only,

each other.

with

where

483

of

is

little

moment

presume not

I

to the present dis-

but shall rather proceed to inquire into the character of

:

into the nature of that

bond of union by which pilgrims of

this idol,

all sects

are

equally induced to venerate him. (2.)

The word Jagan-Nath

itself is

denotes the lord of the Universe.

not a name, but a

Hence

it is

title:

it

simply

obvious, that, as each sect-

arian venerates the great father under that character, each will be equall}"

Mr. Moor informs

prepared to worship him under the name of Jagan- Nath.

Vishnou

us, that Crishna or

Maurice

that

says,

adored as Jagan-Nath

chiefly

is

Jagan-Nath

is

:

Siva or Iswara, and that he

while ^fr.

may

clearly

be recognized as such by the vast bull which projects out of the eastern side of his pagoda.*

In

botii these

shape of a

fish at the

the navicular

opinions

Jagan-Nath

not the whole truth.

is

we

have, I believe, the truth,

certainly Vishnou,

time of the deluge, and

He

Moon.

is

who once

certainly likewise

who assumed

but the

lay concealed within

the maritime Iswara,

who

was the navigator of the ship Argha w hen the waters of the ocean overspread the face of the whole earth.

'

Maurice's

*

Moor's Hind. Paiilb.

Irul.

Ant.

vol.

p.

iii.

p. C6,

Accordingly,

in

the

neighbourhood of

'17.

IVi, 213, 338.

Intl.

Ant.

vol.

iii.

p. 27.

his

'"*''•

^ '•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

484 BOOK

IV.

swam

temple, an old tradition prevails, that he

by which

region;

I

think

it

to

it

from some more westerly

evident that Armenia and

mount Ararat myst

be intended.'

But, although such opinions be just, they will not account for

the worship of

Jagan-Nath being the centre of theological unanimity.

worship must involve some points agreed upon by

all sects,

the acknowledged fundamentals of each jarring system

the case,

On

2.

Jagan-Nath be

if

solely either

this curious topic

:

which

will not

he

is

Mr. Paterson has been so

not venerated there exclusively

are adored in conjunction with him.

be

Crishna or Siva. peculiarly happy, that

we have little more to do than to adopt his opinion. (1.) Though the worship of Jagan-Nath is commonly spoken vailing in Orissa,

That

as constituting

Now, when

:

of as pre-

for tw o other deities

the sacred images of these

three divinities are stripped of their ornaments, they prove to be a triad of

a very peculiar conformation.

In the centre

is

the goddess Subhadra, a form of Devi or Isi

words, the diluvian ship Argha left,

is

Jagan-Nath.

same shape, differ

in

:

on her

right side,

is

Bal-Rama

Bal-Rama and Jagan-Nath have each

:

;

in

other

and, on her

precisely the

order to shew the identity of these reputed brothers

:

they

only in the colour of their faces, which exhibit the respective tints of

Siva and Vishnou, namely white and black

;

while the countenance of Sub-

hadra displays the bright yellow of the lotos, the colour of the short skirts in

which the Hindoo deities, if

body

it

On the

division of Subhadra's body,

Nath

of each of the three

can be called, seems to be composed of two eggs, the one

surmounting the other.

of arms.

The body

divinities are usually clad.

is

But the superior egg

top of the egg, which constitutes the upper

placed her head in the similar

supports the navicular lunar crescent

the head of the deity.

The

;

;

and she

bodies of

is

entirely destitute

Bal-Rama and Jagan-

and within each crescent appears

crescent itself exhibits the rude semblance of

arms, as the two-fold egg does that of a body

but a sort of standard,

:

attached to the frame on which the three divinities are seated, sufficiently

shews that the apparent arms are really a lunette

;

a black ground the mystic crescent with a circular

in

ing the head of the deity '

hid. Ant. vol.

iii.

p. 27-

for the standard displays ball within

.^

*

Sec Plate

I.

Fig. \6.

it

lepresent-.

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

Now

a curious circumstance,

it is

and what tends

485

to tiirow

much

the present subject, that the Pranava or mystical hieroglyphic, which

is

used

name, has manifestly been borrowed from the form of

to express the divine

the remarkable triad before us.

crescent containing a

ball

:

The upper

and

beneath

part of this hieroglyphic

the crescent

imperfect

the

is

a

is

if this

character,

Mr. Paterson observes, be made intoa cypher; we shall have two

crescents,

appearance of two eggs as

on

light

each containing a

ball

But,

laterally joined to a third.'

and each surmounting two imperfect

The

connected with another egg placed between them/

eggs, laterally

cypher however,

thus produced, graphically exhibits the triad of Bal-Rama, Subhadra, and

Here then we have a key

Jagan-Nath.'

to that singular principle of union,

which the worship of Jagan-Nath holds out to sects otherwise mutually

The form of

agreeing.

the triad

hieroglyphic, by which the mystic triliteral monosyllable Oni

and here, consequently,

same

;

:

the jarring sects finally meet together as in a

Om as

Aum

or

the

On

generally,

is

or

Aun

and with much reason, supposed to be the

that triad, into

god was thought

to

triple deity

the

word denotes

this

at

adored in conjunction with

which the fourth more ancient or proper humano-solar

Here

have multiplied himself.

therefore

all

the different

for the worship of the triplicated

sects are at length found to symbolize:

Om, and

But

of the old Egyptians.

once the Sun, and the Trimurti or

him

expressed

is

whether they be Buddhists, Jainists, Saivas, or Vishnavas.'*

centre, (Q.)

all

dis-

now under consideration has produced the

veneration of the lunar boat, was the foundation of

mythology of Paganism, however

it

might be varied

in

detail.

all

the

In the

hieroglyphical group of Bal-Rama, Subhadra, and Jagan-Nath, the devout

Brahmen beholds

Om,

that triple god,

whom

he reveres under the joint

united with the great universal mother:

god Vishnou,

of

the no less devout Saiva con-

templates Iswara and his consort the ship Argha favourite

name

:

the Vishnava adores his

safely concealed within the protecting lunar crescent

the Buddhist worships that ancient Buddha, the child of the jNIoon and the

sovereign prince hidden witliin the belly of the really the

same

'

See Plate

I.

'

See Plate

I.

as

Brahm

multiplied into

Fig. 17. Fig.

19 compared with Fig. \6.

whom

fish,

he knows to be

Brahma- Vishnou- Siva, and whom *

See Plate

*

Sec Asiat. Res.

I.

Fig. 18. vol. viii. p.

6\, 62, 63.

<^"*''- ^"•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

486 BOOK

IV.

he similarly decorates with the sacred

Jain or

The

Mahiman.

Om

title

nian views, with equal enthusiasm, the

and

:

the Jainist or IVIahima-

Trimurti incarnate in the person of

mythology was the astronomical worship

basis of old

of the solar great father, and of the lunar great mother.

The one was Noah,

viewed as a transmigratory reappearance of Adam, and multiplying himself into three

w orld

the beginning of each

sons at

:

was the Earth

the other

considered as an enormous ship floating on the vast abyss, and the

Ark

consi-

Of

these,

dered as a smaller Earth sailing over the surface of the deluge. the former was astronomically typified

by the Sun; while the

symbolized by the boatlike crescent of the Moon.

On

or

racter

boat

was invented,

and hence the ancient

:

the solar divinity

and

to express both his astronomical

hence the head of the god was placed m

:

was

to have mysteriously triplicated himself: hence the name

was supposed

Om

Hence

latter

deity,

whom

pagoda of Jagan-Nath, was believed

to

swum

have

wonderful

ithin the

sects agree

all

his triple cha-

lunar

to venerate in the

to his temple, necessarily

of course when the whole intervening continent was laid under water, from

some region (3.)

The

to express

to the north-west of Hindostan.

strange form of the god was contrived with sufficient ingenuity

what

Like

his votaries intended.

the Greeks led

Nor

glyphic.

them is it

parallel symbols,

from

an hieroglyphic peculiar to India alone

which may both throw

upon

it,

and such

is

the

is

World and

plainly an hiero:

there are other

and borrow

light

Such was the

in the

mundane Ark.

Courma

Avatar.'

The combination

Sec Plate

I.

Fig. 11, 21, 22.

in

ques-

crescent equally repre-

But the form of Jagan-Nath '

;

which graces the head of Call or Parvati or

but a double symbol, for the egg and the

sented the

figure of the

such also was the figure of the Lunus of Carrhae

;

ornament,

Argha, as she appears

the arkite smaller

not the only combination, which

surmounted by the crescent.

god Lunus of Heliopolis

is

light

greater

literal

and the form of Jagan-Nath

exhibits the egg

tion

is

In the mythology of almost every ancient nation, an egg was em-

it.

:

not the greater knowledge, of

the image of Jagan-Natli

to reject,

ployed to shadow out both the

World

the oriental representations

all

of the hero-divinities, which the purer taste,

displays, not only

THE ORIGIN OF PAOAN IDOLATnV.

487

the egg surmounted by the crescent, but the crescent itself containing a head,

Neither

is

of the Carrhenians, whose addiction

hieroglyphic of the Egyptians shews the to

me

to

of Lunus

the worship

to

known, exhibits a crescent containing a head

seems

A

combination peculiar to the Hindoo god of Orissa.

this

coin

so well

is

and more than one ancient

:'

same remarkable combination.

It

be explained by the superstitious practice, which Lucian has

described to us, and

which 1 have already had occasion to notice as con-

necting together the worship of Osiris and the Mysteries of Adonis.

Every

year a vessel was formed of papyrus representing the head of the Egyptian deity

;

and, being solemnly committed to the waves, was thought to be wafted

to Byblos in seven days by a supernatural impulse.

Judging, both from the

hieroglyphics which seem to describe this superstition, and from the crescentlike

form of the ark within which Osiris was inclosed and which was sup-

posed

to

have drifted on shore with him

that the papyrine

vessel

am

in Phenicia, I

inclined to believe,

mentioned by Lucian did not represent a head

The

merely, but a head placed within a lunette.*

head, from

its

circular

form, was apparently used to symbolize the Sun or perhaps the Star which

was so general a concomitant of the

arkite deities. In

the Indian character,

which expresses the word Om, and which seems to have been borrowed from the form of Jagan-Nath, a mere point, resembling the stop called a period, is

placed between

tlie

horns of the crescent

but, in a coin representing the

:

lunar god of the Carrhenians, the crescent incloses a star. coin of that

people

is

singularly curious

sponding with the form of Jagan-Nath,

it

import of that remarkable hieroglyphic.

;

for,

may

Jagan-Nath, as we have seen above, lunette,

between the horns of which

that deity

is the,

is

serve to explain the

its

all

Hence

real

an egg surmounted by

horns,'

Now

the form of

a double egg surmounted by a

placed a head

is

centre of union, where

devotions in mutual harmony.

by almost exactly corre-

It exhibits

a lunette, which comprehends a star between

This second

:

and the temple of

the contending sects offer up their

I interpret his

symbolical

figure

to

denote that astronomical hermaphrodite deity, which the genius of ancient

Paganism contrived by blending '

See Plate

I.

Fig. 20.

^

Adam

See Plate

I.

with the Earth and

Fig. \Z.

^

Noah

See Plate

I.

with the

Fig.

!22.

c-^p-

^''•

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATKV.

488 iioitKiv.

Ai-k

.

that

Jagan-Nath

words, by joining together in one compound

say, in other

to

is

great universal

hieroglyphic the

and the protecting Moon, Buddha and

He

mother.

Hu

Isis,

Adonis and

and Ceridwen,

Woden and

hermaphrodite Iswara, the hermaphrodite Jupiter,

the

is

universal

Osiris and

Ila,

Venus, Attis and Cybel^, Janus and Jana, Frea.

the great

Vishnou-Narayan and the Lolos, Crishna

Siva and Argha,

is

and

father

the

hermaphrodite Osiris, the hermaphrodite Attis, the hermaphrodite Venus,

He

and the hermaphrodite Adonis.

at

once the solar god

father multiplying himself into three sons,

and the masculine

or Soma.

But, at the

same

is

time, he

is

also the mystic egg;

Om,

the great

Lunus

divinity

which floated

on the waters of the vast abyss, and which produced the Brahma and the sacred triad of the Hindoos and the Dionusic Protogonus and the three pri-

For he

meval kings of the Orphic poet. but he

is

also Luna, or Isi,

transmigrating

(4.) I think

in conjunction

Mr. Maurice

Sumnath

or

is

They

title

of

Buddha

of Sumnath formerly stood •

Mohammedan Suman-Nath

;

theists,

:

ere

was

:

while the idol, as was

as

I

the

same

have already

and Suman-Nath,

Now Suman, city,

polluted and

common fifty

in a similar

Saman, or Soman, where the temple plundered by the

with the representations of

cubits in length, forty seven

Whether

of which were buried in the ground.'

the pagoda contained any

hieroglyphic resembling the figure of Jagan-Nath,

mode of symbolizing

is

clearly

in the theology both of Carrhag

'

is

was called from him Patten-Sumnath or Boiidhan-

Buddha, consisted of one enormous stone

such a

Jagan-Nath

and accordingly the it

represents the

are doubtless one deity, adored

Jagan-Nath,

equivalent to the lord Suman.

a well-known

it

sometimes in conjunction with

right in supposing, that

Suman-Nath.

observed, denotes the lord of the Universe is

In short, the

with a Star.

under somewhat different appellations.

manner,

or Argha.

mundane Ark astronomically

placed Vvithin

:

Sun and sometimes

divinity as

the

Moon while the head Noah astronomically revered

venerated with the

not only Lunus, or Iswara

or Sita, or Parvati,

crescent surmounting the egg represents

the

is

we

are not informed

no modern invention, because

and of Egypt.

Mauiicc's Ind. Ant. vol.

iii.

p. 26, 27,

36

— 42.

it

:

but

occurs

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. present worship of Jagan-Nath

The

(5.)

cruelty and obscenity.

It

is

is

a

same

in fact the very

489

disgraceful

mixture of

as the adoration of the

great father and the great mother, viewed as the two principles of fecundity,

which has prevailed from

The supposed Orgies

and

:

tire

character of the deity

his favour

is

eveiy quarter of the globe.

earliest times in

marked, as of

is

by the phallic

old,

thought to be the most effectually procured by the

Like the Egj'ptian Osiris, the god of Orissa

self-immolation of his votaries.

has his sacred bulls which familiarly mingle with the deluded pilgrims the Assyrian Mylitta, the Cyprian Venus, and the propitiated by female lewdness agricultural god of Phenicia, he

drawn on

is

like

Armenian Anais, he

and, like the war-god of

:

:

is

Egypt and the

his high festival

day

in

solemn

procession seated on a towering car.'

The Jagan-Nath of Orissa seems to me to whom the Greeks and Romans venerated under the II.

and Saturn

:

god

for this

is

be the identical deity,

Cronus

appellations of

equally the great universal father

;

this

stands equally connected with each of the two primeval superstitions.

Neptune and

Pluto,

with the ancient self-triplicating Brahme

have been classed with the Bacchic nutely to his character,

him

same

the

we

rather to

have been placed

Brahme

is

sufficiently

Bacchic hero-gods,

Buddha. liarities 1.

As

I

human

for his

as such therefore,

Yet,

divinities.

shall find

it

if

we

he ought to

attend more mi-

almost impossible not to pronounce :

such therefore, he ought

as

Buddhic Pantheon.

in the

Since his unity with

proved by his being the father of the three younger

am

only concerned to establish his

This, accordingly, shall

of his

:

Buddha, Thoth, or Saca

as

As

who are certainly the same Brahma-Vishnou-Siva, we may rightly identify him

the parent of Jupiter and as the Indian Trimurti

god

character

identity with

first

may

be done

;

identity

with

and, afterwards, the pecu-

properly be exhibited.

Buddha, we learn from Plutarch, that some

mythologists maintained him to be the same

as

But Herm-Anubis or Thoth was

same as Buddha or Datta.

Cronus

therefore,

certainly the

Herm-Anubis or

I'hoth.*

agreeably to such an opinion, must likewise be the same

as that oriental deity.

'

See Buchanan's Christ. Res. in Asia. p. 129

Pag.

Idol.

VOL.

— U7. II.

*

Piut. Jc Isid. jj.368.

J

Q

^"-^^^ ^'•

THK

4y0 jKx.K IV.

Nor was

(1.)

PAGAN IDOLATKA'.

OllXGIN OF

the opinion taken

up

random

at

on the contrary, there

:

much to confirm it. The Greek translator of Sanchoniatho tells us, among the Phenicians, Cronus was denominated II : and he is clearly us this piece of information

in giving

such, as to leave

Each

Saturn.

triple offspring

is :

room

us no

doubt of

Phenicians were Indo-Scythae

denominate

who

bears the

But the

from upper India

first

the Indo-

and they

:

same

Hence

appellation.

II

is

the

II

it

is

manifest, that the Ila

of their brethren the Pheni-

proves him to be the classical Saturn.

must inevitably be

identified with the Ila or

Agreeably to

of the Indo-Scythas.

There-

this

we

conclusion,

Buddha

find him,

in the Phenician mythology, immediately connected with Taut or Thoth

he

is

said to have extended his sovereignty to the south over

The

have given the sceptre of that country to Taut.' torically

Phenician or Cuthic Shepherd-kings of Taut

among

characters of

whose

rites

II

may have

itself, if his-

Egypt by the

in a

manner very common

divided his national god into the two

and Taut, they were

in reality

one and the same person,

were brought by the Scythian Shepherds from upper India

Palestine and ultimately

same

deity as

Buddha, we

find

him bearing

not only the appellation //, but likewise another of the sacred Buddhic

Chiun, whose star

is

mentioned by the prophet Amos,

Sanchon. apud Euseb. Praep. Evan.

V.

*

See below book

'

Sanchon. apud Euseb. Praep. Evan.

vi. c. 5. §

to

to Egypt.

(2.) Saturn being thus the

'

for

but these were professed worshippers

:

Buddha; and, however Sanchoniatho

the old mythologists

:

Egypt, and to

legend

considered, relates no doubt to the conquest of

or

Ba-

to

hero-god Ila, and assign to him a daughter-

this

But the legend of

Menu

The Cronus

his father.'

of the Phenicians.

II

II is

parent of a

Menu

ages been

fore the classical Saturn

or

the

is

worshippers of Buddha or

all

(pronounced II) of the Indo-Scythag cians.

each

:

Now

both

consort

Punic

of the

and afterwards from Babylonia to Palestine.*

Scythas have in still

the

is

who migrated

;

that, riorht

identity with the classical

his

said to have mutilated

is

then of the classical mythologists

bylonia,

for the legend

Heaven and Earth

the son of

each

to

;

is

lib.

i.

c. 10.

1, 2. lib.

i.

c.

10.

is

rightly,

titles.

by Selden

THE ORIGIN OF PAOAN IDOLATIIT. and Beyer,

Now

with him.'

immediately connected

identified witli Saturn or at least

eitlier

this star, as

we have elsewhere

491

seen,

is

manifestly the dilu-

vian star of the Persic Mithras or the second man-bull Taschler

and the

:

Aboudad has been shewn to be the same as Accordingly, we are told by Aben-Ezra, that the

Persic Mithras or Taschter or

Mahabad

whom

god,

hy

or Buddha.*

Arabs and the Persians Chivan

the

which

;

Nor was Aben-Ezra

Chiun of Amos.'

the

Cronus or Saturn, was

the classical writers denominate

palpably the same

is

mistaken in

styled title

this assertion

as for

:

both the centauric form of Chivan or Taschter, his connection with the deluge, and his being placed at the head of three subordinate associates,

serve alike to identify him with that Saturn,

But Chiun or Chivan seems

be eminently the Centaur.*

Buddhic

title

Saca or Sacya,

distinguish their

Kya, it is

Cya

more simple shape

in a

am

for, since the

Chinese

really a

is

compound term denoting the

illuitrious

Ata be

still

bring us to a similar result.

same person

as the younger oriental

flourished at the time of the deluge,

him from the elder Menu or Adima.

distinguish

is

Menu.

But

this

called Satyavrata,

Now,

the

if

to

termination

separated from Satyavrata, the remaining word Satyaur or Satur

will point out to us not equivocally the

The same

Saturn.

appellation

was no

origin

less

epoch of the general

name Se-Suthr

flood,

Amos

V, 26.

de

Lycoph.

Se,

Scld. de diis Syr. synt.

book

iii.

ii.

c. 3. § III. 7. (2.)

diis Syr. synt.

Cassaii, ver.

ii.

c.

1203,

M.

Roman

title

Satur or

to the ancient Babylonians.

who was saved

in

an Ark at the

was called by them Xisuthr or Seisuthr.

or Cai-Suthr

with the eastern prefix Cai or

* See above

of the

known

learn from Berosus, that the person,

* Seld.

name of the The younger oriental

inclined indeed to think, that even the ordinary will

clearly the

is

Menu, who

*

be only the

or Chiun.

Buddha

'

to

god Fo or Buddha by the name of Che-Kya or the great

probable, that Sacya

(3.) I

the

:

pronounces to

writing the Indian appellation Sacya in two words instead of one;

Latin deity

We

whom Lycophron

is

But

no other than Satur or Satyaur united

which

signifies

c. 14.

Beyer. Addit. in loc.

and book

great or illustrious

iv. c. 5. §

XXIII.

:

so

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

492 BOOK

IV.

that Scisuthr title less

is

equivalent to the

in fact

Gothic

familiar to the

tribes,

empire and established themselves

standing on a

This

rites,

the

real

pail

is

constantly

all

and a long beard,

hair

and

fruit,

wheel or ring

flowers.

As

Argha cup of

the

in his right

Hindoos

;

he

which, in

Such coincidences throw much Satyaur-Ata, is

Sei-Suther,

light

Seater,

concerned, the patriarch

believe, that the four titles are all

That name, however, being well known

of a single name.

left

during the performance of their sacred

equally, so far as personality

seems only reasonable to

and

:

In his

of water, witliin which were flowers and

filled,

character of Saturn.

Saturn, are it

calls a

last vvas certainly the

with water,

Their god Sealer

which was placed upon an upright column.

fish,

a similar manner,

Nor was the subverted the Roman Salu7\

west of Europe.

held, like the Indian divinities, a

bore wliat Verstigan fruits.'

in the

finally

meagre old man, with long

vvas represented as a

hand he

illusti'ioiis

which

on

and

Noah

:

mere variations to the

ancient

Babylonians, and yet at the same time being used in a precisely similar application

by other

western direction

the presumption

:

nate the great father by the carried

away from

Scythians conveyed

that

it

it

was

first

Cuthim of Nimrod, and

an eastern and a

employed

that

it

to desig-

was afterwards

them of the dispersion along with

One

was attached.

their settlements in

to

it

in

branch, accordingly,

upper India

;

of the

where they fixed

appulse of that ark, which preserved the person distinguished by the

title in

question.

Another branch of them, under the name of Palli or

Pelasgi, similarly carried the

is,

the plain of Shinar by

the idolatry to which

the

removed from Chaldfea both

tribes far

same

spirit

it

to their western settlements in Italy

of local appropriation, they

And,

their divinity to terminate. their pristine seats at the

bore the

many

;

title

and the god

made

Agreeably

where, in

wonderful voyage of

at length, a third branch, emigrating

from

head of the Indus and on the north of Persia,

whom

to

it

was applied

carefully preserving every characteristic

them both.

the

;

to this hypothesis, the

Saturn and the Gothic Seater

;

which

last

into the forests of

mark of

Ger-

the Asiatic origin of

proper identity of the

Roman

must inevitably be the same as the

Indo-Scythic Satyaur-Ata, because the worship of him was brought by our



Verstig. Restit. of decayed intell. p. 64.

THE OniGlN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. Europe from the Indian Caucasus

forefathers into

493

the proper identity of

:

Saturn and Seater, and thence of Saturn and Satyaur-Ata,

is

proved by one

of those arbitrary coincidences, which so often occur in the old mythology

The

of the Gentiles.

of Saturn

and we,

:

extraction, are

or

t/ie

was

nicians (4.)

tiie

week was

styled

by the Latins

called Ila,

Roman

Saturn,

also be

Buddha.

must

respect to the appellation

who by

itself,

as

Ila,

Now,

nians.

name Satur

it in

the

Chaldee, the verb Sater

it

one

it is

most

was spoken by the Babylosignifies

to

hide

:

hence the

rendered the

is

exact accordance with the mystic character of the god,

its

title.

is

appears to have been

Such a derivation

denote the hidden one.

more probable by

who bore

that Chaldee dialect which

in the

will

day

the Indo-Scythic Phe-

used by the Babylonians previous to the confusion of tongues,

natural to seek

the

with other European nations of Gothic

But Menu-Satyaurata, or the masculine

therefore the

;

With

day of

common

accustomed to denominate the very same day Saturday/

still

day of Seater.

with Buddha

first

last

in

We

may suppose

bestowed upon the great father

in

the appellation of Satur to have been

allusion

to

what the epoptae called

his

aphanism or disappearance from mortal eyes, while he lay concealed within

Ark

the

and the present conjecture may be thought

:

from the etymology of Latium

; for

from Lateo, and the alleged

reason

country.' But, whatever

may

name,

Noah

sure of 2.

related, I

have no doubt,

Having thus attempted which

that

is

to

some weight

have been so denominated

Saturn once lay hid in that

whence Latium like the

is

said to have

aphanism of

borrowed

Osiris, to the inclo-

within the Ark.

person as the oriental ter,

said

be thought of the proposed derivation of Satur,

the fabled concealment of the god, its

it is

to derive

to establish the position that Saturn

Buddha

or

Menu,

will evidently identify fiim

is

the san;e

I proceed to consider his charac-

with

Noah

viewed as a reappearance

Adam.

of

(1.)

That part of

it,

which respects

his unity with the protoplast

manifestation in the antediluvian golden age, has already been discussed.'

'

V'irg.

Avoiding therefore a needless repetition of

^neid.

lib. viii. ver.

322, 323.

*

See above book

my iii. c.

and

his

sufficiently

former argu-

i. §

IV.

«'"*'"• ^'«

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY,

494 nooK

IV.

ments, I with

may now

whom

a

rather view

him

as the second

new world commenced

after the first

great father of mankind,

had been destroyed by the

waters of the flood. (2.)

In

of his character,

this latter part

it

is

impossible not to see, that

almost every circumstance minutely corresponds with the history of Noah.

Saturn

is

said to have been the parent, by his wife

A

sons and three daughters.

heads of

this family

Rhea

impending over the

dreadful calamity once

of eight persons,

its

or Opis, of three

chief constructed a wonderful insu-

lar

cave or grotto in the midst of the ocean. Here he concealed his children

in

perfect safety

the

until

;

danger,

which

threatened them, was over.'

After the Saturnian family had emerged from their gloomy confinement within the sea-girt cavern, the aged god was intoxicated by the youngest of his sons

and, during his stupefaction, lay in a state of exposed nudity. the Egyptians

named

unresisting father while in this indecorous situation.

that Saturn enacted a law,

naked.*

Jupiter, by

Hamiiion, approached, and barbarously mutilated, his

In consequence of

by which

it

this event, the

Hence

was forbidden god, being

the poets fabled,

to behold the

now no longer

gods

able to

maintain his pristine authority, was compelled to abdicate the sceptre of the

World and

to divide

these however

ample dominions among

his

Hammonor Jupiter obtained a

his three sons.

Among

decided preeminence; becoming

in fact himself an universal sovereign in the persons of his enterprizing descend-

With respect to the origin of Saturn, he is commonly said to have been the son of Heaven and Eartli and a notion prevailed, both among the classical writers and among the Phenicians, that his father had previously experienced from him the same inhuman treatment which he himself afterwards ex» For tliis opinion, though utterly false, it is not perienced from Hammon.' very difficult to account. As the theory of similar successive worlds taught, ants.

:

that every event,

which occurred

at the

beginning of one world, would

equally occur at the beginning of every world fered from his

'

own

offspring as the

Porph. de antr. nymph,

*

Orph.apud Porph. de

'

Apollod. Bibl.

lib.

i.

p.

;

the insult, which

nymph,

c. 1. § 3.

p.

suf-

Gentiles told the story, he was himself

254.

antr.

Noah

260.

Euseb. Praep. Evan.

lib.

i.

c.

IQ,

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY. feigned to have already offered to his

own

and Rhea and tis

their kindred deities

Ark

or of the Sea and the

that

Noah and

in a sea-girt cave

;

the ocean in a ship.

he

tells us,

not

that he

Bochart well observes,

Accord-

were born allegorically from the deluge.'

his family

ingly, while Saturn is

Plato

:

is

were the children of Oceanus and The-

thus intimating, as

;

Saturn however

parent.

always reputed to be the son of Heaven and Earth

495

sometimes mystically said to have hidden his children is,

The

at other times, literally represented as sailing over

old Italians indeed pretended, that his voyage termi-

nated on the shores of Latium, and that he was there received by Janus but Ovid, as the faithful depository of ancient tradition,

Tuscan

us, that his vessel did not reach the

wandered

in

was a ship

;

it

over the whole globe.*

In

memory

carefully instructs

until the

river,

:

god had

first

of this voyage, his token

which appeared on the reverse of the coins stamped with the

double face of Janus.'

The

inclosure of the great father within the Ark, symbolized by an insu-

lar cavern in the

and he

himself,

midst of the ocean, was viewed as a state of confinement particularly throughout the east,

was thought doring the

time of his incarceration to be wrapped in a profound deathlike slumber.

Both these ideas occur

We

dif-

bound with chains

in

his

temple during the whole of

except one particular day which introduced the festival of the

3'ear,

Saturnalia

:

but that on this

day, which occurred in

December and which

eminently dedicated to him, he was solemnly set at liberty by the re-

Having

moval of

his fetters.*

the later

Romans attempted

its

two

are told by Macrobius, that, according to the Latin ritual, the image

of the god continued

•was

in

mythologies.

ferent

every

though

in the fabulous history of Saturn,

real

to

memory

account

for

it

of the origin of this custom,

by resorting to physics

import was, that the deity of the Ark was confined w ithin

during a year, and was liberty,

lost all

let loose at the

up

the people gave themselves

Plat.

Tim. Boch. Phaleg.

*

Ovid. Fast.

lib. i. ver.

'

Ovid. Fast.

lib.

*

Macrob. Saturn,

i.

ver.

lib.

i.

lib.

i.

end of

it.

When

to mirth, jesting,

c. 1. p.

c. 8.

lib.

i.

his vessel

and ebriety

4,.

Macrob. Saturn,

but

Saturn was set at

233, 234.

229, 230.

:

c. 7-

;

ex-

chak

m

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAX IDOLATRY,

496 BOOK

IV.

ulting

much

was found

same manner,

in the

again, or as

when

as the Egyptians did

the lost Osiris

Persians and Babylonians did during

tlie

the con-

tinuance of an exactly similar festival which they denominated Sacea from their

'

god Saca or Se-Sach or Buddha-Sacya.'

Stat.

Sylv. lib.

i.

in Cal.

The annual

Decemb. Saturn.

the days themselves being called the Sacian days

During

mente or supernumeraiy days of the year.

Sac^a lasted

festival

and they were evidently the

:

both

this eastern festival,

gave themselves up to the most unrestrained drunkcness and lasciviousness

who were

place with their servants,

their superiors sustained their part

by the

for the occasion -

robes of royalty.

The

:

festival

and one of these temporary

lords,

It it

has been inquired,

with the

was celebrated wherever there was a temple of Anals; who

why in

this festival

was called Sacia

commemoration of a

thian Saca;, and that the Babylonians borrowed

But

ject to their empire.

there

commemoration of a victory the Babylonians

like the

Babylonian Mylitta de

Seld.

diis Syr.

;)?7"or to

:

and there

is

it,

much

their subjugation

without giving the least hint that

on the Persians, speaks of

it

in

was

it

though

I

am

its

is

name Sacia

:

resemblance to the it

among

prevailed

Berosus, in a fragment

as a

introduced by Cyrus

had any thing

calls it a Scythian festival

tiiat

least

Babylonian institution,

and Ctesias,

in his

Hence Selden with much reason concludes,

persuaded, that

the god of the Sacs,

which bears the

reason for believing, that

by the Rledo-Persians.

first

neither instituted by that conqueror, nor

Hesychius

and some have imagined, that

work

one of those books of his history which treat of the times that

long preceded the empire of Cyrus.

the Sacae.

:

which he obtained over the Scy-

victory

from the Persians when they became sub-

it

nothing in

is

preserved by Athenfeus, mentions the festival by

;

distinguished

c. 13.

was instituted by Cyrus

nion

masters changed

who was

and the Cyprian Venus, by the solemn prostitution of female chastity. ii.

men and women

the part of king and was decorated

was the Magna Mater of the Persians, and who was honoured,

synt.

days,

Epago-

then allowed to act the part of their superiors, while

Zoganes, played

title

:

five

five

it

:

and

I

believe

was styled Sacia, not so

Saca or AYoden.

The

that

it

was

to do with his alleged victory over

him

to be right in his opi-

much from

ancient Persian

the Sacae, as from

mountaineers were un-

doubtedly a branch of the Scuths or Goths: and the Cuthic empire of Nimrod, the builder of Babel, was founded by the same intrepid and adventurous race pressly called a Scythian empire.

;

whence we

find

it

ex-

Saca or Buddha therefore was equally worshipped by the

Chusas of the Indian Caucasus, the old Iranians, the Scuths or Chusdim of Babylonia, and the Gothic and

Saxon conquerors of Europe.

Accordingly, Hesychius

the Babylonians Seches was the appellation of the planet

tells us,

Mercury or Buddha

that

among

and the pro-

:

phet Jeremiah speaks of Sesach as a well known principal idol of Babylon; denominating him

Melech Sesach or King Sesach, agreeably

to the

custom prevalent among the

bestowing upon their gods the appellation of King or Lord.

Compares Kings

idolaters of

xviii.

33, 34,

THE ORIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRV. For the sleep of Saturn we must Celts.

497

iiavc recourse to tlic tlicolojzy of

names of

North-Britain received their appellations from

whom

the hero-gods to

guarded by

whom

Briareus

and attended

is

doubtless

Hu

The

sufficiently obvious.

is

bound and

by many ministering demons.'

Plutarch here denominates Cronus,

yet the identity of these deities

where the image of Saturn was thus exhibited, was a

The Buddwas

or

:

insular cavern,

local transcript of the

fabled grotto, within which he was thought to have concealed his family gigantic guard

Briareus,

Typhon

who

placed upon him the mystic

Ahriman or Hayagriva

or

the

they were dedicated, goes on to mention,

that in one of those islets Saturn lay in a state of deep sleep, fast

British

old

Plutarch, after telling us that the various islets which are scattered

near the main land of

god,

tiio

:

and

his

fetters,

:

his

was the

slumber was the same

the intermediate deluge, as

tliat

Brahma and Vishnou on the surlacc of of Buddha or Siaka from one great nuni-

dane revolution

and

as

allegorical deathlike sleep,

as that of

to another,

that of Osiris

while floating

in his luni-

form ark on the waters of the oceanic Nile.

Noah

Living as Jeicm.

55.

did at the period of the destruction and renovation of the

41. XXV.

li.

c;().

2 Chron. xxxii. 13, It.

Sechcs and Sesach are clearly the same deity wliose F.sa,

honour

the festival SacJ'a

wlrile Sesac/t

Sacan-Esa seems vowel sound

who

is

was instituted

:

;

Isaiah xxxvi. 18

for Seches

is

Sc-Saeh or Cai-Sach which denotes the

to be only another variation

like the western

— 20.

x\xvii. IJ, 13.

and they are both as clearly that Saca,

of the same

the

illustrious Saca.

title,

in

Buddhic compouiul SachZogancs or

pronounced with a broader

Soc or Socus, wiiich was equally a name of Mercury.

The slave,

bore thut appellation with the assumed character of a king, played the part of the regal

great father: and, in the celebration of the Sacea,

Latin Satuinulia, the primitive

which

is

plainly the same festival as the

times immediately succeeding the creation and

the deluge

were designed to be represented; when as yet the distinction between masters and slaves was

unknown, and when

the only rule acknowledged was that of the transmigrating patiiarch the

true so\ereign of the world.

From

this

old Persico-Gothic festival our Christianized forefathers of the middle

whose ancestors emigrated out of the noith of Iran and Ilindostan, borrowed tical

tion.

nnmimcry

of <^e Abbot of misrule and other strange profanations of a similar descrip-

The same origin may be ascribed

king and queen

;

unless

we choose rather

to

to

our Christmas gambols and

to

the twelfth-day

deduce them from a Roman source.

Age, U-

hrrtate Dcccmbris, qtiaiido ita nnjore) roluerunt, uttre. '

Plut. de defect, orac.

Pag.

ages,

their ecclesias-

Id'jI.

vol..

II.

3 II

^•OK

IT.

oiaaiN

liii.

4I>8

world, and marked as his

eminently was with the commencement of a

life

chronological epoch, we

new

pagan xuolauuv.

oi'

sluill

find these circumstances strongly alluded

The Orphic

to in the history of Saturn.

poet celebrates him, as the father

both of gods and men, as destroying and reproducing

whose sway extended over the whole world, and

versal patriarcli

parent of a

new age

Macrobius speaks of him,

or era.'

gods, and as the author of time

Much

came, time commencerl/

riation

the

Greek name of

the

for, as

:

which

:

lie

same idea

;

blended in the characters of Saturn and Noah.* a certain extent

:

yet

we must

heathen theology, Saturn

is

With no

ascribed to Bacchus,

is

little

Osiris,

more than a

mode

niankind to a civilized inculcating

and the or the

maxims of

fruits

justice

of the earth

As

god of dung.

:

repetition

'

Orph. Hymn.

Macrob. Saturn,

^

Idira KfovOj' ct X^cvo;.

tcra,

Kf«yoj

ilfor. c. 6. *

Noah answer to

of

the

of

character otlier

gen-

life;

and

and

travelled

simplicity.

He

over the whole world,

presided over agriculture

whence he was called by the Romans Stercutus

such, he was the Zeus-Arotrius of the Greeks, :

for the title

Baal-

xii. lib.

i.

c. 7. p.

K^oyoy ^tv tcv X^oyoy. i.

150. c. 8. p. liC, 157.

Macrob. Saturn,

quasi Xfovoj vocatur.

Asiat. Res. vol.

just to

Like these kindred hero-gods, he brought

and the Baal-Zebul of the Phenicians and Canaanites

^

is

with his three sons or ema-

Phoroneus, Inachus, and various

transcripts of the great father.

tile

His observation

exactness does the postdiluvian character of

that of Saturn; which

real

intimately

is

not exclusively Noah, but that imaginary trans-

who was thought to appear commencement of et'en/ world.

less

Sir

not forget, that, on the avowed principles of

migrating personage nations at the

Hence

father.'

was the period where

and remarks, that the idea of Time

;

the ancient

Brahmens bestow the ex-

so the

William Jones concludes, that the general deluge Indian chronology begins

among

declared to be only a va-

is

Cala or Time on the great

actly similar appellation of

as the first of

but that, when Saturn

;

prevailed

the god

of a word which signifies Time

as the

explains by teaching us, that,

was Chaos, there was no time

while the world

Jlindoos

as an uni-

all things,

p. 234, 2-10.

lib.

i.

c.

c. 8.

Ibid. c. 22. 'O ;^f*voj

Schol. in Hesiod.

22. p.

2M.

Saturnus a Graecis, iinmutata

h

roiovToy cvtiy.

Phurn. de

li-

nal-

THE ORIGIX OF PAGAN IDOLATRV, Zebul

is

exactly equivalent to the

Latin Stercuius, and most probably was

the appellation which Sanchoniatho's translatcu has not

He

and Agruerus^

He

trees.

was the

taught

men

tlie

vine,

and the

As an

pressed and fermented the juice of the grape.

person

first

A^^rotc.'i

:

fruit-

who

ex-

he was

agriculturist,

with a scythe or sickle in his hand

usually represented

rendered

ill

method of grafting and training

planter of the

first

499

and, in allusioii

having mystically devoured his children and afterwards having dis-

to his

He

gorged them, he frequently appeared grasping a naked infant.

teemed the

first

and oldest of the gods

mark of advanced age

:

;

v.as es-

whence he was painted bearing every

yet a notion prevailed, that he once experienced a

wonderful renewal, and that from an old doubtless alludes to the figurative birth of

man he became a Noah from the Ark

This

boy. ;

which led

the ancient mythologists to represent the diluvian god, as an infant floating

on the

As

lotos.

the chief of the divine ogdoad, he vvas sometimes said to

be the parent of three sons and three daughters by his consort Rhea: and, at other times, he was supposed to be the father of the seven Titans or Cabiri

and of

their sisters the seven Titanides or Cabirae.

Rhea

tight was esteemed sacred to the flood, a

new

:

the

number

and, since the world began again after

when

of the Universe was dated fiom the time

creation

she and her husband were thought to have, flourished.

Saturn

nician mythology,

Hence

is

reported to

Lastly,

in the

Phc-

have been contemporary with

Dagon and Pontus and Typhon and Nereus, and to have given the Berytus to Neptune and the Cabiri who there consecrated the relics of ocean. The import of such a legend can scarcely be misunderstood. teaches us, that the epoch of the deluge

was the

removing the transactions on mount Ararat which derived

Bcriiii

nant,

it

crifice to

represents

God

name from

its

Noah

at the

true epoch of Saturn

to the Phenician

:

city

the It

and,

Berytus or

the Barit or diluvian ship of the cove-

Lead of

his family oftering

of what had been preserved in the

Ark from

up a solemn

sa-

the fury of the

waves.*

'

I (loiibf,

whether liaal-Zebul be a mere contemptuous Rabbinical variation of Baui-

Zcbub, as many liave -

Diod. Eibl.lib.

siippQ.5etl.

v. p.

334..

1

rather take them to be diftcrent

Macrob. Saturn, lib.

i.

c.7, 8.

titles.

Virg. vEncid.

lib. viii. vcr.

321,

'^'**'' *'•

500 lUIWK IV.

OKIGIN or PAOAN JDOI-ATUy.

-tHL

The names, by which Saturn

III.

Baal and Mokch

aie

ture,

way

applied to him by

is

orduiarily mentioned in

but these are mere

:

Holy

which

titles,

of expressing his supereminent dignity

Scrip-

his votaric'*

the one sim-

;

ply denoting Lord, and the other King. 1.

His Morship was of a peculiarly bloody and inhuman description, agree-

ably to his fabled character of the destroying power

and the

:

a|)pellation

upon the Punic god, who was venerated with such worship, abundantly proves that the classical Saturn was the same divinity as the bestowed

Baal or IMolech of the inspired writers.

We

are told by INIinucius Felix, that in

and that

their parents to Saturn,

by

sacrificed

some

parts of Africa infants were

caresses lest they should appear to be unwilling

mode

the precise

of propitiating

Molech

were prevented by

their cries

Now

victims.'

was

this

and the Africans, who thus wor-

:

shipped Saturn, were undoubtedly the Carthaginians, who brought with them the bloody rites of the oriental deity from their native Phenicia. ingly

we

great calamity to sacrifice a

man

niatlio as his authority;

clear,

or Buddha,

who was

Molech and

Baal.''

it is

to Saturn

that this Saturn

by the

distinguished

He

and, since he refers to Sancho-

:

is

the

additional

sprinkled

human

Pescennius Festus

prevailed.'

he adds,

altar with

liis

that,

when

same person honorary

blood in commemoration of in

lib. vii. vtr.

imag.

c. 1.

lib. i.e. 1.

Phalcg. '

lib.

we might

its

Min.

having once

Lactantius gives the same account

subjoin, were

179. Fulgent. Mythol. lib.

Martian. Capcll.

lib.

i.

Damas. apud annot. i.

:

it

c. 2.

in

i.

and

and many others

Euseb. Proep. Evan.

Phurn, dc

nat.

Fel. Octav. p. 201, 293. lib. ii. }

27.

*

To

necessary, those of Diodorus

Pint. Quast.

c. 5.

noljility."*


Rom.

lib.

6.

i.

c.

;

who

all

con-

42. Albric. dc deor. 10. Apoliod.

Pint.

Parall.

Porphyr. de Abslinen.

Bibl.

Vide Boch.

c. 1.

,'Porph. de Abstin.

of

men

the Carthaginians had suftered a defeat from Agathocles,

Siculus, Tertullianj Eusebius, Athanasius,

022.

titles

discontinued, they

they at once sacrificed to Saturn two hundred children of the these testimonies

as. II

also tells us, that the Carthaginians sacrificed

Saturn; and that, when the practice was at length

to

Accord-

learn from Porphyry, that the Phenicians were wont in times of

lib. ii. J

56.

* Laeta:i. Instit. lib. i.e. 21. p. 115.

THE ORIGIN' OF PAGAN IDOLATkV. cirr

human

the assertion, that

in

and especially

victims,

501

were de-

infants,

voted to Saturn by the Piienicians and Carthiginians

Thus

it

appears, that

uho was eminently

tlie

principal god of the Tyrians and the ('aiiaanites,

by the sacrifice of children,

propitiated

unanimously by the writers of Greece and

But such was the mode,

the classical Saturn.

was venerated throughout Palestine

:

cestors, distinguished the god,

whom we

those identical appellations.

to

have been no other than

which Baal or Molech

in

and we have

that the Carthaginians, following the

lieving,

l)y

Rome

declared

is

sufficient reasons

custom of

for be-

their Phcnician an-

have seen pronounced

be Saturn,

to

Athenagoras says, that the

whom

deity,

own language Amilcas ; which is eviAm-Melech or t/ie burning Molech, sometimes

they worshipped, was called in their dently

the

compound

title

Milcom or Mekch-Am

written inversely

names of the gods, we

practice of assuming the

agreeably to the oriental

and,

:

find both the

word Molech

and the word Baal entering into the composition of many Carthaginian apsuch as Hamilcar,

pellatives,

Milic,

Asdrubal,

Hannibal,

and

who in Scripture is denomiMolech, and whose proper name among the Indo-Scythic

Hence

Ithobal?

Imilces,

nated Z?«rt/and

is

it

evident, that the god,

Phenicians was // or Ila, was the same deity

as the Saturn of classical

mythology.

Accordingly we find the triplicated Saturn venerated with precisely resemble those of the Baal-Shalisha or

tine/

Athanasius informs

Porphyry

devoting of infants.'

Saturn prevailed tim from

among

us,

among

triplicated

the Rhodians,

custom of

'i

substituted

figures of

man

to

but that they latterly chose the vic-

who were condemned to death.* And Lacancient Latins devoted men to Saturn, not by

slaughtering theui at the altar, but by precipitathig bridge into the

sacrificing a

by the

the malefactors

Jantius teaclies us, that the

they

Baal of Pales-

that the Cretans propitiated Saturn savs, that the

which

sacrifices,

He

iber. in

men made

the

adds, that,

place

of

it

when

'

^thcnaf;. Lfj^nt. c.

Athan. Oral. adv. gent.

*

lactan.

xii. p. b'Z.

I.nstit. lib. i. c.

this practice

In *

thir,

2 Kings

* J'orpli.

21.

was discontinued,

a custom of throwing into

of straw or bulrush.'

^

them from the Milvian

last

iv.

mode

the river

of sacrifice,

42.

dc AbstJn.

lib.

ii.

§

51.

'^"*'-

"-

502

ORIGIN

THi:

PAGAN IDOrATilY.

01-

the victim, I conceive, represented the arkite god the waves in coninicmoration of

Noahs

constantly symhohzed hy the sacred

;

and he was committed

The

river of the country.

closely analogical to that of committing to a holy lake or stream

Durga of

the Goths, the the Isis

a female

of the

the Hindoos,

When

of the Egyptians.

and the

Ark

rite

was

the Isis of

who shadowed out

virgin

the person, thus cast into the water,

commemorate

the design of the ordinance was to

;

to

which was

entering into the deluge,

the

was

launching

into the great ahyss of the deluge.

The Jagan-Nath of Orissa, as we have seen, is worshipped in conjunction with the god Bal-Rama and the goddess Subhadru of u precisely 2.

:

similar nature

When Solomon

was the adoration of Molech or Milcom.

turned aside to the abominations of the Gentiles, he venerated Astoreth,

Chemosh, and Milcom, on the three peaks of the mount of corruption or the

mount of

olives

which he adopted as the

;

of his apostasy, as

to the

that of Orissa

mountain where

it

and

it is

devoutly believed,

wandered, he

the solid rock

is

and a remarkable

as a manifestation of

that,

in

the

hill,

3.

On

Buddha.

its

In various

foot of that deity

fabulizing

monks of

the

:

for the consolation of his vo-

summit of the mount of

exhibited on the

still

priated a genuine pagan legend,

dermg pilgrim

peculiarity, attached

a curious circumstance, that the impression of a foot

is

consequence of our Lord having ascended

in

This triad

every region of the globe to which he

one of these divine prints

left

Now it

taries.

:

shewn a gigantic impression of the

is

Ida

was worshipped, proves decidedly, that one of

members was Jagan-Nath viewed parts of the east

I\Icru or

the idolatrous Canaanites and Perizzites.'

racter in the days of

was no other than

local tricoryph^an

had heretofore sustained the same mythological cha-

it

to

olives

;

in

but,

heaven from the top of that

holy sepulchre have childishly appro-

and thence point out the mark to the won-

as the last sacred footstep of the Messiah.^

the real character of Baal or

very remarkable passage

in

Molech much

Holy Writ, which,

so

light

far as

I

is

thrown by a

can judge,

lias

hitherto been but imperfectly understood.

Kings

xxiii. 13.

'

2

'

Sdiidys's Trav.

ji.

See Clarke's Trav. vol.

]65.

MaundrcU's Irav.

ii.

p.

p. 104.

578.

Adiichom.

Tlicat. icrr. sanct. p. 170-

TMV.

ORIGIN OF PAGAN IDOLATRY.

In the contest between Elijah and the priests is

of that deity, the prophet

described as addressing them in a strain of what has usually been

sidered as nothins;

Cry aloud he

503

is

in

for he

;

a journey

Now

more than severe

;

a god

is

but the force of

scured by a somewhat faulty translation.

worship of the idolatrous priests

random

but

:

is

it

mere irony; and the sense of the passage

it

knowledged

lie is

or he

talking,

is

he

;

Elijah

is

is

he

not simply ridiculing the

not taunting them, as

is

thus

such a being

urging upon them the extreme

in the place

Cry with

a

in

engaged

in travelling

for he

prqfomid meditation

;

my-

and, "ith redoubled

absurdity of venerating

or he

;

certainly be a

7?iust

god

he

:

occupied in wandering

is

is

;

either

or he

is

or perhaps he sleepeth, and must be awaked.

;

Every one of these

were, at

of the all-wise and all-powerful Jehovah.

loud voice,

wrapped

it

upon their oum ac-

with singular accuracy, the

describing,

is

much ob-

likewise

ridiculing their senseless adoration,

pi^inciples ;

is

pursuing, or

greatly impaired byes-

thological attributes of the great transmigrating father

energy, he

is

or pcradventure he sleepeth, and must beaxvaked.^'

this is doubtless irony:

teeming

ironv.

either he

:

con-

so far

particulars,

from being casually mentioned,

enters prominently into the character of the great father of gentile theology,

and was devoutly received by

During

the intermediate

votaries as a mysterious point of belief.

his

period

between each two similar worlds, he was

supposed, and throughout the east of

tlie

taticn

deluge

;

either inclosed in a wonderful egg

on the surface

float

and engaged in deep

tnedi-

on his own perfections, or reclining on some aquatic vehicle and

wrapped

in

a profound and deathlike

while the waters prevail

:

but,

new world.

ticd with

Such

hov; ever

poignant ridicule by

to those frantic

tlie

is

and

retire,

is

prophet of the true God.

civilization,

1

he continues,

he azcakes froin his slumber

manifested as the

wanderings, for which Siva

*

this state

official

creator

not the only part of his character, speci-

than Bacchus and Altis were in the west travels of conquest and

In

sleep.

when they

to the energy of reno\ ated exertion,

of a

supposed, to

is still

:

is

no

alludes also

less celebrated in the

and he

distinctly

vhich the great

Kings xviii.i7.

He

father,

east

notices those

by whatever

cn.vts. vi

504

THE ORIGIN OF PAGAN inorATRV.

name he might be distinguished, whether by that of Osiris and Dionusus or of Saturn and Buddha and Deo-Naush, was universally supposed to have achieved.

All these particulars are touched upon by Elijah in his sarcastic to the

priests of Baal.

Hence we must

poignancy, that the character of

tliat

infer,

to give

tlie

satire

address its

fall

god was the received character of the

great father.

IXD OF VOL.

n.

Los Angeles This book

APR

10

MAY 2

is

DUE oii the last date stamped below.

1961

'fHJ'D LD-URt

1961

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mi

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