A New System/Analysis of Ancient Mythology, by Jacob Bryant

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A New System, Or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology: Wherein an Attempt is Made to Divest Tradition of Fable; and to Reduce the Truth to its Original Purity
by Jacob Bryant
1775

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-- A New System, Or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology: Wherein an Attempt is Made to Divest Tradition of Fable; and to Reduce the Truth to its Original Purity, Vol. I, by Jacob Bryant, 1775, 2nd Edition

-- A New System, Or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology: Wherein an Attempt is Made to Divest Tradition of Fable; and to Reduce the Truth to its Original Purity, Vol. II, by Jacob Bryant, 1775, 2nd Edition

-- A New System, Or, An Analysis of Ancient Mythology: Wherein an Attempt is Made to Divest Tradition of Fable; and to Reduce the Truth to its Original Purity, Vol. III, by Jacob Bryant, 1776

-- Jacob Bryant [The Analyst of Ancient Mythology], by Wikipedia

-- Geographia Nubiensis, by Wikipedia

-- Jason [And the Argonauts and the Quest for the Golden Fleece], by Wikipedia

-- XXVII. A Supplement to the Essay on Indian Chronology, by the President (Sir William Jones), Asiatic Researches, Volume 2, 1788

-- Remarks on the History of the Seven Roman Kings, Occasioned by Sir Isaac Newton’s Objections to the Supposed Two Hundred and Forty-Four Years’ Duration of the Regal State of Rome, from The Roman History From the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonwealth, Illustrated with Maps, by N. Hooke, Esq., 1823

-- The Argonautica, by Apollonius Rhodius, With an English Translation by R.C. Seaton, M.A., Formerly Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, 1912

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Vol. 1, P. 434:

The Chaldeans and Persians had sacred hearths; on which they preserved a perpetual fire. In the temple of Apollo Carneus at Cyrene the fire upon the altar was never suffered to be extinguished. A like account is given by Said Ebn Batrick of the sacred fire, which was preserved in the great temple at Aderbain in Armenia. The Nubian Geographer mentions a nation in India, called Caimachitae, who had large Puratheia, and maintained a perpetual fire. According to the Levitical law, a constant fire was to be kept up upon the altar of God. The fire shall be ever burning upon the altar: it shall never go out.

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Vol. 2, P. 83-96:

SESOSTRIS.

Sesostris (Greek: Σέσωστρις) was the name of a king of ancient Egypt who, according to Herodotus, led a military expedition into parts of Europe.

In Herodotus' Histories there appears a story told by Egyptian priests about a Pharaoh Sesostris, who once led an army northward overland to Asia Minor, then fought his way westward until he crossed into Europe, where he deseated the Scythians and Thracians (possibly in modern Romania and Bulgaria). Sesostris then returned home, leaving colonists behind at the river Phasis in Colchis. Herodotus cautioned the reader that much of this story came second hand via Egyptian priests, but also noted that the Colchians were commonly believed to be Egyptian colonists.[1] ["For it is plain to see that the Colchians are Egyptians; and what I say, I myself noted before I heard it from others." Herodotus Histories 2.104.]

According to Diodorus Siculus (who calls him Sesoosis) and Strabo, he conquered the whole world, even Scythia and Ethiopia, divided Egypt into administrative districts or nomes, was a great law-giver, and introduced a caste system into Egypt and the worship of Serapis.[2] [One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Griffith, Francis Llewellyn (1911). "Sesostris". In Chisholm, Hugh (ed.). Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 24 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 701.] Herodotus also relates that when Sesostris deseated an army without much resistance he erected a pillar in their capital with a vulva on it to symbolize the fact that the army fought like women.[3] [Herodotus Histories 2.102.] Pliny the Elder also makes mention of Sesostris, who, he claims, was deseated by Saulaces, a gold-rich king of Colchis.[4] [Rackham, Harris, ed. (1938). Pliny Natural History I. Harvard University Press. p. 43.]

Herodotus describes Sesostris as the father of the blind king Pheron, who was less warlike than his father.

In Manetho's Aegyptiaca (History of Egypt), a pharaoh called "Sesostris" occupied the same position as the known pharaoh Senusret III of the Twelfth Dynasty, and his name is now usually viewed as a corruption of Senusret/Senwosret/Senwosri. In fact, he is commonly believed to be based on Senusret III, with the possible addition of memories of other namesake pharaohs of the same dynasty, as well as Seti I and Ramesses II of the much later Nineteenth Dynasty.[5] [Silverman, David P., Ancient Egypt, Oxford University Press (5 Jun 2003), p. 29 ] [2]

The images of Sesostris carved in stone in Ionia which Herodotus said he had seen[6] ["Most of the memorial pillars which King Sesostris erected in conquered countries have disappeared, but I have seen some myself in Palestine with the inscription I mentioned and the drawing of a woman's genitals. In Ionia also there are two images of Sesostris cut on rock, one on the road from Ephesos to Phocaea, the other between Sardis and Smyrna; in each case the carved figure is nearly seven feet high and represents a man with a spear in his right hand and a bow in his lest, and the rest of his equipment to match – partly Egyptian, partly Ethiopian." Herodotus II.106.] are likely to be identified with the Luwian inscriptions of Karabel Pass, the Karabel relief, now known to have been carved by Tarkasnawa, king of the Arzawan rump state of Mira.[7] [ "Hittite Monuments - Karabel". ] The kings of the Eighteenth and Nineteenth dynasties were the greatest conquerors that Egypt ever produced, and their records are clear[2] on the limits of Egyptian expansion. Senusret III raided into the Levant as far as Shechem,[8] [Aldred, Cyril (1987). The Egyptians (second ed.). Thames and Hudson. p. 130.] also into Ethiopia, and at Semna above the second cataract set up a stela of conquest that in its expressions recalls the stelae of Sesostris in Herodotus: Sesostris may, therefore, be the highly magnified portrait of this Pharaoh.[2]

-- Sesostris, by Wikipedia

AMONG the writers, who have written concerning this extraordinary personage, Diodorus Siculus is the most uniform and full; and with his evidence I will begin my account. He1 [Diodorus Sicul. L. I. p. 49.] informs us, that, when this prince was a youth, he was intrusted by his father with a great army. He upon this invaded Arabia: and though he was obliged to encounter hunger and thirst in the wilds, which he traversed; yet he subdued the whole of that large tract of country. He was afterwards sent far into the west; where he conquered all the regions of Lybia, and annexed great part of that country to the kingdom of Egypt. After the death of his father he formed a resolution to subdue all the nations upon earth. Accordingly having settled every thing at home, and appointed governors to each province, he set out with an army of six hundred thousand foot, and twenty four thousand horse, and twenty seven thousand armed chariots. With these he invaded the Ethiopians to the south; whom he deseated and made tributaries to Egypt. He then built a fleet of ships upon the Red Sea: and he is recorded as the first person, who constructed vessels fit for distant navigation. With these by means of his generals he subdued all the sea-coast of Arabia, and all the coast upon the ocean as far as India. In the mean time he marched in person with a puissant army by land, and conquered the whole continent of Asia. He not only overran the countries, which Alexander afterwards invaded; but crossed both the Indus, and the Ganges; and from thence penetrated to the eastern ocean. He then turned to the north, and attacked the nations of Scythia; till he at last arrived at the Tanais, which divides Europe and Asia. Here he founded a colony: leaving behind him some of his people, as he had just before done at2 [See Apollon. Argonaut. L. 4. v. 277. and Herodot. L. 2. C. 102. Syncellus. p. 59, 60.] Colchis. These nations are said to the last to have retained memorials of their original from Egypt. About the same time Asia Minor, and most of the islands near it, fell into his hands. He at last passed into3 [Diodorus Sicul. above. He was near Iosing his whole army.] Thrace, where he is said to have been brought into some difficulties. He however persisted, and subdued all the regions of Europe. In most of these countries he erected pillars with hieroglyphical inscriptions; denoting that these parts of the world had been subdued by the great Sesostris, or, as4 [[x] Diodor. Sicul. ibid.] Diodorus expresses his name, Sesoosis. He likewise erected statues of himself, formed of stone, with a bow and a lance: which statues were in length four cubits and four palms, according to the dimensions of his own height and stature. Having thus finished his career of5 [He passed through all Ethiopia to the Cinnamon country. Strabo. L. 17. p. 1138. This must be Indica Ethiopia, and the island Scran-Dive. Hence came Cinnamon: here were [x]. Venit ad occasum, mundique extrema Sesosoris. [Google translate: He came to the west, and to the end of the world.] Lucan. L. 10. v. 276. ] victory, he returned laden with spoils to Egypt, after an absence of6 [[x]. Syncellus. p. 59. Some make him advance farther, and conquer all Europe: [x] Herodotus thinks that he did not proceed farther than Thrace. L. 2. C. 103.] nine years; which is one year less, than was attributed to the expeditions of Hercules.

The detail given by this historian is very plain and precise: and we proceed very regularly and minutely in a geographical series from one conquest to another: so that the story is rendered in some degree plausible, But we may learn from Diodorus himself, that little credit is to be paid to this narration, after all the pains he may have taken to win upon our credulity. He ingenuously owns, that not only the Grecian writers, but even the priests of Egypt, and the bards of the same country, varied in the accounts, which they gave of this hero; and were guilty of great inconsistence. It was therefore his chief labour to collect what he thought most credible, and what appeared most consonant to the memorials in Egypt, which time had spared:7 [Diodorus Sicul, L. I. p. 49.] [x]. But, as these memorials consisted chiefly in hieroglyphics, I do not see how it was possible for Diodorus to understand, what the bards and priests could not decipher. The adjustment of this history, had it been practicable, should have been the work of a native Egyptian, and not of a person either from Greece, or Sicily. This writer afterwards mentions the mighty8 [Of all the great actions of Sesostris, see Marsham. Can. Chron. Sec. 14. p. 354.] works of Sesostris upon his return into Egypt: the temples, which he built, and the great entrenchments, which he made to the east, to guard the country from the Arabians: and having enumerated the whole of his actions, he concludes with an ingenuous consession, that9 [[x]. Diodor. Sicul. L. I. p. 52.] little could be obtained, that was precisely true. He has without doubt culled the most probable achievements of this hero; and coloured and arranged them to the best advantage: yet they still exceed belief. And if after this care and disposition they seem incredible, how would they appear in the garb, in which he found them? Yet the history of this personage has been admitted as credible by the most learned10 [Sir John Marsham's Can. Chron. Sec. 14. p. 354. Sir Isaac Newton's Chronology. p. 217.] writers and chronologists: though, as I before mentioned, they cannot determine the aera of his reign within a thousand years. Sir John Marsham and Sir Isaac Newton suppose him to have been the Sesac of the scriptures; and consequently bring his reign down to the time of Rehoboam king of Judah. But the only reason for this, as far as I can perceive, seems to be, that Sesostris is represented as a great conqueror; and Sesac is presumed from his large11 [I Kings. C. 14. v. 25, 26. And it came to pass, that in the sisth year of king Rehoboam Shishak king of Egypt came up against Jerusalem (because they had transgressed against the Lord); with twelve hundred chariots: and threescore thousand horsemen; and the people were without number, that came with him out of Egypt; the Lubims, the Sukkiims, and the Ethiopians. 2. Chron, c. 12. v. 2, 3.] army to have been so likewise. But there is nothing more said of Sesac, than that he formed a plan of conquering the king of Judah; and accordingly came with the army beforementioned, to put his design in execution. But the12 [[x]. Joseph. Antiq. L. 8. C. 10.] capital being delivered into his hands without the least resistance, and the king intirely submitting himself to his will; he contented himself with the rich plunder, which he found, and which he carried away at his departure. We may also infer from the servitude, to which the people of Judah were reduced, that he imposed upon them some future contributions. This is the whole of the history of Sesac, or Shishak: by whom no other expedition was undertaken that we know of: nor is there mention made upon record of a single battle, which he fought. Yet from a notion that Sesac was a great warrior, he is made the same as Sesostris: and the age of the latter is brought down very many centuries beneath the aera, to which the best writers have adjudged it. When we differ from received tradition, we should not pass over in silence what is said on the contrary part; but give it at large, and then shew our reasons for our departure from it. I have taken notice of the supposed conquerors of the earth: and among them of the reputed deities of Egypt, who came under the names of Osiris, Perseus, Thoules, &c. These are supposed, if they ever existed, to have lived in the first ages of the world, when Egypt was in its infant state: and Sesostris is made one of their number. He is by some placed after Orus; by others after Thoules; but still referred to the first ages. He is represented under the name of Sethos,13 [Sethosis of Josephus contra Apion. L. I. p. 447.] Sethosis, Sesoosis, Sesonchosis, Sesostris; but the history, with which these names are accompanied, shews plainly the identity of the personage. Eusebius in reckoning up the dynasty of kings, who reigned after Hephaistus or Vulcan, mentions them in the following order:14 [Euseb. Chron. p. 7. 1. 43. [x].] Then succeeded his son Helius; after him Sosis, then Osiris, then Orus, then Thoules, who conquered the whole earth to the ocean; and last of all Sesostris. The15 [[x] Schol. in Apollon. Argonaut. L. 4. v. 272.] Scholiast upon Apollonius Rhodius calls him Sesonchosis; and places him immediately after Orus, and the third in succession from Osiris: giving at the same time an account of his conquests. He adds that he was the person, whom Theopompus called Sesostris. The same Scholiast quotes a curious passage from Dicaearchus, in which Sesonchosis maintains the same rank, and was consequently of the highest antiquity.16 [[x]. Schol. in Apollon. Argonaut, ibid.] Dicasarchus in the first book of his history mentions, that immediately after the reign of Orus, the son of Isis and Osiris, in Egypt, the government devolved to Sesonchosis: so that from the time of Sesonchosis to Nilus were two thousand years. Cedrenus17 [Cedrenus. V. I. p. 20. Osiris, Orus, Thoules, Sesostris.] calls him Sesostris; and mentions him after Osiris, and Orus, and Thoules; which last was by the above writer omitted. [x] The author of the Chronicon Paschale makes Orus to have been succeeded by the same personage, as is mentioned above, whom he calls Thoulis; and next to him introduces Sesostris. He relates all his great conquests; and gives us this farther information, that this prince was the first of the line of Ham, who reigned in Egypt: in other words, he was the first king of the country.18 [Succeeded by [x]. Chron. Pasch. p. 48.] [x]19 [Joannes Antiochenus has borrowed the same history, and calls this king Sostris. [x]. p. 28. He adds, that Sostris, or Sesostris, lived in the time of Hermes, [x]. He was succeeded by Pharaoh, [x], the first of the name. Ibid. Herodotus calls him Pheron, and Pherona. L. 2. C. 111.]. Aristotle speaks of Sesostris; but does not determine the time of his reign on account of its great antiquity. He only says that it was Iong before the age of20 [[x]. Politic. L. 7. C. 10.] Minos, who was supposed to have reigned in Crete. Apollonius Rhodius, who is thought to have been a native of Egypt, speaks of the great actions of this prince; but mentions no name: not knowing, I imagine, by which properly to distinguish him, as he was represented under so many. He however attributes to him every thing, which is said of21 [Apollon. Argonaut. L. 4. v. 272. [x]. Schol. ibid. [x]. Schol. ibid. Lycophron speaks of Apollo [x], and a promontory[x]. Schol. ad v. 1278.] Sesostris; particularly the settling a colony at Colchis, and building innumerable cities in the countries, which he traversed:

[x]

He represents him as conquering all Asia and Europe; and this in times so remote, that many of the cities, which he built, were in ruins before the aera of the Argonauts.

From what has been said, we may perceive that, if such a person as Sesostris had existed, his reign must have been of the earliest date. He is by some represented as succeeding Thoules: according to others he comes one degree higher, being introduced after22 [Schol. Apollon. L. 4. v. 272. Syncellus joins him with Serapis. p. 91.] Orus, who in the catalogue of Panodorus is placed first of the Demigods, that reigned in Egypt; but by23 [Herodotus. L. 2. C. 144. [x]. Apolbn. L. 4. v. 261. See the whole, and Schol. ibid.] Herodotus is ranked among the deities. According to Dicaearchus the reign of Sesostris was two thousand five hundred years before Nilus: and the reign of the latter was four hundred and thirty-six years before the first Olympiad. I do not place the least considence in these computations; but would only shew from them that the person spoken of must be referred to the mythic age, to the aera of the Demigods of Egypt. Some of these evidences are taken notice of by Sir John24 [Canon. Chronic. Sec. 10. p. 238, 239.] Marsham; who cannot extricate himself from the difficulties, with which his system is attended. He has taken for granted, that Sesostris and Seconchosis are the Sesac of the Scriptures; though every circumstance of their history is repugnant to that notion.25 [Quis igitur Sesonchosis ille, qui, Menen antevertens annis amplius 5000, inter Semideos Iocum habere videatur? Marsham. Canon. Chronic. Sec. 10. p. 238. Sesostris in XII. Africani Dynastia (quae Eusebiani Canonis epocham antevertit) ex Scaligeri calculis regnavit anno Per. Jul. 1392: quo ratiocinio Sesostris factus est annos 2355 ipso Sesostre senior. Nam ex S. literis (suo Ioco) apparebit, Sesostrim expeditionem suscepisse in Asiam, et Hierosolyma cepisse Anno Per. Jul. 3747. Ibid. p. 239. [ Google translate: Who then is Sesonchosis, who, while Menes predisposes for more than 5,000 years, is among the Seems to have a place for demigods? Marsham. Canon Chronic. &c. 10. p. 238 Sesostris in XII. The African Dynasty (which preceded the epoch in the Canon of Eusebius) during the reign of Scaliger. Jul. 1392: by what reason was Sesostris made he is 2355 years older than Sesostre himself. For from the letters S. (in its place) will appear, Sesostris that he had undertaken an expedition into Asia, and had taken Jerusalem during the year. Jul. 3747. Ibid. p. 239.]] I know not, says he, what to make of this Sesonchosis; who is represented as five thousand years before Menes, and who is referred to the time of the Demigods. In another place: Sesostris, who is in the twelfth Dynasty of Africanus, and whose aera extends higher, than the Canon of Eusebius reaches, reigned according to Scaliger's computation in the 1392d year of the Julian Period. By this calculation Sesostris is made prior to Sesostris; and this too by no less than 2355 years: for it is manifest, as I will shew from Scripture, that Sesostris undertook his expedition into Asia, and got possession of Jerusalem in the 3747th year of the Period abovementioned. What is said in the sacred writings, I have taken notice of before. Not a word occurs about Sesostris, nor of any such Asiatic expedition. I am obliged to say, that through the whole of this learned writer's process, instead of a proof, we find nothing else but the question begged, and some inferences of his own in consequence of this assumption. He indeed quotes the authority of Manethon from Josephus, to prove that the great actions of Sesostris were the same as were performed by Sesac. But Manethon says no such thing: nor does Josephus attribute any such exploits to Sesac: but expressly says more than once, that Sesac, and Sesostris were two different26 [Antiq. L. 8. C. 10. p. 449 and 450.] persons. It is no where said of Sesac, that he made an expedition into Asia; much less that he conquered it, as is supposed of Sesostris. Sesac went up against Jerusalem, and took it, [x], without meeting with any opposition. Upon this he departed, and carried with him the treasures, which he had there seized: in other words, he went home again. There is not the least mention made of his invading27 [He came merely as a consederate to Jeroboam, in favour of the kingdom of Israel; and his intention was to ruin Judah: but his cruel purpose was averted by the voluntary submission both of the king and people; and by the treasures they gave up to him, which were the purchase of their security.] Samaria, or the country about Libanus, and Sidon; or of his marching to Syria: all which made but a small part of the great Continent, called in after-times Asia: much less did he visit the countries of the Assyrians, and Babylonians; or the regions of Elam and the Medes. All this, and much more he must have done, to have come up to the character, to which they would fain entitle him.

I will not enter into any further discussion of the great conquests attributed to this supposed monarch Sesostris. They are as ideal as those of Sesac, and sufficiently confute themselves. First Osiris is said to have conquered the whole earth: then Zeus, then Perseus, then28 [Hercules is said to have commanded the armies of Osiris. Diodorus Sicul. L. I. p. 15.] Hercules, all nearly of the same degree of antiquity, if we may believe the best Mythologies. Myrina comes in for a share of conquest in the time of Orus. After her Thoules subdues the whole from the Eastern Ocean, to the great Atlantic: and as if nothing had been performed before, Sesostris immediately succeeds, and conquers it over again.29 [L. 2. C. 1 06. Concerning the interpretation of these emblems, see Joan. Pierii Hieroglyph. L. 34. C. 20.] Herodotus informs us, as a token of these victories, that Sesostris erected pillars and obelisks with emblematical inscriptions: and that he saw some of them in Phrygia, and in other countries, which had been conquered. He without doubt saw pillars: but how did he know for certain, by whom they were erected? and who taught him to interpret the symbols? Pausanias takes30 [Pausan. L. 1. p. 101. The statue remains to this day. In like manner it was reported that Dionusus raised pillars. Strabo. L. 3. p. 260. [x]. Dionys. Perieg. v. 623. Hercules erected the like. All which was done by people styled Dionysians and Herculeans.] notice of a colossal statue in the Thebais, and says that the history given of it was not satisfactory. He tells us, that it stood near the Syringes, in upper Egypt; and he viewed it with great admiration. It was the figure of a man in a sitting posture; which some said was the representation of Memnon the Ethiopian: others maintained, that it was the statue of Phamenophis: and others again, that it related to Sesostris. There were here emblems, and symbols; yet a diversity of opinions. I want therefore to know, how Herodotus could interpret in Phrygia, what a native could not decipher in Egypt. The same question may be asked about the people of Syria, among whom were obelisks attributed to the same person. How came they to be so determinate about an Egyptian work; when people of that country in the same circumstances were so utterly at a Ioss? the whole undoubtedly was matter of surmise. I shall not therefore say any thing more of Sesostris; as I must again speak of him, when I come to the kings of Egypt.

If we compare the above histories, we may perceive that they bear a manifest similitude to one another; though they are attributed to different persons. They contain accounts of great achievements in the first ages: in effecting which these ancient heroes are represented as traversing immense regions, and carrying their arms to the very limits of the known world: the great Tartarian ocean to the east, and the Atlantic westward, being the boundaries of their travel. Some of them seem to have been of the same age; and to have carried on these conquests at nearly the same time: and those, whose aera may possibly differ, have this in common with the others; that they visit the same countries, march for the most part by the same rout; and are often joined by the same allies, and are followed by the like attendants. They are in general esteemed benefactors, wherever they go: and carry the sciences with them, as well as their religious rites; in which they instruct the natives in different parts of the world. These are to be sure noble occurrences; which however could not possibly have happened, as they are represented above. It is not to be supposed, that any person in those early ages, or in any age, could go over such a tract of country; much less that he should subdue it. It is still more improbable, that such extensive conquests should be so immediately repeated: and that they should in some instances be carried on by different people at nearly the same time. They, who speak of mighty empires being founded in those early days, know little of true history; and have formed a very wrong judgment of the politics, which then universally prevailed. The whole earth, as far as we can learn, was divided into little coordinate states: every city seems to have been subservient to its own Judge and Ruler, and independent of all others. In the land of31 [Joshua. c. 12. v. 24. Adonibezek had threescore and ten vassal princes at his feet; if the headsman of every village may be so called. Judges c. 1. v. 7.] Canaan thirty-one kings were subdued by Joshua, between Jordan and the sea: and some were still left by him unconquered. In those days, says the learned Marsham, quot urbes, tot regna [Google translate: how many cities, so many kingdoms.]. The like was for many ages afterwards observable in Greece, as well as in Latium, Samnium, and Hetruria. A powerful enemy made Egypt unite under one head: and the necessities of the people in a time of dearth served to complete that system. The Israelites, too, when settled in Canaan, formed a large kingdom. Excepting these two nations we know of none of any considerable extent, that were thus united. The32 [Benhadad of Damascus was attended with thirty-two kings, when he invaded Samaria, I. Kings, c. 20. v. 1.] Syrians and the Philistim were in separate states, and under different governors. The kingdoms of Nineve and Babylonia consisted each of one mighty city, with its environs; in which were perhaps included some subordinate villages. They were properly walled33 [The people plowed, and sowed, and had fruits, and pastures, within their walls,] Provinces: and the inhabitants were in a state of rest for ages. The Assyrian did not till about seven hundred years before Christ, begin to contend for dominion, and make acquisition of territory: and we may form a judgment, from what he then 34 [2 Kings, C. 17. v. 6. and C. 18. v. 11. and v. 34. Isaiah. C. 10. v. 9. C. 37. v. 13.] gained, of what he was possessed before. The cities Hala, Habor, Haran in Mesopotamia, with Carchemish upon the Euphrates, were his first conquests: to these he added the puny states Ina Iva, and Sepharvaim upon the same river. He then proceeded to Hamath, Damascus, and other cities of Syria; and at last came to Samaria. The line of conquest points out the rout, which he took; and shews that there were in Mesopotamia numberless little states, independent of Babylon and Nineve, though in their immediate vicinity. Consequently the notion of the extent, dominion, and antiquity of those monarchies, as delivered by Ctesias and others, is intirely void of truth. The conquests likewise of those Heroes and Demigods, who are made coeval with the supposed foundations of those monarchies, must be equally groundless. To say the truth, the very personages are ideal, and have been formed out of the titles of the Deity: and the history, with which they are attended, related not to conquest, but to peregrinations of another nature; to colonies, which went abroad, and settled in the countries mentioned. The Ancients, as I have repeatedly said, have given to a person, what related to a people: and if we make this small allowance, the history will be found in great measure true.

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Part 1 of 3

Vol. 2, P. 193-250:

OF THE DELUGE, AND THE Memorials thereof in the Gentile World.

The history of the Deluge, as it is transmitted to us by Moses, may appear short and concise; yet abounds with matter: and affords us a thorough insight into the most material circumstances, with which that calamity was attended. There seems to have been a great convulsion in nature, insomuch that all flesh died, eight persons only being saved: and the means of their deliverance were so wonderful, that very lasting impressions must have been left upon their minds, after they had survived the fearful event. The sacred writer [Moses] has moreover given us the reasons, why it pleased God to bring this flood upon the world, to the destruction of the work of his hands.1 [Genes. c. 6. v. 11. &c.]

IV. The Rise of Catastrophism

If there is one mind that deserves to rank between the great astronomical geniuses of the seventeenth century and Charles Darwin in the nineteenth, it is James Hutton. Though he is spoken of in histories of science as the founder of historical geology, the public has never known his name as it knows that of Newton and Darwin. He discovered an intangible thing against which the human mind had long armored itself. He discovered, in other words, time -- time boundless and without end, the time of the ancient Easterners -- but in this case demonstrated by the very stones of the world, by the dust and the clay over which the devout passed to their places of worship. And James Hutton reaped the rewards of that discovery -- animus and charges of heresy -- or, even more bitter, silence and disdain. If it had not been for his devoted friend and follower John Playfair, he might have suffered the fate of Mendel half a century later and been totally, if temporarily, forgotten. Even as it is, one cannot help feeling that this sad, long face which gazes remotely out of the single portrait that has come down to us already has weighed human fame against the forces that waste continents into oblivion and turned away from man to some nobler inner source of serenity. It is the face of one who has looked so far that man has ceased to interest him, save as one might turn to glance at a strange bird on a pleasant morning stroll.

Up to this point we have been primarily occupied with those who had been investigating the living world and the possible signs of animal transformation and gradation which could be observed there. Before Hutton's contribution can be properly assayed, however, it will be necessary to grasp what geological theory of the earth was held in Hutton's time. As one might have been led to suspect, it represented a compromise between the Biblical account of creation and the slowly growing observations of science. By the end of the eighteenth century catastrophism, as it came to be called, was the orthodox and accepted view of geology upon the past history of the earth.

This catastrophic or cataclysmic geology has two versions, one of which succeeded the other, but both, because of a slowly increasing public awareness of fossils, were forced to take some account of stratigraphy and thus of time. The name of Abraham Werner, a German geologist, is associated with the first version and that of Georges Cuvier, the French paleontologist, with the second. In Hutton's day it was the theories of Werner to which he found himself opposed. This "Neptunist" hypothesis accounted for the stratification of the earth's crust by the assumption that all the layers of rock had been precipitated out of a turbid universal sea which had once covered the entire planet. The primitive azoic rocks had been the first to be laid down, but had been shortly followed by the deposition of other materials containing fossils indicating a successive creation of forms of life. As the waters receded (where, no one was able satisfactorily to explain), advanced forms of mammalian life appeared. Gillispie has pointed out [11] that the scheme had a certain theological appeal because, depending upon one's beliefs, one could either claim a rapid or a slow succession of the Biblical "days of creation." In any case the appearance of life seemed to follow the order given in Genesis and to end with man.

The second catastrophic doctrine which gained public attention shortly after Hutton's death and for a time totally submerged his theories is associated primarily with the name of Cuvier -- although Cuvier never urged successive creations but only migrations of fauna into new regions laid waste by geological upheaval. Catastrophism, so far as its biological aspect is concerned, is essentially a device to preserve the leading tenets of Christian theology and at the same time to give these doctrines a scientific cast. It preserves the assumption of special creation by assuming, instead of the one Biblical event, a multiple series of creations taking place successively in distinct geological epochs. It also, by implication, accepts the Noachian Deluge as the last in a series of tremendous upheavals or catastrophes which have separated one world of prehistoric life from another. At the close of each such revolution life was supposed to be created anew. As the progressive organic advancement in the rocks became better known and read, it was assumed that this stair of life, which was analogous with the Scale of Being in the living world, pointed on prophetically toward man who was assumed to be the goal of the process of creation.

It will thus be seen that there was a powerful supernatural element in this conception which was actually enhanced in early nineteenth-century England. We must be careful to remember, however, that at the time Hutton wrote his Theory of the Earth in 1785 this "progressionist" aspect of catastrophism was by no means fully elaborated. It would reach its culmination only after the contents of the stratified earth became better known.

Peculiarly enough, French catastrophism seems to have arisen out of one of the earliest attempts to avoid supernaturalism in accounting for the past history of the globe. As we have earlier remarked, ideas of cosmic evolution were current in the mid-eighteenth century, mostly having derived from Descartes, and they thus achieved great popularity in France. Buffon in his Theorie de la Terre (1749) attempted to trace the history of our planet from the time when its substance escaped from the sun, through the successive "epochs of nature." He recognized that parallel strata "were not formed in an instant, but were gradually produced by successive sediments," and in spite of a greatly underestimated time scale, he recognized that erosion in its many forms "produced continual changes, which, in a succession of ages, become considerable. "Insensible changes, he came to believe, may over long time periods "cause very great revolutions."

The word "revolution," as Dr. Tomkeieff pointed out a few years ago, meant to Buffon largely great changes and not the world-wide catastrophic upheavals into which it was soon to be translated. [12] Allowing for the state of information at the time he wrote, there is actually a Huttonian cast to Buffon's writing. By contrast, in the days following the French Revolution, Buffon's successor Cuvier gave a genuinely dramatic interpretation to the "revolutions" of the globe. Yet if one studies Buffon's use of the term one can see that he uses it variously as a synonym for change. The work of rivers, for example, he speaks of as inducing very slow "revolutions," whereas a volcanic outburst may produce quick alterations of the landscape. Cuvier, however, because of his work with fossil vertebrates in the Paris Basin was becoming far more conscious of the problem of extinction than his predecessors. Also, working as he was with vertebrates in which it was not easy to trace continuous evolutionary change, he seems to have drawn from Buffon, whom he admired, a somewhat reinterpreted and elaborated series of epochs succeeded in each instance by world catastrophes. After each of these epochs a new fauna and flora were assumed to have appeared.

Although Cuvier himself left open the question of the origin of the new fauna it was not long before pure catastrophism was the reigning geological view. The last cataclysm was assumed to be represented by the Biblical deluge. The earlier epochs of life were generally regarded as equating figuratively with the days of creation. An enormous literature arose upon the subject and some writers projected over a score of successive creations and extinctions all based upon local disconformities of strata which were erroneously assumed to be world wide. The religious appeal of this system, particularly in the days of the conservative English reaction against the French Revolution, was bound to make it widely popular. It accounted for extinct animals and at the same time preserved the essential foundations of contemporary religious belief.

-- Darwin's Century: Evolution and the Men Who Discovered It, by Loren Eiseley

The earth was corrupt before God; and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and behold, it was corrupt: for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them: and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of Gopher wood. -- And this is the fashion, which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above: and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof. -- Thus did Noah: according to all that God commanded him, so did he. --2 [Genes. c. 7. v. 7.] And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. -- 3 [ Genes. c. 7. v. 11. &c.] In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. In the self same day entered Noah, &c. -- And they went in unto Noah into the ark two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth: and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. '--4 [Genes. c. 7. v. 21, &c.] And all flesh died, that moved upon the earth -- All, in whose nostrils was the breath of life -- And every living substance was destroyed. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Amēn, I say unto you: For the sake of the race of men, because it is material, I have torn myself asunder and brought unto them all the mysteries of the Light, that I may purify them, for they are the refuse of the whole matter of their matter; else would no soul of the total race of men have been saved, and they would not be able to inherit the kingdom of the Light, if I had not brought unto them the purifying mysteries....

For this cause, therefore, herald to the whole race of men, saying: Cease not to seek day and night, until ye find the purifying mysteries; and say unto the race of men: Renounce the whole world and the whole matter therein. For he who buyeth and selleth in the world and he who eateth and drinketh of its matter and who liveth in all its cares and in all its associations, amasseth other additional matters to the rest of his matter, because this whole world and all therein and all its associations are material refuse [pl.], and they will make enquiry of every one concerning his purity.

For this cause, therefore, I have said unto you aforetime: Renounce the whole world and the whole matter therein, that ye may not amass other additional matter to the rest of your matter in you. For this cause, therefore, herald it to the whole race of men, saying: Renounce the whole world and all its associations, that ye may not amass additional matter to the rest of your matter in you; and say unto them: Cease not to seek day and night and remit not yourselves until ye find the purifying mysteries which will purify you and make you into a refined light, so that ye will go on high and inherit the light of my kingdom.

-- Pistis Sophia: A Gnostic Miscellany, Translated by G.R.S. Mead, 1921

We find from the above, that the Patriarch and his family were inclosed in an ark, or covered float; wherein there was only one window of a cubit in dimensions. This was of small proportion in respect to the bulk of the machine, which was above five hundred feet in length. It was moreover closed up, and fastened: so that the persons within were consigned to darkness: having no light, but what must have been administered to them from Iamps and torches. They therefore could not have been eye-witnesses to the general caIamity of mankind. They did not see the mighty eruption of waters, nor the turbulence of the seas: when the fountains of the great deep were broken up. Yet the crash of mountains and the noise of the cataracts could not but have sounded in their ears: and possibly the cries of people may have reached them; when families and nations were overwhelming in the floods. The motion too of the ark must have been very violent at this tempestuous season: all which added to the gloom, and uncertainty, in which they were involved, could not but give them many fearful sensations; however they may have relied on Providence, and been upheld by the hand of Heaven. We find that the machine, in which they were secured, is termed Thebah, an ark, or chest. It was of such a model and construction as plainly indicated, that it was never designed to be managed, or directed by the hands of men. And it seems to have been the purpose of Providence throughout to signify to those, who were saved, as well as to their latest posterity, that their preservation was not in any degree effected by human means.

After this the sacred historian [Moses] proceeds to inform us, that5 [Genes. c. 8. v. i, &c.]

God remembered Noah, and every living thing, that was with him in the ark: that the fountains of the deep, and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. -- 6 [Genes. c. 8. v. 4, &c.] And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark, which he had made: And he sent forth a raven; which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground: But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot; and she returned unto him into the ark. -- And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark: And the dove came in to him in the evening; and lo, in her mouth was an olive-leaf pluckt off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. -- And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of the ark. And Noah went forth, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him. And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt-offerings on the altar.

These are the principal circumstances in this wonderful occurrence; which I have produced in the words of the divine historian [Moses], that I might not do injury to his narration: and they are of such a nature, as, one might well imagine, would be long had in remembrance. We may reasonably suppose, that the particulars of this extraordinary event would be gratefully commemorated by the Patriarch himself; and transmitted to every branch of his family: that they were made the subject of domestic converse; where the history was often renewed, and ever attended with a reverential awe and horror: especially in those who had been witnesses to the caIamity, and had experienced the hand of Providence in. their favour. In process of time, when there was a falling off from the truth, we might further expect that a person of so high a character as Noah, so particularly distinguished by the Deity, could not fail of being reverenced by his posterity: and, when idolatry prevailed, that he would be one of the first among the sons of men, to whom divine honours would be paid. Lastly, we might conclude that these memorials would be interwoven in the mythology of the Gentile world: and that there would be continually allusions to these ancient occurrences in the rites and mysteries; as they were practised by the nations of the earth. In conformity to these suppositions I shall endeavour to shew, that these things did happen: That the history of the deluge was religiously preserved in the first ages: That every circumstance of it is to be met with among the historians and mythologists of different countries: and traces of it are to be particularly found in the sacred rites of Egypt, and of Greece.

It will appear from many circumstances in the more ancient writers, that the great Patriarch [Noah] was highly reverenced by his posterity. They looked up to him as a person peculiarly favoured by heaven; and honoured him with many titles; each of which had a reference to some particular part of his history. They styled him Prometheus, Deucalion, Atlas, Theuth, Zuth, Xuthus, Inachus, Osiris. When there began to be a tendency towards idolatry; and the adoration of the Sun was introduced by the posterity of Ham; the title of Helius among others was conferred upon him. They called him also [x], and [x], which is the Moon; the secret meaning of which name I shall hereafter shew. When colonies went abroad, many took to themselves the title of Minyadae and Minyae from him; just as others were denominated Achaemenidae, Auritae, Heliadae, from the Sun. People of the former name are to be found in Arabia, and in other parts of the world. The natives at Orchomenos were styled Minyae; as were also some of the inhabitants of Thessaly. It was the ancient name of the Arcadians, interpreted 7 [[x]. Schol. in Apollon. Rhod. L. 4. v. 264.] [x], Lunares: but grew obsolete. Noah was the original [x], Zeus, and Dios. He was the planter of the vine, and the inventer of8 [[x]. Diod. Sic. L. I. p. 11. [x]. Diod. Sic. L. 3. p. 207. [x]. Theophil. ad Autolyc. L. 2. p. 370.] fermented liquors: whence he was denominated Zeuth, which signifies ferment; rendered [x], Zeus, by the Greeks. He was also9 [[x]. Tzetzes Chil. 10. Hist. 335.] Dionusos, interpreted by the Latines Bacchus, but very improperly. Bacchus was Chus, the grandson of Noah; as Ammon may be in general esteemed Ham, so much reverenced by the Egyptians.

As many of these terms were titles, they were not always uniformly adapted: nor were the ancients confident in their mythology. But nothing has produced greater confusion in these ancient histories, than that fatal turn in the Greeks of reducing every unknown term to some word, with which they were better acquainted. In short, they could not rest, till they had formed every thing by their own idiom; and made every nation speak the language of Greece. Among the people of the east the true name of the Patriarch [Noah] was preserved: they called him Noas, Naus, and sometimes contracted, Nous: and many places of sanctity, and many rivers were denominated from him. Anaxagoras of Clazomenae had been in Egypt; and had there obtained some knowledge of this personage. He spoke of him by the name of Noas or Nous; and both he and his disciples were sensible that it was a foreign appellation: yet he has well nigh ruined the whole of a very curious history, which he had been taught, by taking the terms in a wrong acceptation, and then making inferences in consequence of this abuse.10 [Euseb. Hist. Synagoge. p. 374. What is rendered [x], should be expressed [x] or [x].] [x]

The disciples of Anaxagoras say, that Nous is by interpretation the Deity Dis, or Dios: and they call Athena, Art or Science -- They likewise esteem Nous the same as11 [Eusebius in another place mentions [x]. Chron. Can. p. 103. [x]. Macrob. Saturnal. L. i. c. 18. [x]. Hesych.] Prometheus.

He then proceeds to inform us, why they looked upon Nous to have been Prometheus:

because he was the renewer of mankind; and was said, [x]; to have fashioned them again,

after that they had been in a manner extinct. All this is to be inferred from the words above. But the author, while he is giving this curious account, starts aside; and forgetting that he is confessedly treating of a foreign term, recurs to his own language; and from thence frames a solution of the story. He tells us that Nous, which he had been speaking of as a proper name, was after all a Grecian term, [x] the mind: that

the mind was Prometheia; and Prometheus was said to renew mankind, from new forming their minds; and leading them by cultivation from ignorance to12 [Fulgentius says the same from Apollophanes, c. 2. p. 628. Apollophanes in sacro carmine scribit Saturnum quasi sacrum [x]; [x] enim Graece sensus dicitur: aut fatorem [Google translate: Apollophanes in he writes in a sacred poem that Saturn is as sacred. For in Greek the sense is said or the godfather.] [x].] knowledge.

Thus have the Greeks by their affectation continually ruined history: and the reader may judge, how difficult it is to see the truth through the mist, with which it is environed.

The matter-moving Nous, the animating Soul, immanent in every atom, manifested in man, latent in the stone, has different degrees of power; and this pantheistic idea of a general Spirit-Soul pervading all Nature is the oldest of all the philosophical notions. Nor was the Archaeus a discovery of Paracelsus nor of his pupil Van Helmont; for it is again the same Archaeus or “Father-Ether,” — the manifested basis and source of the innumerable phenomena of life — localised. The whole series of the numberless speculations of this kind are but variations on this theme, the keynote of which was struck in this primeval Revelation.

-- The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy, by Helena P. Blavatsky, 1888

One would imagine, that Homer had an eye to this fatality in his countrymen, when he made the following pathetic excIamation:

13 [Hom. Odyss. Y. V. 351.] [x]

Near the temple of Eleusinian Damater in Arcadia, were two vast stones, called Petroma: one of which was erect; and the other was laid over, and inserted into the former. There was a hollow place in the upper stone, with a lid to it. In this among other things was kept a kind of mask, which was thought to represent the countenance of Damater, to whom these stones were sacred. I mention this circumstance, because there was a notion among the Pheneatae, who were the inhabitants of this district, that the Goddess came into these parts in an age very remote, even before the days of Naos, or Noah.14 [Pausan. L. S. p. 630. [x] is certainly a transposition for [x], Noah.] [x]

The Eleusinian Mysteries were initiations held every year for the cult of Demeter and Persephone based at the Panhellenic Sanctuary of Eleusis in ancient Greece. They are the "most famous of the secret religious rites of ancient Greece". Their basis was an old agrarian cult, and there is some evidence that they were derived from the religious practices of the Mycenean period. The Mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases: the descent (loss), the search, and the ascent, with the main theme being the ascent (ἄνοδος) of Persephone and the reunion with her mother. It was a major festival during the Hellenic era, and later spread to Rome. Similar religious rites appear in the agricultural societies of Near East and in Minoan Crete.

The rites, ceremonies, and beliefs were kept secret and consistently preserved from antiquity. For the initiated, the rebirth of Persephone symbolized the eternity of life which flows from generation to generation, and they believed that they would have a reward in the afterlife. There are many paintings and pieces of pottery that depict various aspects of the Mysteries. Since the Mysteries involved visions and conjuring of an afterlife, some scholars believe that the power and longevity of the Eleusinian Mysteries, a consistent set of rites, ceremonies and experiences that spanned two millennia, came from psychedelic drugs. The name of the town, Eleusís, seems to be Pre-Greek, and is likely a counterpart with Elysium and the goddess Eileithyia....

The Mysteries are related to a myth concerning Demeter, the goddess of agriculture and fertility as recounted in one of the Homeric Hymns (c. 650 BC). According to the hymn, Demeter's daughter Persephone (also referred to as Kore, "maiden") was assigned the task of painting all the flowers of the earth. Before completion, she was seized by Hades, the god of the underworld, who took her to his underworld kingdom. Distraught, Demeter searched high and low for her daughter. Because of her distress, and in an effort to coerce Zeus to allow the return of her daughter, she caused a terrible drought in which the people suffered and starved, depriving the gods of sacrifice and worship. As a result, Zeus relented and allowed Persephone to return to her mother.

According to the myth, during her search Demeter traveled long distances and had many minor adventures along the way. In one she taught the secrets of agriculture to Triptolemus. Finally, by consulting Zeus, Demeter reunited with her daughter and the earth returned to its former verdure and prosperity: the first spring.

Zeus, pressed by the cries of the hungry people and by the other deities who also heard their anguish, forced Hades to return Persephone. However, it was a rule of the Fates that whoever consumed food or drink in the Underworld was doomed to spend eternity there. Before Persephone was released to Hermes, who had been sent to retrieve her, Hades tricked her into eating pomegranate seeds, (either six or four according to the telling) which forced her to return to the underworld for some months each year. She was obliged to remain with Hades for six or four months (one month per seed) and lived above ground with her mother for the rest of the year. This left a long period of time when Demeter was unhappy due to Persephone's absence, neglecting to cultivate the earth. When Persephone returned to the surface, Demeter became joyful and cared for the earth again.

In the central foundation document of the mystery, the Homeric Hymn to Demeter line 415, Persephone is said to stay in Hades during winter and return in the spring of the year: "This was the day [of Persephone's return], at the very beginning of bountiful springtime."

Persephone's rebirth is symbolic of the rebirth of all plant life and the symbol of eternity of life that flows from the generations that spring from each other.

However, a scholar has proposed a different version, according to which the four months during which Persephone is with Hades correspond to the dry Greek summer, a period during which plants are threatened with drought.

The Eleusinian Mysteries are believed to be of considerable antiquity....

One line of thought by modern scholars has been that the Mysteries were intended "to elevate man above the human sphere into the divine and to assure his redemption by making him a god and so conferring immortality upon him".

Some scholars argued that the Eleusinian cult was a continuation of a Minoan cult, and that Demeter was a poppy goddess who brought the poppy from Crete to Eleusis. Some useful information from the Mycenean period can be taken from the study of the cult of Despoina (the precursor goddess of Persephone), and the cult of Eileithyia who was the goddess of childbirth. The megaron of Despoina at Lycosura is quite similar to the Telesterion of Eleusis, and Demeter is united with the god Poseidon, bearing a daughter, the unnamable Despoina (the mistress). In the cave of Amnisos at Crete, the goddess Eileithyia is related with the annual birth of the divine child, and she is connected with Enesidaon (The Earth Shaker), who is the chthonic aspect of Poseidon.

At Eleusis inscriptions refer to "the Goddesses" accompanied by the agricultural god Triptolemus (probably son of Ge and Oceanus), and "the God and the Goddess" (Persephone and Plouton) accompanied by Eubuleus who probably led the way back from the underworld. The myth was represented in a cycle with three phases: the "descent", the "search", and the "ascent" (Greek "anodos") with contrasted emotions from sorrow to joy which roused the mystae to exultation. The main theme was the ascent of Persephone and the reunion with her mother Demeter. At the beginning of the feast, the priests filled two special vessels and poured them out, the one towards the west, and the other towards the east. The people looking both to the sky and the earth shouted in a magical rhyme "rain and conceive". In a ritual, a child was initiated from the hearth (the divine fire). The name pais (child) appears in the Mycenean inscriptions. It was the ritual of the "divine child" who originally was Ploutos. In the Homeric hymn the ritual is connected with the myth of the agricultural god Triptolemus. The goddess of nature survived in the mysteries where the following words were uttered: "Mighty Potnia bore a great son". Potnia (Linear B po-ti-ni-ja : lady or mistress), is a Mycenaean title applied to goddesses, and probably the translation of a similar title of Pre-Greek origin. The high point of the celebration was "an ear of grain cut in silence", which represented the force of the new life. The idea of immortality didn't exist in the mysteries at the beginning, but the initiated believed that they would have a better fate in the underworld. Death remained a reality, but at the same time a new beginning like the plant which grows from the buried seed. A depiction from the old palace of Phaistos is very close to the image of the "anodos" of Persephone. An armless and legless deity grows out of the ground, and her head turns to a large flower....

In the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, King Celeus is said to have been one of the first people to learn the secret rites and mysteries of her cult. He was also one of her original priests, along with Diocles, Eumolpos, Polyxeinus and Triptolemus, Celeus' son, who had supposedly learned agriculture from Demeter.

Under Peisistratos of Athens, the Eleusinian Mysteries became pan-Hellenic, and pilgrims flocked from Greece and beyond to participate. Around 300 BC, the state took over control of the Mysteries; they were controlled by two families, the Eumolpidae and the Kerykes. This led to a vast increase in the number of initiates. The only requirements for membership were freedom from "blood guilt", meaning never having committed murder, and not being a "barbarian" (being unable to speak Greek). Men, women and even slaves were allowed initiation.

To participate in these mysteries one had to swear a vow of secrecy....

[O]nly initiates knew what the kiste, a sacred chest, and the calathus, a lidded basket, contained.

Hippolytus of Rome, one of the Church Fathers writing in the early 3rd century AD, discloses in Refutation of All Heresies that "the Athenians, while initiating people into the Eleusinian rites, likewise display to those who are being admitted to the highest grade at these mysteries, the mighty, and marvellous, and most perfect secret suitable for one initiated into the highest mystic truths: an ear of grain in silence reaped."

There were two Eleusinian Mysteries, the Greater and the Lesser. According to Thomas Taylor, "the dramatic shows of the Lesser Mysteries occultly signified the miseries of the soul while in subjection to the body, so those of the Greater obscurely intimated, by mystic and splendid visions, the felicity of the soul both here and hereafter, when purified from the defilements of a material nature and constantly elevated to the realities of intellectual [spiritual] vision." According to Plato, "the ultimate design of the Mysteries ... was to lead us back to the principles from which we descended, ... a perfect enjoyment of intellectual [spiritual] good."...

In order to qualify for initiation, participants would sacrifice a piglet to Demeter and Persephone, and then ritually purify themselves in the river Illisos. Upon completion of the Lesser Mysteries, participants were deemed mystai ("initiates") worthy of witnessing the Greater Mysteries.

The Greater Mysteries took place in Boedromion – the third month of the Attic calendar, falling in late summer around September or October – and lasted ten days.

The first act (on the 14th of Boedromion) was the bringing of the sacred objects from Eleusis to the Eleusinion, a temple at the base of the Acropolis of Athens.

On the 15th of Boedromion, a day called the Gathering (Agyrmos), the priests (hierophantes, those who show the sacred ones) declared the start of the rites (prorrhesis), and carried out the sacrifice (hiereía deúro, hither the victims).

The seawards initiates (halade mystai) started out in Athens on 16th Boedromion with the celebrants washing themselves in the sea at Phaleron.

On the 17th, the participants began the Epidauria, a festival for Asklepios named after his main sanctuary at Epidauros. This "festival within a festival" celebrated the healer's arrival at Athens with his daughter Hygieia, and consisted of a procession leading to the Eleusinion, during which the mystai apparently stayed at home, a great sacrifice, and an all-night feast (pannykhís).

The procession to Eleusis began at Kerameikos (the Athenian cemetery) on the 18th, and from there the people walked to Eleusis, along the Sacred Way (Ἱερὰ Ὁδός, Hierá Hodós), swinging branches called bacchoi. At a certain spot along the way, they shouted obscenities in commemoration of Iambe (or Baubo), an old woman who, by cracking dirty jokes, had made Demeter smile as she mourned the loss of her daughter. The procession also shouted "Íakch', O Íakche!", possibly an epithet for Dionysus, or a separate deity Iacchus, son of Persephone or Demeter.

Upon reaching Eleusis, there was an all-night vigil (pannychis) according to Mylonas and Kerenyi. perhaps commemorating Demeter's search for Persephone. At some point, initiates had a special drink (kykeon), of barley and pennyroyal, which has led to speculation about its chemicals perhaps having psychotropic effects from ergot (a fungus that grows on barley, containing psychedelic alkaloids similar to LSD). Discovery of fragments of ergot in a temple dedicated to the two Eleusinian goddesses excavated at the Mas Castellar site (Girona, Spain) provided legitimacy for this theory. Ergot fragments were found inside a vase and within the dental calculus of a 25-year-old man, providing evidence of ergot being consumed (Juan-Stresserras, 2002). This finding seems to support the hypothesis of ergot as an ingredient of the Eleusinian kykeon.

On the 19th of Boedromion, initiates entered a great hall called Telesterion; in the center stood the Palace (Anaktoron), which only the hierophants could enter, where sacred objects were stored. Before mystai could enter the Telesterion, they would recite, "I have fasted, I have drunk the kykeon, I have taken from the kiste (box) and after working it have put it back in the calathus (open basket).

It is widely supposed that the rites inside the Telesterion comprised three elements:

1. dromena (things done), a dramatic reenactment of the Demeter/Persephone myth
2. deiknumena (things shown), displayed sacred objects, in which the hierophant played an essential role
3. legomena (things said), commentaries that accompanied the deiknumena.

Combined, these three elements were known as the aporrheta ("unrepeatables"); the penalty for divulging them was death.

Athenagoras of Athens, Cicero, and other ancient writers cite that it was for this crime (among others) that Diagoras was condemned to death in Athens; the tragic playwright Aeschylus was allegedly tried for revealing secrets of the Mysteries in some of his plays, but was acquitted. The ban on divulging the core ritual of the Mysteries was thus absolute, which is probably why we know almost nothing about what transpired there.

As to the climax of the Mysteries, there are two modern theories.

Some hold that the priests were the ones to reveal the visions of the holy night, consisting of a fire that represented the possibility of life after death, and various sacred objects. Others hold this explanation to be insufficient to account for the power and longevity of the Mysteries, and that the experiences must have been internal and mediated by a powerful psychoactive ingredient contained in the kykeon drink (see Entheogenic theories below).

Following this section of the Mysteries was an all-night feast (Pannychis) accompanied by dancing and merriment. The dances took place in the Rharian Field, rumored to be the first spot where grain grew. A bull sacrifice also took place late that night or early the next morning. That day (22nd Boedromion), the initiates honored the dead by pouring libations from special vessels.

On the 23rd of Boedromion, the Mysteries ended and everyone returned home.

-- Eleusinian Mysteries, by Wikipedia

Suidas has preserved from some ancient author a curious memorial of this wonderful personage; whom he affects to distinguish from Deucalion, and styles [x], Nannacus,13 [There is some mistake in this name. [x] may have been a variation for [x], Noacus: or it may be for [x], Noah Rex.] [x]

Nannacus was a person of great antiquity, prior to the time of Deucalion. He is said to have been a king, who foreseeing the approaching deluge, collected every body together, and led them to a temple; where he offered up his prayers for them, accompanied with many tears. There is likewise a proverbial expression about Nannacus; which is applied to people of great antiquity.

Suidas has done great injury to this curious tradition by a misapplication of the proverb at the close. What he alludes to was [x]; a proverb, which had no relation to time, nor to ancient persons; but was made use of in a general caIamity; whenever it could with propriety be said, I suffer, as Noah suffered; or, the caIamities of Noah are renewed in me. Stephanos gives great light to this history, and supplies many deficiencies. He calls the person Annacus; and like Suidas, makes him of great antiquity, even prior to the reputed aera of Deucalion. He supposes him to have lived above three hundred years: at which period, according to an oracle, all mankind were to be destroyed. This event happened by a deluge; which this author calls the deluge of Deucalion, instead of Annacus. In consequence of this unfortunate distinction between two characters, which were one and the same, he makes the aged person to be destroyed in the general caIamity, and Deucalion to be saved. He takes notice of the proverb, and mentions the renewal of the world16 [Stephan. Byzant. [x].] [x]

The tradition is, that there was formerly a king named Annacus, the extent of whose life was above17 [Noah lived above three hundred years after the flood; which this writer has supposed to have been his term of life when the flood came. The ancients estimated the former life of Noah, or Osiris, to his entrance into the ark: this interval in the ark was esteemed a state of death: and what ensued was looked upon as a second life, and the renewal of nature. This will appear all through the Gentile history of the deluge.] three hundred years. The people, who were of his neighbourhood and acquaintance, had enquired of an oracle, how long he was to live. And there was an answer given, that when Annacus died, all mankind would be destroyed. The Phrygians upon this account made great Iamentations: from whence arose the proverb, [x], the Iamentation for Annacus; made use of for people or circumstances highly caIamitous. When the flood of Deucalion came, all mankind was destroyed, according as the oracle had foretold. Afterwards, when the surface of the earth began to be again dry, Zeus ordered Prometheus and Minerva to make images of clay in the form of men: and when they were finished, he called the winds, and made them breathe into each, and render them vital.

In Greek mythology, Deucalion was the son of Prometheus; ancient sources name his mother as Clymene, Hesione, or Pronoia. He is closely connected with the flood myth in Greek mythology....

Of Deucalion's birth, the Argonautica (from the 3rd century BC) states:

There [in Achaea, i.e. Greece] is a land encircled by lofty mountains, rich in sheep and in pasture, where Prometheus, son of Iapetus, begat goodly Deucalion, who first founded cities and reared temples to the immortal gods, and first ruled over men. This land the neighbours who dwell around call Haemonia [i.e. Thessaly].

Deucalion and Pyrrha had at least two children, Hellen and Protogenea, and possibly a third, Amphictyon (who is autochthonous in other traditions).

Their children as apparently named in one of the oldest texts, Catalogue of Women, include daughters Pandora and Thyia, and at least one son, Hellen. Their descendants were said to have dwelt in Thessaly....

The flood in the time of Deucalion was caused by the anger of Zeus, ignited by the hubris of Lycaon and his sons, descendants of Pelasgus. According to this story, Lycaon, the king of Arcadia, had sacrificed a boy to Zeus, who, appalled by this offering, decided to put an end to the Bronze Age by unleashing a deluge. During this deluge, the rivers ran in torrents and the sea flooded the coastal plain, engulfing the foothills with spray, and washing everything clean. Deucalion, with the aid of his father Prometheus, was saved from this deluge by building a chest. Like the biblical Noah and the Mesopotamian counterpart Utnapishtim, he uses this device to survive the deluge with his wife, Pyrrha.

The fullest accounts are provided in Ovid's Metamorphoses (late 1 BCE to early 1 CE) and in the Library of Pseudo-Apollodorus. Deucalion, who reigned over the region of Phthia, had been forewarned of the flood by his father, Prometheus. Deucalion was to build a chest and provision it carefully (no animals are rescued in this version of the flood myth), so that when the waters receded after nine days, he and his wife Pyrrha, daughter of Epimetheus, were the one surviving pair of humans. Their chest touched solid ground on Mount Parnassus, or Mount Etna in Sicily, or Mount Athos in Chalkidiki, or Mount Othrys in Thessaly.

Hyginus mentions the opinion of a Hegesianax that Deucalion is to be identified with Aquarius, "because during his reign such quantities of water poured from the sky that the great Flood resulted."

Once the deluge was over and the couple had given thanks to Zeus, Deucalion (said in several of the sources to have been aged 82 at the time) consulted an oracle of Themis about how to repopulate the earth. He was told to "cover your head and throw the bones of your mother behind your shoulder". Deucalion and Pyrrha understood that "mother" is Gaia, the mother of all living things, and the "bones" to be rocks. They threw the rocks behind their shoulders and the stones formed people. Pyrrha's became women; Deucalion's became men.

The 2nd-century AD writer Lucian gave an account of the Greek Deucalion in De Dea Syria that seems to refer more to the Near Eastern flood legends: in his version, Deucalion (whom he also calls Sisythus) took his children, their wives, and pairs of animals with him on the ark, and later built a great temple in Manbij (northern Syria), on the site of the chasm that received all the waters; he further describes how pilgrims brought vessels of sea water to this place twice a year, from as far as Arabia and Mesopotamia, to commemorate this event.

On the other hand, Dionysius of Halicarnassus stated his parents to be Prometheus and Clymene, daughter of Oceanus and mentions nothing about a flood, but instead names him as commander of those from Parnassus who drove the "sixth generation" of Pelasgians from Thessaly.

One of the earliest Greek historians, Hecataeus of Miletus, was said to have written a book about Deucalion, but it no longer survives. The only extant fragment of his to mention Deucalion does not mention the flood either, but names him as the father of Orestheus, king of Aetolia. The much later geographer Pausanias, following on this tradition, names Deucalion as a king of Ozolian Locris and father of Orestheus.

Plutarch mentions a legend that Deucalion and Pyrrha had settled in Dodona, Epirus; while Strabo asserts that they lived at Cynus, and that her grave is still to be found there, while his may be seen at Athens; he also mentions a pair of Aegean islands named after the couple.

The 19th-century classicist John Lemprière, in Bibliotheca Classica, argued that as the story had been re-told in later versions, it accumulated details from the stories of Noah: "Thus Apollodorus gives Deucalion a great chest as a means of safety; Plutarch speaks of the pigeons by which he sought to find out whether the waters had retired; and Lucian of the animals of every kind which he had taken with him. &c." However, the Epic of Gilgamesh contains each of the three elements identified by Lemprière: a means of safety (in the form of instructions to build a boat), sending forth birds to test whether the waters had receded, and stowing animals of every kind on the boat. These facts were unknown to Lemprière because the Assyrian cuneiform tablets containing the Gilgamesh Epic were only discovered in the 1850s. This was 20 years after Lemprière had published his "Bibliotheca Classica." The Gilgamesh epic is widely considered to be at least as old as Genesis, if not older. Given the prevalence of religious syncretism in the ancient Greek world, these three elements may already have been known to some Greek-speaking peoples in popular oral variations of the flood myth, long before they were recorded in writing. The most immediate source of these three particular elements in the later Greek versions is unclear.

For some time during the Middle Ages, many European Christian scholars continued to accept Greek mythical history at face value, thus asserting that Deucalion's flood was a regional flood, that occurred a few centuries later than the global one survived by Noah's family. On the basis of the archaeological stele known as the Parian Chronicle, Deucalion's Flood was usually fixed as occurring sometime around 1528 BC. Deucalion's flood may be dated in the chronology of Saint Jerome to c. 1460 BC. According to Augustine of Hippo (City of God XVIII,8,10,&11), Deucalion and his father Prometheus were contemporaries of Moses. According to Clement of Alexandria in his Stromata, "...in the time of Crotopus occurred the burning of Phaethon, and the deluges of Deucalion."

-- Deucalion, by Wikipedia

Bk 1:313-347 Deucalion and his wife Pyrrha

Phocis, a fertile country when it was still land, separates Aonia from Oeta, though at that time it was part of the sea, a wide expanse of suddenly created water. There Mount Parnassus lifts its twin steep summits to the stars, its peaks above the clouds. When Deucalion and his wife landed here in their small boat, everywhere else being drowned by the waters, they worshipped the Corycian nymphs, the mountain gods, and the goddess of the oracles, prophetic Themis. No one was more virtuous or fonder of justice than he was, and no woman showed greater reverence for the gods. When Jupiter saw the earth covered with the clear waters, and that only one man was left of all those thousands of men, only one woman left of all those thousands of women, both innocent and both worshippers of the gods, he scattered the clouds and mist, with the north wind, and revealed the heavens to the earth and the earth to the sky. It was no longer an angry sea, since the king of the oceans putting aside his three-pronged spear calmed the waves, and called sea-dark Triton, showing from the depths his shoulders thick with shells, to blow into his echoing conch and give the rivers and streams the signal to return. He lifted the hollow shell that coils from its base in broad spirals, that shell that filled with his breath in mid-ocean makes the eastern and the western shores sound. So now when it touched the god’s mouth, and dripping beard, and sounded out the order for retreat, it was heard by all the waters on earth and in the ocean, and all the waters hearing it were checked. Now the sea has shorelines, the brimming rivers keep to their channels, the floods subside, and hills appear. Earth rises, the soil increasing as the water ebbs, and finally the trees show their naked tops, the slime still clinging to their leaves.

Bk 1:348-380 They ask Themis for help

The world was restored. But when Deucalion saw its emptiness, and the deep silence of the desolate lands, he spoke to Pyrrha, through welling tears. ‘Wife, cousin, sole surviving woman, joined to me by our shared race, our family origins, then by the marriage bed, and now joined to me in danger, we two are the people of all the countries seen by the setting and the rising sun, the sea took all the rest. Even now our lives are not guaranteed with certainty: the storm clouds still terrify my mind. How would you feel now, poor soul, if the fates had willed you to be saved, but not me? How could you endure your fear alone? Who would comfort your tears? Believe me, dear wife, if the sea had you, I would follow you, and the sea would have me too. If only I, by my father’s arts, could recreate earth’s peoples, and breathe life into the shaping clay! The human race remains in us. The gods willed it that we are the only examples of mankind left behind.’ He spoke and they wept, resolving to appeal to the sky-god, and ask his help by sacred oracles. Immediately they went side by side to the springs of Cephisus that, though still unclear, flowed in its usual course. When they had sprinkled their heads and clothing with its watery libations, they traced their steps to the temple of the sacred goddess, whose pediments were green with disfiguring moss, her altars without fire. When they reached the steps of the sanctuary they fell forward together and lay prone on the ground, and kissing the cold rock with trembling lips, said ‘If the gods wills soften, appeased by the prayers of the just, if in this way their anger can be deflected, Themis tell us by what art the damage to our race can be repaired, and bring help, most gentle one, to this drowned world!’

Bk 1:381-415 The human race is re-created

The goddess was moved, and uttered oracular speech: ‘Leave the temple and with veiled heads and loosened clothes throw behind you the bones of your great mother!’ For a long time they stand there, dumbfounded. Pyrrha is first to break the silence: she refuses to obey the goddess’s command. Her lips trembling she asks for pardon, fearing to offend her mother’s spirit by scattering her bones. Meanwhile they reconsider the dark words the oracle gave, and their uncertain meaning, turning them over and over in their minds. Then Prometheus’s son comforted Epimetheus’s daughter with quiet words: ‘Either this idea is wrong, or, since oracles are godly and never urge evil, our great mother must be the earth: I think the bones she spoke about are stones in the body of the earth. It is these we are told to throw behind us.’

Though the Titan’s daughter is stirred by her husband’s thoughts, still hope is uncertain: they are both so unsure of the divine promptings; but what harm can it do to try? They descended the steps, covered their heads and loosened their clothes, and threw the stones needed behind them. The stones, and who would believe it if it were not for ancient tradition, began to lose their rigidity and hardness, and after a while softened, and once softened acquired new form. Then after growing, and ripening in nature, a certain likeness to a human shape could be vaguely seen, like marble statues at first inexact and roughly carved. The earthy part, however, wet with moisture, turned to flesh; what was solid and inflexible mutated to bone; the veins stayed veins; and quickly, through the power of the gods, stones the man threw took on the shapes of men, and women were remade from those thrown by the woman. So the toughness of our race, our ability to endure hard labour, and the proof we give of the source from which we are sprung.

Bk 1:416-437 Other species are generated

Earth spontaneously created other diverse forms of animal life. After the remaining moisture had warmed in the sun’s fire, the wet mud of the marshlands swelled with heat, and the fertile seeds of things, nourished by life-giving soil as if in a mother’s womb, grew, and in time acquired a nature. So, when the seven-mouthed Nile retreats from the drowned fields and returns to its former bed, and the fresh mud boils in the sun, farmers find many creatures as they turn the lumps of earth. Amongst them they see some just spawned, on the edge of life, some with incomplete bodies and number of limbs, and often in the same matter one part is alive and the other is raw earth. In fact when heat and moisture are mixed they conceive, and from these two things the whole of life originates. And though fire and water fight each other, heat and moisture create everything, and this discordant union is suitable for growth. So when the earth muddied from the recent flood glowed again heated by the deep heaven-sent light of the sun she produced innumerable species, partly remaking previous forms, partly creating new monsters.

Bk 1:438-472 Phoebus kills the Python and sees Daphne

Indeed, though she would not have desired to, she then gave birth to you, great Python, covering so great an area of the mountain slopes, a snake not known before, a terror to the new race of men. The archer god, with lethal shafts that he had only used before on fleeing red deer and roe deer, with a thousand arrows, almost emptying his quiver, destroyed the creature, the venom running out from its black wounds. Then he founded the sacred Pythian games, celebrated by contests, named from the serpent he had conquered. There the young winners in boxing, in foot and chariot racing, were honoured with oak wreaths. There was no laurel as yet, so Phoebus crowned his temples, his handsome curling hair, with leaves of any tree....

-- Metamorphoses, by Ovid

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Part 2 of 3

However the story may have been varied, the principal outlines plainly point out the person, who is alluded to in these histories. Many personages having been formed out of one has been the cause of great confusion both in these instances, and in numberless others. Indeed the whole mythology of the ancients has by these means been sadly clouded. It is, I think, manifest, that Annacus and Nannacus, and even Inachus, relate to Noachus, or Noah. And not only these, but the histories of Deucalion, and Prometheus have a like reference to the Patriarch; in the18 [Genes. c. 7. v. 11.] six hundredth year (and not the three hundredth) of whose life the waters prevailed upon the earth. He was the father of mankind, who were renewed in him. Hence he is represented by another author, under the character of Prometheus, as a great artist, by whom men were formed anew, and were instructed in all that was good. He makes19 [[x]. Lucian. Prometh. in Verbis. Vol. i. p. 16.] Minerva cooperate with him in making images of clay, according to the history before given: but he additionally gives to her the province of inspiring them with a living soul, instead of calling the winds together for that purpose. Hence the soul of man according to Lucian is an emanation of Divine Wisdom.

Noah was the original Cronus, and Zeus; though the latter is a title conferred sometimes upon his son, Ham.

20 [Lactant. de Fals. Relig. V. i. c. 13. p. 61.] [x]

There is a very particular expression recorded by Clemens of Alexandria, and attributed to Pythagoras; who is said to have called the sea21 [[x]. Clemens of the wilful obscurity of the ancient Greek writers. Strom. L. 5. p. 676.] [x], , [i]the tear of Cronus:[/i] and there was a further tradition concerning this person,22 [Etymolog. Magnum.] [x], , that he drank), or swallowed up, all his children. The tears of Isis are represented as very mysterious. They are said to have flowed, whenever the Nile began to rise, and to flood the country. The overflowing of that river was the great source of affluence to the people: and they looked upon it as their chief blessing: yet it was ever attended with mystical tears, and Iamentations. This was particularly observable at Coptos, where the principal Deity was Isis.23 [Lutatius Placidus in Stat. Theb. L. i. v. 265.] Coptos est civitas Mareotica AEgypti, in qua Io versa in Isidem colitur: cujus sacris sistro celebratis Nilus exaestuat. -- Proventum sructuum AEgyptii quaerunt usque ad veros planctus: namque irrigatio Nili supradictorum sletibus imploratur [Google translate: Copts is the Mareotica city of Egypt, in which Io It is worshiped in Isis: the Nile boils over with its sacred minions celebrated. -- Egyptians seek produce even to the true Iamentation: for the moistening of the Nile is implored.]. This writer imagines, that the tears and Iamentations of the people were to implore an inundation: and the tears of Isis according to Pausanias were supposed to make the river swell. But all this was certainly said, and done, in memorial of a former flood, of which they made the overflowing of the Nile a type.

As the Patriarch was by some represented as a king called Naachus and Nauachus; so by others he was styled Inachus, and supposed to have reigned at Argos. For colonies, whereever they came, in process of time superadded the tradition, which they brought to the histories of the countries where they settled. Hence Inachus was made a king of Greece; and Phoroneus and Apis brought in succession after him. But I have more than once taken notice that Inachus was not a name of Grecian original. It is mentioned by24 [Pausan. L. 10. p. 881.] Eusebius in his account of the first ages, that there reigned in Egypt Telegonus, a prince of foreign extraction; who was the son of Orus the shepherd, and the seventh in descent from Inachus.25 [In AEgypto regnavit Telegonus Oris pastoris silius, septimus ab Inacho. Euseb. Chron. Vers. Lat. p. 14.] And in the same author we read, that a colony went forth from that country into Syria, where they founded the ancient city Antioch: and that they were conducted by26 [[x]. Euseb. Chron. p. 24. See also Zonaras. L. i. p. 21.] Casus and Belus, who were sons of Inachus. These events were far more early than any history of Greece; let it be removed as far back as tradition can be carried. But otherwise, what relation can a prince of Egypt, or Casus and Belus, who came originally from Babylonia, have with a supposed king of Argos? By Inachus is certainly meant Noah: and the history relates to some of the more early descendants of the Patriarch. His name has been rendered very unlike itself, by having been lengthened with terminations; and otherwise fashioned according to the idiom of different nations. But the circumstances of the history are so precise and particular, that we cannot miss of the truth.

He seems in the East to have been called Noas, Noasis, Nusus, and Nus; and by the Greeks his name was compounded Dionusus. The Amonians, wherever they came, founded cities to his honour: hence places called Nusa will often occur. Hesychius says, that there were both cities and mountains styled Nusean in many parts of the27 [[x] Hesych.] world: and he instances in Arabia, Ethiopia, Egypt, Babylonia, Eruthrea, Thracia, Thessaly, Cilicia, India, Libya, Lydia, Macedonia, the island Naxos; also a Nusa near mount Pangaeus; and a place of this name in Syria, the same, which was called afterwards Scythopolis. There was also a place called Nusa upon mount Caucasus; and upon Helicon: also in the28 [[x]. Steph. Byzant.] island Euboea; where was a notion that grapes would blossom and come to perfection in one day. Of the Nusa in India Philostratus takes notice; and says that from thence Dionusus had the title of Nusios.29 [Vit. Apollon. Tyan. L. 2. p. 56.] [x]. But this, if the author says the truth, must have been owing to a great mistake: for there were, as I have shewn, many30 [There was a city Noa, built by the ancient Dorians in Sicily; called by Stephanus [x]. The Scriptures speak of cities called Amon-No, and No-Amon in Egypt. Ezek. c. 30. v. 14, &c. Jerem. c. 46. v. 25. The city Naucratis in the same country was probably Nau-Carat, similar to the Kiriath of the Hebrews; and signified the city of Nau, or Noah. A city Noa was near Syene. Plin. Nat. Hist. L. 6. c. 29.] cities so called; which did not give the name, but were all universally denominated from him. These, though widely distant, being situated in countries far removed, yet retained the same original histories; and were generally famous for the plantation of the vine. Misled by this similarity of traditions people in aftertimes imagined that Dionusus must necessarily have been where his history occurred: and as it was the turn of the Greeks to place every thing to the account of conquest, they made him a great conqueror, who went over the face of the whole earth and taught mankind the plantation of the vine:31 [Diodor. Sic. L. 3. p. 107.] [x]. It is said, that Dionusus went with an army over the face of the whole earth; and taught mankind, as he passed along, the method of planting the vine; and how to press out the juice, and receive it in proper vessels.

The men of greatest learning among the Indians tell certain legends, of which it may be proper to give a brief summary.

They relate that in the most primitive times, when the people of the country were still living in villages, Dionusos made his appearance coming from the regions lying to the west, and at the head of a considerable army. He overran the whole of India, as there was no great city capable of resisting his arms. The heat, however, having become excessive, and the soldiers of Dionusos being afflicted with a pestilence, the leader, who was remarkable for his sagacity, carried his troops away from the plains up to the hills. There the army, recruited by the cool breezes and the waters that flowed fresh from the fountains, recovered from sickness. The place among the mountains where Dionusos restored his troops to health was called Meros; from which circumstance, no doubt, the Greeks have transmitted to posterity the legend concerning the god, that Dionusos was bred in his father's thigh.*

Having after this turned his attention to the artificial propagation of useful plants, he communicated the secret to the Indians, and taught them the way to make wine, as well as other arts conducive to human well-being. He was, besides, the founder of large cities, which he formed by removing the villages to convenient sites, while he also showed the people how to worship the deity, and introduced laws and courts of justice. Having thus achieved altogether many great and noble works, he was regarded as a deity and gained immortal honours. It is related also of him that he led about with his army a great host of women, and employed, in marshalling his troops for battle, drums and cymbals, as the trumpet had not in his days been invented; and that after reigning over the whole of India for two and fifty years he died of old age, while his sons, succeeding to the government, transmitted the sceptre in unbroken succession to their posterity. At last, after many generations had come and gone, the sovereignty, it is said, was dissolved, and democratic governments were set up in the cities.

Such, then, are the traditions regarding Dionusos and his descendants current among the Indians who inhabit the hill-country.

-- Ancient India as Described by Megasthenes and Arrian; Being a Translation of the Fragments of the Indika of Megasthenes Collected by Dr. Schwanbeck, and of the First Part of the Indika of Arrian, by J.W. McCrindle, M.A., 1877

Though the Patriarch is represented under various titles; and even these not always uniformly appropriated: yet there will continually occur such peculiar circumstances of his history as will plainly point out the person referred to. The person preserved is always mentioned as preserved in an ark. He is described as being in a state of darkness; which is represented allegorically as a state of death. He then obtains a new life, which is called a second birth; and is said to have his youth renewed. He is on this account looked upon as the firstborn of mankind: and both his antediluvian and postdiluvian states are commemorated, and sometimes the intermediate also is spoken of.

32 [Orphic Hymn. 29. p. 222.] [x] 33 [Orphic. Fragm. apud Macrob. Saturnal. L. i. c. 18. Sometimes [x] is changed to a female, and then made the daughter of Deucalion. [x]. Schol. in Pind. Olymp. Od. 9. v. 63.] [x]

Diodorus calls him Deucalion; but describes the Deluge, as in a manner universal;34 [Diodor. Sicul. L. i. p. 10.] [x]: In the Deluge, which happened in the time of Deucalion, almost all flesh died.

And thus I went out in that night (it was the second night of the year 1914 [World War I: 28 July 1914–11 November 1918]), and anxious expectation filled me. I went out to embrace the future. The path was wide and what was to come was awful. It was the enormous dying, a sea of blood. From it the new sun arose, awful and a reversal of that which we call day. We have seized the darkness and its sun will shine above us, bloody and burning like a great downfall.

-- The Red Book: Liber Novus, by C.G. Jung

Apollodorus having mentioned Deucalion [x], consigned to an ark, takes notice, upon his quitting it, of his offering up an immediate sacrifice,35 [Apollodor. L. i. p. 20.] [x], to the God, who delivered him. As he was the father of all mankind, the ancients have made him a person of very extensive rule; and supposed him to have been a king. Sometimes he is described as monarch of the whole earth: at other times he is reduced to a petty king of Thessaly. He is mentioned by36 [[x]. Schol. in Apollon. Rhod. L. 3. v. 1085.] Hellanicus in the latter capacity; who speaks of the deluge in his time, and of his building altars to the Gods. Apollonius Rhodius supposes him to have been a native of Greece, according to the common notion: but notwithstanding his prejudices he gives so particular a character of him, that the true history cannot be mistaken. He makes him indeed the son of37 [He was the same as Prometheus, the person here called Japetionides.] Prometheus, the son of Japetus: but in these ancient mythological accounts all genealogy must be entirely disregarded.

38 [Apollon. Rhod. L. 3. v. 1085.] [x]

Though this character be not precisely true; yet we may learn that the person represented was the first of men, through whom religious rites were renewed, cities built, and civil polity established in the world: none of which circumstances are applicable to any king of Greece. We are assured by39 [Philo Jud. de praemio et poena. Vol. 2. p. 412.] Philo, that Deucalion was Noah. [x]. The Grecians call the person Deucalion, but the Chaldeans style him Noe; in whose time there happened the great eruption of waters. The Chaldeans likewise mentioned him by the name of Xisouthros.

40 [Cedren. p. 11.] [x].

That Deucalion was unduly adjudged by the people of Thessaly to their country solely, may be proved from his name occurring in different parts of the world; and always accompanied with some history of the deluge. The natives of Syria laid the same claim to him. He was supposed to have founded the temple at Hierapolis, where was a chasm through which the waters after the deluge were said to have41 [Lucian. de Dea Syria, p. 883.] retreated. He was likewise reported to have built the temple of Jupiter at Athens, where was a cavity of the same nature; and a like tradition, that the42 [[x]. Pausan. L. I. p. 43.] waters of the flood passed off through this aperture. However groundless the notions may be of the waters having retreated through these passages, yet they shew what impressions of this event were retained by the Amonians who introduced some history of it, wherever they came. As different nations succeeded one another in these parts, and time produced a mixture of generations, they varied the history, and modelled it according to their43 [How various these accounts were, even in the same place, we may learn from Lucian. [x]. De Dea Syria, p. 882.] notions and traditions: yet the groundwork was always true; and the event for a long time universally commemorated. Josephus, who seems to have been a person of extensive knowledge, and versed in the histories of nations, says that this great occurrence was to be met with in the writings of all persons who treated of the first ages. He mentions Berosus of Chaldea, Hieronymus of Egypt, who wrote concerning the antiquities of Phenicia; also Mnaseas, Abydenus, Melon, and Nicolaus Damascenus, as writers by whom it was recorded: and adds that it was taken notice of by many others.

As we proceed towards the east, we shall find the traces of this event more vivid and determinate than those of Greece; and more conformable to the accounts of Moses. Eusebius has preserved a most valuable extract to this purpose from44 [[x]. Abyden. apud Euseb. Praep. Evang. L. 9. c. 12. See also Cyril, contra Julian. L. i. p. 8.] Abydenus; which was taken from the archives of the Medes and Babylonians.

Abydenus was a Greek historian, and the author of a History of the Chaldeans and Assyrians, of which some fragments are preserved by Eusebius [c. 260/265 – 30 May 339] in his Praeparatio Evangelica, and by Cyril of Alexandria in his work against Julian. Several other fragments are preserved by Syncellus. These were particularly valuable for chronology. An important fragment, which clears up some difficulties in Assyrian history, has been discovered in the Armenian translation of the Chronicon of Eusebius.

It is uncertain when he lived, but he is to be distinguished from Palaephatus Abydenus, who lived in the time of Alexander the Great; for this Abydenus mentions Berosus, who lived at a later period.

-- Abydenus, by Wikipedia

Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 260/265 – 30 May 339), also known as Eusebius Pamphili, was a Greek historian of Christianity, exegete, and Christian polemicist. In about AD 314 he became the bishop of Caesarea Maritima in the Roman province of Syria Palaestina. Together with Pamphilus, he was a scholar of the biblical canon and is regarded as one of the most learned Christians during late antiquity. He wrote Demonstrations of the Gospel, Preparations for the Gospel and On Discrepancies between the Gospels, studies of the biblical text. As "Father of Church History" (not to be confused with the title of Church Father), he produced the Ecclesiastical History, On the Life of Pamphilus, the Chronicle and On the Martyrs. He also produced a biographical work on Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, who was augustus between AD 306 and AD 337...

Lynn Cohick... claims... that "Eusebius is a notoriously unreliable historian, and so anything he reports should be critically scrutinized." Eusebius' Life of Constantine, which he wrote as a eulogy shortly after the emperor's death in AD 337, is "often maligned for perceived factual errors, deemed by some so hopelessly flawed that it cannot be the work of Eusebius at all." Others attribute this perceived flaw in this particular work as an effort at creating an overly idealistic hagiography, calling him a "Constantinian flunky" since, as a trusted adviser to Constantine, it would be politically expedient for him to present Constantine in the best light possible....

Little is known about the life of Eusebius. His successor at the See of Caesarea, Acacius, wrote a Life of Eusebius, a work that has since been lost. Eusebius' own surviving works probably only represent a small portion of his total output. Beyond notices in his extant writings, the major sources are the 5th-century ecclesiastical historians Socrates, Sozomen, and Theodoret, and the 4th-century Christian author Jerome. There are assorted notices of his activities in the writings of his contemporaries Athanasius, Arius, Eusebius of Nicomedia, and Alexander of Alexandria. Eusebius' pupil, Eusebius of Emesa, provides some incidental information.

-- Eusebius, by Wikipedia

When D. P. Walker wrote about "ancient theology" or prisca theologia, he firmly linked it to Christianity and Platonism (Walker 1972). On the first page of his book, Walker defined the term as follows:

By the term "Ancient Theology" I mean a certain tradition of Christian apologetic theology which rests on misdated texts. Many of the early Fathers, in particular Lactantius, Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius, in their apologetic works directed against pagan philosophers, made use of supposedly very ancient texts: Hermetica, Orphica, Sibylline Prophecies, Pythagorean Carmina Aurea, etc., most of which in fact date from the first four centuries of our era. These texts, written by the Ancient Theologians Hermes Trismegistus, Orpheus, Pythagoras, were shown to contain vestiges of the true religion: monotheism, the Trinity, the creation of the world out of nothing through the Word, and so forth. It was from these that Plato took the religious truths to be found in his writings. (Walker 1972:1)

Walker described a revival of such "ancient theology" in the Renaissance and in "platonizing theologians from Ficino to Cudworth" who wanted to "integrate Platonism and Neoplatonism into Christianity, so that their own religious and philosophical beliefs might coincide" [!!!](p. 2). After the debunking of the genuineness and antiquity of the texts favored by these ancient theologians, the movement ought to have died; but Walker detected "a few isolated survivals" such as Athanasius Kircher, Pierre-Daniel Huet, and the Jesuit figurists of the French China mission (p. 194). For Walker the last Mohican of this movement, so to say, is Chevalier Andrew Michael RAMSAY (1686-1743), whose views are described in the final chapter of The Ancient Theology. But seen through the lens of our concerns here, one could easily extend this line to various figures in this book, for example, Jean Calmette, John Zephaniah Holwell, Abbe Vincent Mignot, Abraham Hyacinthe Anquetil-Duperron, Guillaume Sainte-Croix, and also to William Jones (App 2009).

-- The Birth of Orientalism, by Urs App

This writer speaks of Noah as a king, whom he names Seisithrus; and says, that the flood began upon the sixteenth day of the month Desius: that during the prevalence of the waters Seisithrus sent out birds, that he might judge if the flood had subsided: but that the birds, not finding any resting place, returned to him again. This was repeated three times; when the birds were found to return with their feet stained with soil: by which he knew that the flood was abated. Upon this he quitted the ark; and was never more seen of men, being taken away by the Gods from the earth. Abydenus concludes with a particular, in which all the eastern writers are unanimous; that the place of descent from the ark was in Armenia: and speaks of its remains being preserved for a long time. Plutarch mentions the Noachic45 [[x]. Plutarch. de solert. Animal. V. 2. p. 968.] dove, and its being sent out of the ark. A curious account to the present purpose is by46 [[x]. Euseb. Praep. Evang. L. 9. c. 19. p. 420.] Eusebius given from Melon, who wrote a treatise against the Jews. He takes notice among other things of the person who survived the deluge, retreating with his sons after the caIamity from Armenia: but he has mixed much extraneous matter in his narration; and supposes that they came to the mountainous parts of Syria instead of the plains of Shinar.

Shinar is the southern region of Mesopotamia in the Hebrew Bible...

Mesopotamia is a historical region of Western Asia situated within the Tigris–Euphrates river system, in the northern part of the Fertile Crescent. Mesopotamia occupies modern Iraq. The historical region includes also the head of the Persian Gulf and southeast Turkey, west Iran, northeastern Syria and northern Kuwait.

The Sumerians and Akkadians (including Assyrians and Babylonians) dominated Mesopotamia from the beginning of written history (c. 3100 BC) to the fall of Babylon in 539 BC, when it was conquered by the Achaemenid Empire. It fell to Alexander the Great in 332 BC, and after his death, it became part of the Greek Seleucid Empire. Later the Arameans dominated major parts of Mesopotamia (c. 900 BC – 270 AD).

Around 150 BC, Mesopotamia was under the control of the Parthian Empire. Mesopotamia became a battleground between the Romans and Parthians, with western parts of Mesopotamia coming under ephemeral Roman control. In 226 AD, the eastern regions of Mesopotamia fell to the Sassanid Persians. The division of Mesopotamia between Roman (Byzantine from 395 AD) and Sassanid Empires lasted until the 7th century Muslim conquest of Persia of the Sasanian Empire and Muslim conquest of the Levant from Byzantines. A number of primarily neo-Assyrian and Christian native Mesopotamian states existed between the 1st century BC and 3rd century AD, including Adiabene, Osroene, and Hatra.

Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BC. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history, including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops, and the development of cursive script, mathematics, astronomy, and agriculture". It has been known as one of the earliest civilizations to ever exist in the world.

-- Mesopotamia, by Wikipedia

Some Assyriologists considered Šinʿar a western variant or cognate of Šumer...

Sayce (1895) identified Shinar as cognate with the following names: Sangara/Sangar mentioned in the context of the Asiatic conquests of Thutmose III (15th century BCE); Sanhar/Sankhar of the Amarna letters (14th century BCE); the Greeks' Singara; and modern Sinjar, in Upper Mesopotamia, near the Khabur River. Accordingly, he proposed that Shinar was in Upper Mesopotamia, but acknowledged that the Bible gives important evidence that it was in the south. Albright (1924) suggested identification with the Kingdom of Khana. [The Kingdom of Khana or Kingdom of Hana was a Syrian Kingdom from Hana Land located in the middle Euphrates region north of Mari which included the ancient city of Terqa.]

The name Šinʿar occurs eight times in the Hebrew Bible, in which it refers to Babylonia. This location of Shinar is evident from its description as encompassing both Babel/Babylon (in northern Babylonia) and Erech/Uruk (in southern Babylonia). In the Book of Genesis 10:10, the beginning of Nimrod's kingdom is said to have been "Babel [Babylon], and Erech [Uruk], and Akkad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar." Verse 11:2 states that Shinar enclosed the plain that became the site of the Tower of Babel after the Great Flood. After the Flood, the sons of Shem, Ham, and Japheth stayed first in the highlands of Armenia and then migrated to Shinar.

-- Shinar, by Wikipedia

But the most particular history of the Deluge, and the nearest of any to the account given by Moses, is to be found in Lucian. He was a native of Samosata, a city of Commagene upon the Euphrates: a part of the world where memorials of the Deluge were particularly preserved; and where a reference to that history is continually to be observed in the rites and worship of the country. His knowledge therefore was obtained from the Asiatic nations among whom he was born; and not from his kinsmen the Helladians, who were far inferior in the knowledge of ancient times.

Samsat [Samosata] is a small town and district in the Adıyaman Province of Turkey, situated on the upper Euphrates river....

Samsat was the ancient capital of Kingdom of Commagene.

Map showing Commagene (light pink on the left) in 50 AD; nearby are Armenia, Sophene, Osrhoene, and the Roman (Syria/Hierapolis/Antioch/Nicopolis/Cilicia) and Parthian Empires

Commagene was an ancient Greco-Iranian kingdom ruled by a Hellenized branch of the Iranian Orontid dynasty that had ruled over Armenia. The kingdom was located in and around the ancient city of Samosata, which served as its capital. The Iron Age name of Samosata, Kummuh, probably gives its name to Commagene.

Commagene has been characterized as a "buffer state" between Armenia, Parthia, Syria, and Rome; culturally, it was correspondingly mixed. The kings of the Kingdom of Commagene claimed descent from Orontes with Darius I of Persia as their ancestor, by his marriage to Rhodogune, daughter of Artaxerxes II who had a family descent from king Darius I. The territory of Commagene corresponded roughly to the modern Turkish provinces of Adıyaman and northern Antep.

Little is known of the region of Commagene prior to the beginning of the 2nd century BC. However, it seems that, from what little evidence remains, Commagene formed part of a larger state that also included the Kingdom of Sophene. This situation lasted until c. 163 BC, when the local satrap, Ptolemaeus of Commagene, established himself as an independent ruler following the death of the Seleucid king, Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

The Kingdom of Commagene maintained its independence until 17 AD, when it was made a Roman province by Emperor Tiberius. It re-emerged as an independent kingdom when Antiochus IV of Commagene was reinstated to the throne by order of Caligula, then deprived of it by that same emperor, then restored to it a couple of years later by his successor, Claudius. The re-emergent state lasted until 72 AD, when the Emperor Vespasian finally and definitively made it part of the Roman Empire.

One of the kingdom's most lasting visible remains is the archaeological site on Mount Nemrut, a sanctuary dedicated by King Antiochus Theos ["Antiochos, the just, eminent god, friend of Romans and friend of Greeks", c. 86 BC – 31 BC, ruled 70 BC – 31 BC)] to a number of syncretistic Graeco-Iranian deities as well as to himself and the deified land of Commagene. It is now a World Heritage Site....

At Antiochus Theos' sanctuary at Mount Nemrut, the king erected monumental statues of deities with mixed Greek and Iranian names, such as Zeus-Oromasdes, while celebrating his own descent from the royal families of Persia and Armenia in a Greek-language inscription.

The Commagenean rulers had Iranian and Greek names (Antiochus, Samos, Mithridates)....

Commagene extended from the right bank of the Euphrates to the Taurus and Amanus Mountains. Strabo, who counts Commagene as part of Syria, notes the kingdom's fertility.

-- Kingdom of Commagene, by Wikipedia

The current site of Samsat is comparatively new, however, being rebuilt in 1989 when the old town of Samosata was flooded during the construction of the Atatürk Dam....

The city of Samosata was founded sometime before 245 BC on the previous Neo-Hittite site of Kummuh by the Orontid king of Sophene, Sames I. He may have founded the city in order to assert his claim over the area, a common practice amongst Iranian and Hellenistic dynasties, such as Cappadocia, Pontus, Parthia and Armenia. The city was built in a "sub-Achaemenid" Persian architectural form, similar to the rest of Orontid buildings in Greater Armenia... Samosata served as one of the most important royal residences of the Orontid kings of Sophene.

Like other early-Orontid royal residences, Samosata experienced a sudden shift in its architectural style under the Orontids of Commagene due to their close involvement in the Greco-Roman world. During this period, Samosata was most likely populated by a variety of peoples, descended from Syrians/Arameans/Assyrians, Neo-Hittites, Armenians, and Persians. Samosata was amongst the places where its ruler Antiochus I Theos (r. 70–31 BC) founded sanctuaries that contained inscriptions about his cult as well as reliefs of his dexiosis with Apollo-Mithras. In 73 AD, Samosata as well as the rest of Commagene was incorporated into the Roman Empire. It may have been during this event that the Syriac letter of Mara bar Serapion was composed. The letter makes mention of an Aramaic-speaking elite in Samosata that studied Greek literature and Stoic philosophy. Under the Roman emperor Hadrian (r. 117–138), Samosata given metropolis status along with Damascus and Tyre....

Samosata was the birthplace of several renowned people from antiquity such as Lucian (c. 120-192) and Paul of Samosata (fl. 260).

-- Samsat [Samosata], by Wikipedia

He describes Noah under the name of Deucalion: and47 [Lucian. de Dea Syria. V. 2. p. 882.] says, that the present race of mankind are different from those, who first existed; for those of the antediluvian world were all destroyed. The present world is peopled from the sons of Deucalion; having increased to so great a number from one person. In respect to the former brood, they were men of violence, and lawless in their dealings. They regarded not oaths, nor observed the rites of hospitality, nor shewed mercy to those who sued for it. On this account they were doomed to destruction: and for this purpose there was a mighty eruption of waters from the earth, attended with heavy showers from above; so that the rivers swelled, and the sea overflowed, till the whole earth was covered with a flood, and all flesh drowned. Deucalion alone was preserved to repeople the world. This mercy was shewn to him on account of his justice and piety. His preservation was effected in this manner: He put all his family, both his sons and their wives, into a vast ark, which he had provided: and he went into it his self. At the same time animals of every species, boars, horses, lions, serpents, whatever lived upon the face of the earth, followed him by pairs: all which he received into the ark; and experienced no evil from them: for there prevailed a wonderful harmony throughout by the immediate influence of the Deity. Thus were they wafted with him as long as the flood endured. After this he proceeds to mention that, upon the disappearing of the waters, Deucalion went forth from the ark, and raised an48 [Lucian speaks of altars in the plural: [x]. What is here alluded to, is plain. See Genesis. c. 6. v. 20.] altar to God: but he transposes the scene to Hierapolis in Syria; where the natives pretended to have very particular memorials of the Deluge.[???!!!]

Most of the authors, who have transmitted to us these accounts, at the same time inform us, that the remains of the ark were in their days to be seen upon one of the mountains of Armenia. Abydenus particularly says in confirmation of this opinion, that the people of the country used to get some small pieces of the wood, which they carried about by way of amulet. And Berosus mentions, that they scraped off the asphaltus, with which it had been covered, and used it in like manner for a charm. And this is so far consonant to truth, as there was originally about the ark some ingredient of this nature. For when it was completed by Noah, he was ordered finally to secure it both within and without with pitch or49 [Genes. c. 8. v. 14. The Seventy make use of the same term as Berosus: [x].] bitumen. Some of the fathers, how truly informed I cannot say, seem to insist upon the certainty of the fact, that the ark in their time was still in being. Theophilus50 [[x]. Ad Autol. L. 3. p. 391.] says expressly that the remains were to be seen upon the mountains of Aram, or Armenia. And Chrysostom appeals to it, as to a thing well known:51 [[x]. De perfecta Charit. V. 6. p. 748. Edit. Savil.] Do not, says he, those mountains of Armenia bear witness to the truth? those mountains, where the Ark first rested? and are not the remains of it preserved there even unto this day?

Highlights:

Versions of two excerpts of his writings survive, at several removes from the original. Using ancient Babylonian records and texts that are now lost, Berossus published the Babyloniaca (hereafter, History of Babylonia) in three books some time around 290–278 BC, by the patronage of the Macedonian/Seleucid king Antiochus I Soter (during the third year of his reign, according to Diodorus Siculus [Failed verification]). Certain astrological fragments recorded by Pliny the Elder, Censorinus, Flavius Josephus, and Marcus Vitruvius Pollio are also attributed to Berossus, but are of unknown provenance, or indeed are uncertain as to where they might fit into his History. Vitruvius credits him with the invention of the semi-circular sundial hollowed out of a cubical block....

A separate work, Procreatio, is attributed to him by the Latin commentaries on Aratus, Commentariorium in Aratum Reliquiae, but there is no proof of this connection....

According to Vitruvius's work de Architectura, he relocated eventually to the island of Kos off the coast of Asia Minor and established a school of astrology there by the patronage of the king of Egypt. However, scholars have questioned whether it would have been possible to work under the Seleucids and then relocate to a region experiencing Ptolemaic control late in life. It is not known when he died.

Versions at several removes of the remains of Berossos' lost Babyloniaca are given by two later Greek epitomes that were used by the Christian Eusebius of Caesarea for his Chronological Canons, the Greek manuscripts of which have been lost, but which can be largely recovered by the Latin translation and continuation of Jerome and a surviving Armenian translation.... Pure history writing per se was not a Babylonian concern, and Josephus testifies to Berossus' reputation as an astrologer. The excerpts quoted recount mythology and history that relate to Old Testament concerns.... Lambert finds some statements in the Latin writers so clearly erroneous that it renders doubtful whether the writers had first-hand knowledge of Berossus' text.

Berossus' work was not popular during the Hellenistic period. The usual account of Mesopotamian history was Ctesias of Cnidus's Persica, while most of the value of Berossus was considered to be his astrological writings. Most pagan writers probably never read the History directly, and seem to have been dependent on Posidonius of Apamea (135–50 BC), who cited Berossos in his works....

Jewish and Christian references to Berossus probably had a different source, either Alexander Polyhistor (c. 65 BC) or Juba II of Mauretania (c. 50 BC–20 AD).... Josephus' records of Berossus include some of the only extant narrative material, but he is probably dependent on Alexander Polyhistor, even if he did give the impression that he had direct access to Berossus....

Like Poseidonius', neither Alexander's nor Juba's works have survived. However, the material in Berossus was recorded by Abydenus (c. 200 BC) and Sextus Julius Africanus (early 3rd century AD). Both their works are also lost...

The Greek text of the Chronicon is also now lost to us but there is an ancient Armenian translation (500–800 AD) of it, and portions are quoted in Georgius Syncellus's Ecloga Chronographica (c. 800–810 AD). Nothing of Berossus survives in Jerome's Latin translation of Eusebius. Eusebius' other mentions of Berossus in Praeparatio Evangelica are derived from Josephus, Tatianus, and another inconsequential source... what little of Berossus remains is very fragmentary and indirect. The most direct source of material on Berossus is Josephus, received from Alexander Polyhistor. Most of the names in his king-lists and most of the potential narrative content have been lost or completely mangled as a result. Only Eusebius and Josephus preserve narrative material, and both had agendas. Eusebius was looking to construct a consistent chronology across different cultures, while Josephus was attempting to refute the charges that there was a civilization older than that of the Jews. However, the ten ante-diluvian kings were preserved by Christian apologists interested in how the long lifespans of the kings were similar to the long lifespans of the ante-diluvian ancestors in the story of Genesis....

What is clear is that the form of writing he used was dissimilar to actual Babylonian literature, writing as he did in Greek.

Book 1 fragments are preserved in Eusebius and Syncellus above, and describe the Babylonian creation account and establishment of order, including the defeat of Thalatth (Tiamat) by Bel (Marduk). According to him, all knowledge was revealed to humans by the sea monster Oannes after the Creation...

Book 2 describes the history of the Babylonian kings from Alulim down to Nabonassar (747–734 BC). Eusebius reports that Apollodorus reports that Berossus recounts 432,000 years from the first king Aloros (Alulim) to the tenth king Xisouthros and the Babylonian Flood. From Berossus' genealogy, it is clear he had access to king-lists in compiling this section of History, particularly in the kings before the Flood, and from the 7th century BC with Senakheirimos (Sennacherib, who ruled both Assyria and Babylon). His account of the Flood (preserved in Syncellus) is extremely similar to versions of the Epic of Gilgamesh that we have presently. However, in Gilgamesh, the main protagonist is Utnapishtim, while for Berossus, Xisouthros is probably a Greek transliteration of Ziusudra, the protagonist of the Sumerian version of the Flood.

Perhaps what Berossus omits to mention is also noteworthy. Much information on Sargon (c. 2300 BC) would have been available during his time (e.g., a birth legend preserved at El-Amarna and in an Assyrian fragment from 8th century BC, and two Neo-Babylonian fragments), but these were not mentioned. Similarly, the great Babylonian king Hammurabi (ca. 1750 BC) merits only passing mention. He did, however, mention that the queen Semiramis (probably Sammuramat, wife of Samshi-Adad V, 824–811 BC) was Assyrian....

Book 3 relates the history of Babylon from Nabonassar to Antiochus I (presumably). Again, it is likely that he used king-lists, though it is not known which ones he used.... A large part of his history around the time of Naboukhodonosoros (Nebuchadnezzar II, 604–562 BC) and Nabonnedos (Nabonidus, 556–539 BC) survives. Here we see his interpretation of history for the first time, moralising about the success and failure of kings based on their moral conduct.... and differs from the rationalistic accounts of other Greek historians like Thucydides.....

he furnished details of his own life within his histories, which contrasted with the Mesopotamian tradition of anonymous scribes. Elsewhere, he included a geographical description of Babylonia, similar to that found in Herodotus (on Egypt), and used Greek classifications....

he constructed a narrative from Creation to his present, again similar to Herodotus or the Hebrew Bible. Within this construction, the sacred myths blended with history....

During his own time and later, however, the History of Babylonia was not distributed widely.... his material did not include as much narrative, especially of periods with which he was not familiar, even when potential sources for stories were available.

What is left of Berossus' writings is useless for the reconstruction of Mesopotamian history. Of greater interest to scholars is his historiography, using as it did both Greek and Mesopotamian methods. The affinities between it and Hesiod, Herodotus, Manethon, and the Hebrew Bible (specifically, the Torah and Deuteronomistic History)...

Each begins with a fantastic creation story, followed by a mythical ancestral period, and then finally accounts of recent kings who seem to be historical, with no demarcations in between....

In 1498, Annius of Viterbo (an official of Pope Alexander VI) claimed to have discovered lost books of Berossus. These were in fact an elaborate forgery. However, they greatly influenced Renaissance ways of thinking about population and migration, because Annius provided a list of kings from Japhet onwards, filling a historical gap following the Biblical account of the Flood. Annius also introduced characters from classical sources into the biblical framework, publishing his account as Commentaria super opera diversorum auctorum de antiquitatibus loquentium (Commentaries on the Works of Various Authors Discussing Antiquity). One consequence was sophisticated theories about Celtic races with Druid priests in Western Europe.

-- Berossus, by Wikipedia

Such was the Gentile history of the Deluge: varied indeed, and in some measure adapted to the prejudices of those who wrote; yet containing all the grand circumstances with which that catastrophe was attended. The story had been so inculcated, and the impressions left upon the minds of men were so strong, that they seem to have referred to it continually; and to have made it the principal subject of their religious institutions. I have taken notice of a custom among the priests of Amon, who at particular seasons used to carry in procession a boat, in which was an oracular shrine, held in great veneration. They were said to have been eighty in number; and to have carried the sacred vessel about, just as they were directed by the impulse of the Deity.52 [Diodor. Sicul. L. 17. p. 528. See Vol. i. p. 252 and Plate.] [x]. I mentioned at the same time, that this custom of carrying the Deity in an ark or boat was in use among the Egyptians, as well as the people of Ammonia. Bishop Pocock has preserved three specimens of ancient sculpture wherein this ceremony is displayed. They are of wonderful antiquity, and were found by him in upper Egypt. Two of them he copied at Luxorein in some apartments of the temple, which Diodorus Siculus so much celebrates.

Part of the ceremony in most of the ancient mysteries consisted in carrying about a kind of ship or boat; which custom upon due examination will be found to relate to nothing else but Noah, and the Deluge.53 [See Lexicon Pitisci. Iamblichus. Sect. 6. c. 5. p. 147. and notes, p. 285.] The ship of Isis is well known; and the celebrity among the Egyptians, whenever it was carried in public. The name of this, and of all the navicular shrines was Baris, which is very remarkable; for it was the very name of the mountain, according to Nicolaus Damascenus, on which the ark of Noah rested; the same as Ararat in Armenia.54 [Apud Euseb. Praep. Evang. L. 9. c. 11. p. 414. See also Nic. Damasc. apud Joseph. Jud. Antiq. L. i. c. 3. § 6. [x]. Diodor. Sic. L. I. p. 87 of the sacred boat, in which the dead were transported to the Charonian plains. Strabo, L. 11. p. 803 mentions a Goddess Baris in Armenia, who had a temple at mount Abus. Herodotus speaks of Baris as the Egyptian name of a ship. L. 2. c. 96. See Euripides, Iphig. in Aulis. v. 297. and AEschyli Persae. p. 151. [x]. Lycophron. v. 747.] [x]. There is a large mountain in Armenia, which stands above the country of the Minyae, called Baris; to this it was said, that many people betook themselves in the time of the Deluge, and were saved: and there is a tradition of one person in particular floating in an ark, and arriving at the summit of the mountain. We may be assured then that the ship of Isis was a sacred emblem: in honour of which there was among the Egyptians an annual festival. It was in aftertimes admitted among the Romans, and set down in their55 [Calendarium Rusticum mense Martio habet Istdis navigium, quod est Aegyptiorum sestum, a Romanis admissum. [Google translate: The Rustic Calendar in March has a boat that is The scorching heat of the Egyptians, admitted by the Romans.] Marsh. Can. Chron. Sect. 14. p. 356. See Gruter's Inscript. p. 138.] Calendar for the month of March. The former in their descriptions of the primary deities have continually some reference to a ship or float. Hence we frequently read of56 [Jamblich. de Myster. Sect. 7. c. 2.] [x]. They oftentimes says57 [[x]. Porphyry apud Euseb. P. E. L. 3. p. 115.] Porphyry, describe the sun in the character of a man sailing on a float. And Plutarch observes to the same purpose, that they did not represent the sun and the moon in chariots;58 [Isis et. Osiris. p. 364. See also Euseb. Praep. Evang. L. 3. c. 11. p. 115. Clemens Alexand. Strom. L. 5. p. 670. [x].] [x], but wafted about upon floating machines. In doing which they did not refer to the luminaries; but to a personage represented under those titles. The Sun, or Orus, is likewise described by Iamblichus as sitting upon the lotus, and59 [[x] Iamblichus de Myst. Sect. 7. p. 151.] sailing in a vessel.

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Part 3 of 3

It is said of Sesostris, that he constructed a60 [Diodor. Sicul. L. i. p. 52.] ship, which was two hundred and eighty cubits in length. It was of cedar; plated without with gold, and inlaid with silver: and it was, when finished, dedicated to Osiris at Thebes. It is not credible that there should have been a ship of this size, especially in an inland district, the most remote of any in Egypt. It was certainly a temple, and a shrine. The former was framed upon this large scale: and it was the latter, on which the gold and silver were so lavishly expended.[!!!] There is a remarkable circumstance relating to the Argonautic expedition, that the dragon slain by Jason was of the dimensions of a61 [[x]. Pind. Pyth. Od. 4. p. 261. [x]. Schol. ibid.] Trireme: by which must be meant that it was of the shape of a ship in general; for there were no Triremes at the time alluded to. And I have moreover shewn, that all these dragons, as they have been represented by the poets, were in reality temples, Dracontia; where, among other rites, the worship of the serpent was instituted.[!!!] There is therefore reason to think that this temple, as well as that of Sesostris, was fashioned in respect to its superficial contents after the model of a ship: and as to the latter it was probably intended in its outlines to be the exact representation of the ark, in commemoration of which it was certainly built. It was a temple sacred to Osiris at Theba; or, to say the truth, it was itself called Theba: and both the city, said to be one of the most ancient in Egypt, as well as the Province, was undoubtedly62 [[x]. Aristot. Meteorol. V. 1. 1. i. p. 771. Theba and Diospolis the same: [x]. Diodorus Sicul. L. i. p. 88. Theba now called Minio, according to Sanson. [x]. Hesych.] denominated from it. Now Theba was the very name of the ark. When Noah was ordered to construct a vessel, in which he and his family were to be preserved, he was directed in express terms to build [x], Theba, an ark. It is the very63 [According to the Grecian mode of allegorizing, Theba was said to have been the daughter of Prometheus, who gave name to the place: [x]. Steph. Byzant. [x]. Apollodor. L. 3. p. 145.] word made use of by the sacred writer: so that we may, I think, be assured of the prototype, after which this temple was fashioned. It is said, indeed, to have been only two hundred and eighty cubits in length: whereas the64 [Genes. c. 6. v. 15.] ark of Noah was three hundred. But this is a variation of only one sixteenth in the whole: and, as the ancient cubit was not in all countries the same; we may suppose that this disparity arose rather from the manner of measuring, than from any real difference in the extent of the building. It was an idolatrous temple; said to have been built by Sesostris in honour of Osiris. I have been repeatedly obliged to take notice of the ignorance of the Greeks in respect to ancient titles; and have shewn their misapplication of terms in many instances: especially in their supposing temples to have been erected by persons, to whom they were in reality sacred. Sesostris was Osiris; the same as Dionusus, Menes, and Noah. He is called Seisithrus by Abydenus, Xixouthros by Berosus and Apollodorus; and is represented by them as a prince, in whose time the Deluge happened. He was called Zuth, Xuth, and Zeus: and had certainly divine honours paid to him.

The same memorial is to be observed in other countries, where an ark, or ship was introduced in their mysteries, and often carried about upon their festivals. Pausanias gives a remarkable account of a temple of Hercules at Eruthra in Ionia; which he mentions as of the highest antiquity, and very like those in Egypt. The Deity was represented upon a float; and was supposed to have come thither in this manner from Phenicia.65 [L. 7. p. 534.] [x].66 [Orat. Smyrn. V. i. p. 402. He speaks of the custom as of late date: but the festival of Dionusus warrants the antiquity. See Dio. L. 39. p, 62. [x], a similar rite.] Aristides mentions that at Smyrna, upon the coast called Dionusia, a ship used to be carried in procession. The same custom prevailed among the Athenians at the Panathenaea, when what was termed the sacred ship was borne with great reverence through the city to the temple of Damater of Elusis. At Phalerus near Athens there were honours paid to an unknown hero, who was represented in the stern of a ship:67 [Clemen. Alexand. Cohort. V. i. p. 35. See Aristophan.[x]. v. 563. of the ship at the Panathenaea. [x]. Pausan. L. i. p. 70. Of the ship sent to Delos see Callimach. Hymn, in Delum. Not. ad v. 314. p. 204.] [x]. At Olympia, the most sacred place in Greece, was a representation of the like nature. It was a building like the fore part of a ship, which stood facing the end of the Hippodromus: and towards the middle of it was an altar, upon which at the renewal of each Olympiad particular rites were performed:

68 [Pausan. L. 6. p. 503.] [x]

It is said of Lamech, that he received great consolation at the birth of his son: and that he prophetically69 [Genes. c. 5. v. 29.] called his name Noah; saying, "This same shall comfort us concerning our work, and toil of our hands; because of the ground, which the Lord hath cursed. Agreeably to this the name of Noah was by the Grecians interpreted rest and comfort:70 [Hesych. [x]. Theoph. ad Autolyc. L. 3. p. 391.] [x]. This seems to have been alluded to at the Eleusinian mysteries. Part of the ceremony was a night scene, attended with tears and lamentations, on account of some person who was supposed to have been lost: but at the close a priest used to present himself to the people, who were mourning, and bid them be of good courage, for the Deity whom they lamented as lost was preserved; and that they would now have some comfort, some respite, after all their labour. The words in the original are very particular:

71 [Jul. Firmicus. p. 45. Edit. Ouzel.] [x].

To which was added, what is equally remarkable;

72 [Demosthen. [x]. p. 568.] [x].

I have escaped a calamity; and have met with a better portion. This was the same rite as that in Egypt, called [x] and [x]; both which were celebrated in the month Athyr. [i]It was called in Canaan the death and revival of Adonis or Thamuz, who was the Osiris and Thamas of Egypt.

Some rites, similar to those, which I have been describing in the exhibition of the sacred ship Baris, are mentioned in the story of the Argonauts. Their ship is said to have been stranded among the Syrtes of Africa, by which means their progress was interrupted: and at the same time there was no opening for a retreat. The heroes on board were at last told that there was no way to obtain the assistance of the gods but by performing what appears to have been a mystical rite. They were to take the ship on their shoulders and carry it over land for a season. This was effected by twelve of them who bore it for several days and nights, till they came to the river Triton where they found an outlet to the sea. Apollonius speaks of the whole as a mystery.

73 [Apollon. Argonaut. L. 4. v. 1381. See Pind. Pyth. Od. 4. v. 36.] [x]

It is to be remarked in those copies of the sculptures, which bishop Pocock observed among the ruins at ancient Thebes, that the extremities in each of the boats are fashioned nearly alike; and that there is no distinction of head and stern. This kind of vessel was copied by the Greeks, and styled74 [See Vol. I. p. 252. Hyginus calls it navim biproram. Fab. 168. and 277. Tunc primum dicitur Minerva navim secisse biproram. [Google translate: See Vol. I, p. 252 Hyginus calls it a boat bimram. Fab. 168. and 277. Then for the first time it is said Minerva had cut the ship in half.]] [x], Amphiprumnais. It is recorded, when Danaus came from Egypt to Argos, that he crossed the seas in a ship of this form: in which circumstance there must have been some mysterious allusion; otherwise it was of little consequence to mention the particular shape of the ship, which he was supposed to have navigated. There was certainly something sacred in these kinds of vessels; something which was esteemed salutary; and in proof of it, among other accounts given of them, we have this remarkable one.75 [Hesych.] [x] The Amphiprumna are a kind of ships sent upon any salutary occasion. In short, they were always looked upon as holy and of good omen.

I think it is pretty plain, that all these emblematical representations, of which I have given so many instances, related to the history of the Deluge, and the conservation of one family in the ark. I have before taken notice that this history was pretty recent when these works were executed in Egypt; and when these rites were first established: and there is reason to think, that in early times, most shrines among the Mizraim were formed under the resemblance of a ship in memory of this great event. Nay, further, both ships and temples received their names from hence; being styled by the Greeks, who borrowed largely from Egypt, [x] and [x], and Mariners [x], Nautaa, in reference to the Patriarch, who was variously styled Noas, Naus, and Noah.

However the Greeks may in their mysteries have sometimes introduced a ship as a symbol; yet in their references to the Deluge itself, and to the persons preserved, they always speak of an ark, which they call,76 [Plato of Deucalion and his wife; [x]. See also Nonnus. L. 6. p. 200. [x]. Theophil. ad Autolyc. L. 3. p. 391. [x] Theocrit. Idyll. 7. v. 78.] [x], Larnax, [x], and the like. And though they were apt to mention the same person under various titles; and by these means different people seem to be made principals in the same history: yet they were so far uniform in their accounts of this particular event, that they made each of them to be preserved in an ark. Thus it is said of Deucalion, Perseus and Dionusus, that they were exposed upon the waters in a machine of this fabrick. Adonis was hid in an77 [Apollodorus. L. 3. p. 194.] ark by Venus; and was supposed to have been in a state of death for a year.

78 [Theocrit. Idyll. 15. v. 102.] [x].

Theocritus introduces a pastoral personage Comates, who was exposed in an ark for the same term, and wonderfully preserved.

79 [Theocrit. Idyll. 7. v. 85. Com- Ait: two titles of Helius.] [x].

Of Osiris being exposed in an ark we have a very remarkable account in80 [Isis and Osir. v. i. p. 366, 367. See Lightfoot of the ancient year beginning in Autumn. Vol. i. p. 707. See the Account of the Flood, when Prometheus reigned in Egypt, as it is mentioned by Diodor. Sicul. L. i. p. 16.] Plutarch, who mentions that it was on account of Typhon, and that it happened on the seventeenth of the month Athyr when the Sun was in Scorpio. This, in my judgment, was the precise time when Noah entered the ark, and when the flood came, which in the Egyptian mythology was termed Typhon.[!!!]

From what has preceded the reader will perceive that the history of the Deluge was no secret to the Gentile world. They held the memory of it very sacred: and many colonies, which went abroad, styled themselves Thebeans in reference to the ark. Hence there occur many cities of the the name of Theba; not in Egypt only and Boeotia, but in Cilicia, Ionia, Attica, Pthiotis, Cataonia, Syria, and Italy. It was sometimes expressed Thiba: a town of which name was in Pontus:81 [Steph. Byzantin. It was said to have been built by the Amazons. From the Amazons being Thebeans, we may judge of their race, and true history.[!!!]] [x]. It is called Thibis by82 [Plin. L. 7. c. 2. [x]. Pint. Sympos. L. 5. c. 7.] Pliny. He mentions a notion which prevailed that the people of this place could not sink in water; eosdem non posse mergi [Google translate: same unable to sink.]. We may see in this a remote allusion to the name of the place and people, and to the history which they had preserved.

There was another term, besides Theba, under which the Grecians represented the ark. It was called [x], Cibotus, which however I do not imagine to have been a word of Grecian original: as both an83 [One of the havens at Alexandria. Strab. L. 17. p. 1145.] haven in Egypt, and a84 [[x]. Strabo. L. 12. p. 854.] city of great antiquity in Phrygia, were denominated in the same manner. The fathers of the Greek church, when they treat of the ark, interpret it in this manner, [x]. It is also the term made use of by the85 [[x]. Genes. c. 6. v. 14. Edit. Ald.] Seventy; and even by the86 [Hebr. c. 11. v. 7. i Pet. c. 3. v. 20.] Apostles themselves. The city Cibotus, which I mentioned to have been in Phrygia, stood far inland upon the fountains of the river Marsyas: and we may judge from its name that it had reference to the same history. Indeed, all over this part of the world memorials of the deluge seem to have been particularly preserved. This city was also called Apamea;87 [Strab. L. 12. p. 864. It was, undoubtedly the same as Celaenae, of which I have treated before; and which I have shewn to have been named from its situation. Celaenae I should imagine was the name of the city, and Cibotus was properly the temple, which distinction was not attended to in former times. Migratum inde haud procul veteribus Celaenis; novaeque urbi Apamaea nomen inditum ab Apamea forore Seleuci Regis. Liv. L. 38. c. 13. Tertius Apameam vadit, ante appellatam Celaenas, deinde Ciboton. Plin. L. 5. c. 29. [Google translate: Migration thence not far from the ancient Celaeni; and the new city Apamaea was given the name by Apamea, king of Seleucus. Liv. L. 38. c. 13. Third Apamea He goes, first called Celaenas, then Ciboton. Plin. L. 5. c. 29.]] [x]: which name of Apamea is said to have been conferred upon it in latter times. It was undoubtedly named Cibotus in memory of the ark, and of the history with which it is connected. And in proof of this, we shall find that the people had preserved more particular and authentic traditions concerning the flood, and the preservation of mankind through Noah, than are to be met with elsewhere. The learned88 [Octav. Falconerii Dissertatio de nummo Apameensi, Deucalionei diluvii typum exhibente; ad Petr. Seguinum. S. Germani Antissiodor. Paris. Decanum. Ex Libro, cui titulus, Selesta Numismata Antiqua ex Museo Petr. Seguini. Paris. 1684. He mentions another coin similar to the above, and struck by the same people, who are styled Magnetes Apameenses. On one side is the head of Severus crowded with laurel: on the other, the ark with the same persons in it, and the like circumstances described: above, [x] The two last syllables of [x] are upon the blank space of the ark. There is a coin of the emperor Adrian; the reverse a river-god, between two rocks, like the Petras Ambrosiae: inscribed [x]. Also a coin with a ship: inscribed [x]. Patini Numism. p. 413.] Falconerius has a curious dissertation upon a coin of Philip the elder which was struck at this place, and contained on its reverse an epitome of this history. The reverse of most Asiatic coins relate to the religion and mythology of the places where they were struck. The inscription upon the forepart is [x]. Upon the reverse is delineated a kind of square machine, floating upon the water. Through an opening in it are seen two persons, a man and a woman, as low as to the breast, and upon the head of the woman is a veil. Over this ark is a kind of triangular pediment on which there sits a dove, and below it another which seems to flutter its wings, and holds in its mouth a small branch of a tree. Before the machine is a man following a woman, who by their attitude seem to have just quitted it, and to have gotten upon dry land. Upon the ark itself, underneath the persons there inclosed, is to be read in distinct characters, [x]. The learned Editor of this account say, that it had fallen to his lot to meet with three of these coins. They were of brass, and of the medaglion size; one of them he mentions to have seen in the collection of the duke of Tuscany; the second in that of the cardinal Ottoboni; and the third was the property of Augustino Chigi, nephew to pope Alexander the seventh. Nor had this people only traditions of the Deluge in general. There seems to have been a notion that the ark itself rested upon the hills of Celaenae, where the city Cibotus was founded; for the Sibylline oracles, wherever they may be supposed to have been composed, include these hills under the name of Ararat, and mention this circumstance.

URI https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/20588json ttl rdf xml
Volume VIII
Number — (unassigned; ID 20588)
Province Asia
Subprovince Conventus of Apamea
Region Phrygia
City Apamea
Reign Philip I
Person (obv.) Philip I (Augustus)
Magistrate M. Aur(elius) Alexandros II, grandson of Bel(—) (high priest)
Issue First issue
Obverse inscription ΑΥΤ Κ ΙΟΥΛ ΦΙΛΙΠΠΟϹ ΑΥΓ
Obverse design laureate, draped and cuirassed bust of Philip I, r., seen from rear
Reverse inscription ƐΠ Μ ΑΥΡ ΑΛƐΖΑΝΔΡΟΥ Β ΑΡΧΙ ΑΠΑΜƐΩΝ, ΝΩƐ (on ark)
Reverse design male and female figures in Noah's ark, floating on waves, l., surmounted by raven and dove holding branch in beak; in front, male and female figures standing l.
Metal Æ
Average diameter 35 mm
Average weight 19.41 g
Axis 5, 6, 7, 12
Specimens 17

RPC VIII, by https://rpc.ashmus.ox.ac.uk/type/20588

89 [Orac. Sibyllin. p. 180.] [x]

We may perceive a wonderful correspondence between the histories here given, and of the place from whence they came. The best memorials of the ark were here preserved, and the people were styled Magnetes, and their city Cibotus: and upon their coins was the figure of the ark under the name of [x]: all which will be further explained hereafter. Not far from Cibotus was a city called90 [Near Beudos in Pisidia, and not a great way from Cibotus. Ptolem. L. 5. p. 142. Hieroclis Synecdemus. Pisidia. p. 673. Beudos, Baris, Boeotus, were all of the same purport.] Baris, which was a name of the same purport as the former; and was certainly founded in memory of the same event. Cibotus signified an ark, and was often used for a repository: but differed from [x], cista, by being made use of either for things sacred, or for things of great value, like the Camilla of the Latines:91 [Schol. in Aristophan. [x]. v. 1208.] [x]. The rites of Damater related to the ark and deluge, like those of Isis: and the sacred emblems, whatever they may have been, were carried in an holy machine, called92 [Pausan. L. 10. p. 866.] [x].

The ark, according to the traditions of the Gentile world, was prophetic; and was looked upon as a kind of temple, a place of residence of the Deity. In the compass of eight persons it comprehended all mankind: which eight persons were thought to be so highly favoured by Heaven that they were looked up to by their posterity with great reverence, and came at last to be reputed Deities. Hence in the ancient mythology of Egypt there were precisely eight93 [Diodor. Sicul. L. i. p. 12.] Gods: of these the Sun was the chief, and was said first to have reigned. Some made Hephaistus the first king of that country, while others supposed it to have been Pan.94 [Herodot. L. 2. c. 145.] [x]. There is in reality no inconsistency in these accounts, for they were all three titles of the same Deity, the Sun: and when divine honours began to be paid to men the Amonians conferred these titles upon the great Patriarch, as well as upon his son Amon.95 [There is reason to think that the Patriarch Noah had the name of Amon as well as his son. The cities styled No-Amon, and Amon-No, were certainly named from Noah. According to Plutarch Amon signified occultus. Isis et Osiris. P. 354.] And, as in the histories of their kings, the Egyptians were able to trace the line of their descent upwards to these ancient96 [[x]. Diodor. Sicul. L. i. p. 12.] personages; the names of the latter were by these means prefixed to those lists: and they were in aftertimes thought to have reigned in that country. This was the celebrated Og-doas of Egypt, which their posterity held in such veneration that they exalted them to the heavens, and made their history the chief subject of the sphere. This will appear very manifest in their symbolical representation of the solar system; of which Martianus Capella has transmitted to us a very curious specimen97 [Martian. Capella. Satyric. L. 2. p. 43.]. Ibi (in systemate solari) quandam navem totius naturae cursibus diversa cupiditate moderantem, cunctaque fIammarum congestione plenissimam, et beatis circumactam mercibus conspicimus; cui nautae septem, germani tamen suique similes, praesidebant. In eadem vero rate sons quidam lucis aethereae, arcanisque fluoribus manans, in totius mundi lumina fundebatur [Google translate: There (in the solar system) a ship a passion for controlling the different courses of the whole nature, and everything fullest and blessed we see wares; who had seven sailors, yet German and their like, presided. At the same rate as sons some of the ethereal light and the mysterious fluids emanating from the whole the lights of the world were poured on.]. Thus we find that they esteemed the ark an emblem of the system of the heavens. And when they began to distinguish the stars in the firmament, and to reduce them to particular constellations, there is reason to think that most of the asterisms were formed with the like reference. For although the delineations of the sphere have by the Greeks, through whose hands we receive them, been greatly abused, yet there still remains sufficient evidence to shew that such reference subsisted. The watery sign Aquarius, and the great effusion of that element as it is depicted in the sphere, undoubtedly related to this history. Some said that the person meant in the character of Aquarius was Ganymede. Hegefianax maintained that it was Deucalion, and related to the deluge.98 [Hygin. Poet. Astronom. c. 29. p. 482. Audi Scholiasten Germanici Aquario -- Nigidius Hydrochoon sive Aquarium existimat esse Deucalionem Thessalum, qui in maximo cataclysmo sit relictus cum uxore Pyrrha in monte AEtna, qui est altissimus in Sicilia. Not. in Hygin. Fab. 153. p. 265. ex Germanici Scholiaste. [Google translate: Hygin. Poet. Astronom. c. 29. p. 482 Hear the Scholiast of Germanic Aquarius -- Nigidius Hydrochoon or Aquarius he considers it to be Deucalion thessalus, who was rescued in the greatest deluge his wife Pyrrha on Mount Aetna, which is the highest in Sicily. Not. in Hygin. Fab. 153. p. 265. from the German Scholiast.]] Hegefianax autem Deucalionem dicit esse, quod, eo regnante, tanta vis aquae se de coelo prosuderit, ut cataclysmus factus effe diceretur. Eubulus autem Cecropem demonstrat esse; antiquitatem generis commemorans, et ostendens, antequam vinum traditum sit hominibus, aqua in sacrificiis Deorum usos esse; et ante Cecropem regnasse, quam vinum sit inventum [Google translate: Hegefianax and Deucalion he says that it was because during his reign so great a quantity of water profited himself from heaven so that the deluge was said to have been effected. Eubulus He proves that it was Cecrops; Referring to the antiquity of the race and showing that before wine was delivered to men that water was used in the sacrifices of the Gods; and that before Cecrops had reigned which wine is found.]. The reader may here judge whether Cecrops, the celebrated king of Attica who lived before the plantation of the vine, and was figured under the character of Aquarius like Deucalion, to any other than Deucalion himself, the Noah of the east.

Noah was represented, as we may infer from99 [Eusebii Chron. p. 6.] Berosus, under the semblance of a fish by the Babylonians, and those representations of fishes in the sphere probably related to him and his sons. The reasons given for their being placed there were that Venus, when she fled from100 [Hygin. Poet. Astron. c. 41. p. 494.] Typhon, took the form of a fish; and that the fish, styled Notius, saved Isis in some great extremity: pro quo beneficio simulacrum Piscis et ejus siliorum, de quibus ante diximus, inter astra constituit [Google translate: for which benefit the image of a fish and his sons, of whom we have spoken before set among the stars.]: for which reason Venus placed the fish Notius and his sons among the stars. By this we may perceive that Hyginus speaks of these asterisms as representations of persons, and he mentions from Eratosthenes that the fish Notius was the father of mankind:1 [Eratosthenes ex eo pisce natos homines dicit. Hygin. Poet. Astron. L. 2. c. 30. [Google translate: Eratosthenes says that men are born of that fish.]] ex eo pisce natos homines [Google translate: fish out of it in human history.].

It is said of Noah that after the deluge he built the first2 [[x]. Theon. ad Arctum. p. 46. Nonnulli cum Eratosthene dicunt, eum Cratera esse, quo Icarius sit usus, cum hominibus ostenderet vinum. Hygin. Fab. 140. p. 494. [Google translate: x. Theon. to the pole. p. 46. Some say, with Eratosthenes, that he was a crater that it was what Icarus used to do when he showed the wine to the men. Hygin. Fab. 140. p. 494.] altar to God: which is a circumstance always taken notice of in the history given of him by Gentile writers. He is likewise mentioned as the first planter of the vine; and the inventer of wine itself, and of Zuth or ferment, by which similar liquors were manufactured. We may therefore suppose that both the altar, and the crater, or cup, related to these circumstances. This history of the raven is well known, which he sent out of the ark by way of experiment; but it disappointed him and never returned. The bird is figured in the sphere, and a tradition is mentioned that3 [Missus ad sontem aquam puram petitum. [Google translate: Sent to the guilty party for clean water.] Hygin. c. 40. p. 492.] the raven was once sent on a message by Apollo, but deceived him and did not return when he was expected. It may seem extraordinary if these figures relate to the history, which I suppose, that there should be no allusion to the dove and to the particulars of its return. I make no doubt but it was to be found in the Chaldaic and Egyptian spheres, but in that of Greece there is in the southern hemisphere a vast interval of unformed star,; which were omitted by the astronomers of that country as being either seldom seen, or else totally4 [The Pleiades are Peleiades or Doves; and were placed in the heavens to denote by their rising an auspicious season for mariners to sail. They were the daughters of Pleione. See Natal. Comes. L. 4. c. 7.] obscured from their view. The Argo however, that sacred ship, which was said to have been framed by divine wisdom, is to be found there; and was certainly no other than the5 [Hygin. c. 14. p. 55. [x]. Apollon. Rhod. L. i. v. 18.] ark. The Grecians supposed it to have been built at Pagasae in Thessaly, and thence navigated to Colchis. I shall hereafter shew the improbability of this story, and it is to be observed that this very harbour, where it was supposed to have been constructed, was called the port6 [Hence many Deucalions. See Schol. in Apollon. Rhod. L. 3. v. 1085. Deucalion is esteemed an Argonaut. Hygin. c. 14. p. 50.] of Deucalion. This alone would be a strong presumption, that in the history of the place there was a reference to the Deluge. The Grecians placed every ancient record to their own account; their country was the scene of every7 [Here also were the islands of Deucalion and Pyrrha in the bay. Strabo. L. 9. p. 665.] action. The people of Thessaly maintained that Deucalion was exposed to a flood in8 [Servius in Virg. Eclog. 6. v. 41.] their district, and saved upon mount Athos: the people of Phocis make him to be driven to9 [Pausan. L. 10. p. 811.] Parnassus; the Dorians in Sicily say he landed upon mount10 [Qui (Deucalion et Pyrrha) in montem AEtnam, qui altissimus in Sicilia esse dicitur, sugerunt. Hygin. c. 153. p. 265. [Google translate: Who (Deucalion and Pyrrha) is on Mount Etna, which is the highest in Sicily it is said, they fled. Hygin. c. 153. p. 265.]] AEtna. Lastly, the natives of Epiras suppose him to have been of their country, and to have founded the ancient temple of11 [Plutarch, in Pyrrho. The people in Megara supposed the person saved in the deluge to have been Megarus, the son of Jupiter, who swam to the summit of mount Gerania. Pausan. L. i. p. 96.] Dodona. In consequence of this they likewise have laid claim to his history. In respect to the Argo, it was the same as the ship of Noah, of which the Baris in Egypt was a representation. It was called by Plutarch the ship of Osiris; that Osiris, who, as I have mentioned, was exposed in an ark to avoid the fury of Typhon:12 [Plutarch. Isis et Osiris. V. 2. p. 359.] [x]. The vessel in the celestial sphere, which the Grecians call the Argo, is a representation of the ship of Osiris, which out of reverence has been placed in the heavens. The original therefore of it must be looked for in Egypt.13 [A Deluge of this nature was supposed to have happened in Egypt. [x]. Diodor. Sicul. L. i. p. 16. To attribute this Deluge to the Nile is idle: A Deluge of the Nile happened every year. This related to Prometheus, or Noah.]. The very name of the Argo shews what it alluded to; for Argus, as it should be truly expressed, signified precisely an ark, and was synonymous to Theba. It is made use of in that sense by the priests and diviners of the Philistim; who, when the ark of God was to be restored to the Israelites, put the presents of atonements, which were to accompany it, into an14 [I Samuel, c. 6. v. 8, 11, 15. The word occurs only in the history of this, Philistine transaction; and in the Alexand. MSS. is rendered [x].] Argus, [x], or sacred receptacle. And as they were the Caphtorim who made use of this term to signify an holy vessel, we may presume that it was not unknown in Egypt, the region from whence they came. For this people were the children of15 [Genesis. c. 10. v. 13. And Mizraim begat Ludim -- and Patbrusim, and Castuhim (out of whom came Philistim), and Caphtorim. Deuteron. c. 2. v. 23. The Caphtorim, which came forth out of Caphtor. Jerem. c. 47. v. 4. The Philistine, the remnant of the country of Caphtor. Amos. c. 9. v. 7. Have not I brought the Philistines from Caphtor?] Mizraim, as well as the native Egyptians; and their language must necessarily have been a dialect of that country. I have mentioned that many colonies went abroad under the title of Thebeans, or Arkites; and in consequence of this built cities called Theba. In like manner, there were many cities built of the name of16 [[x]. Hesych.] Argos; particularly in Thessaly, Boeotia, Epirus, and17 [Cluverii Sicilia. p. 394.] Sicily: whence it is that in all these places there is some tradition of Deucalion and the ark, however it may have been misapplied. The whole Peloponnesus was once called both Apia and Argos. As there were many temples called both Theba and Argus in memory of the ark, they had priests which were denominated accordingly. Those, who officiated at the shrines termed Argus were called Argeiphontai, from the Egyptian18 [See Jablonsky Pantheon AEgypt. Pars prima. p. 139.] phont, which signified a priest. But the Greeks, interpreting this term by words in their own language, supposed what was a priest to have been a slayer, or murderer. They accordingly turned the Argo into a man whom, from a confused notion of the starry system, they supposed to abound with eyes, and made Hermes cut off his head. People styled Argeiphontes, Cresphontes, Hierophantes, Leucophontes, Citharaphontes, Deiphontes, were all originally priests. The Scholiast upon Sophocles called Argus,19 [Schol. in Sophocl. Elect. v. 5.] [x], Argus, [x], or Canis, is precisely of the same purport, as Argeiphontes: a priest of the ark.

The constellation of Argo, as it is delineated, represents the hinder part only of a ship; the forepart being hid in clouds. It was supposed to have been oracular, and conducted at the will of the Deity. Upon the temo or rudder is a very bright star, the chief in the asterism, which was called Canopus. It lies too low in the southern hemisphere to be easily seen in Greece. It was placed on the rudder of the ark to shew by whose influence it was directed. Yet in doing this they lost sight of the great Director, by whose guidance it had been really conducted; and gave the honour to a man. For under the character of Canopus, as well as Canobus, is veiled the history of the patriarch Noah. There was a city, or rather a temple, towards the most western outlet of the Nile, which was denominated in the same manner, and gave name to the stream. It was expressed Canopus, Canobus, Canoubis; and is mentioned by Dionysius, who speaks of it as a place of great fame:

20 [Dionys. Perieg. v. 12. Of the idle pretensions of the Greeks, and their giving the honour of this place to a pilot of Menelaus, I have spoken before: and of the story being confuted by a priest of Egypt. See Aristid. Orat. AEgyptiaca. The story of Menelaus and Proteus was borrowed from that of Hercules and Nereus; as may be seen in Schol. in Apollon. Rhod. L. 4. v. 1397. The account is taken from the third book of the Libyca of Argoetas.] [x]

As the Patriarch was esteemed the author of the first ship which was navigated, he was in consequence of it made the god of seamen; and his temple was termed21 [Stephanus Byzantin.] [x]. He was esteemed the same as Serapis: and inscriptions have been found dedicated to him under the title of [x].

Serapis or Sarapis ("Osiris-Apis") or Sorapis is a Graeco-Egyptian deity. The cult of Serapis was pushed forward during the third century BC on the orders of Greek Pharaoh Ptolemy I Soter of the Ptolemaic Kingdom in Egypt as a means to unify the Greeks and Egyptians in his realm. A serapeum was any temple or religious precinct devoted to Serapis. The cultus of Serapis was spread as a matter of deliberate policy by the Ptolemaic kings. Serapis continued to increase in popularity during the Roman Empire, often replacing Osiris as the consort of Isis in temples outside Egypt.

Serapis was depicted as Greek in appearance but with Egyptian trappings, and combined iconography from a great many cults, signifying both abundance and resurrection. Though Ptolemy I may have created the official cult of Serapis and endorsed him as a patron of the Ptolemaic dynasty and Alexandria, Serapis was a syncretistic deity derived from the worship of the Egyptian Osiris and Apis and also gained attributes from other deities, such as chthonic powers linked to the Greek Hades and Demeter, and benevolence linked to Dionysus.

There is evidence that the cult of Serapis existed before the Ptolemies came to power in Alexandria: a temple of Serapis in Egypt is mentioned in 323 BC by both Plutarch (Life of Alexander, 76) and Arrian (Anabasis, VII, 26, 2). The common assertion that Ptolemy "created" the deity is derived from sources which describe him erecting a statue of Serapis in Alexandria: this statue enriched the texture of the Serapis conception by portraying him in both Egyptian and Greek style.

In 389, a Christian mob led by Pope Theophilus of Alexandria destroyed the Serapeum of Alexandria, but the cult survived until all forms of pagan religion were suppressed under Theodosius I in 391.

-- Serapis, by Wikipedia

In this temple, or rather college, was a seminary for astronomy, and other marine sciences. Ptolemy, the great Geographer, to whom the world is so much indebted, was a member of this society, and studied here22 [Olympiodorus. See Jablonsky. L. 5. c. 4. p. 136.] forty years. The name of the temple was properly Ca Noubi: the latter part, Noubi, is the oracle of Noah.

Niobe was the same name and person, though by the Greeks mentioned as a woman. She is represented as one who was given up to grief, having been witness to the death of all her children. Her tears flowed day and night, till she at last stiffened with woe and was turned into a stone, which was to be seen on mount Sipylus in Magnesia.

23 [Sophocles. Electra. v. 150.] [x]

Pausanias had the curiosity to ascend mount Sipylus in order to take a view of this venerable24 [[x]. Pausan. L. i. p. 49. [x]. Pausan. L. S. p. 601.] figure. He say, that he beheld an abrupt rocky clift, which at a near view had no appearance of a person grieving, or of a human likeness; but at a distance had some resemblance of a woman shedding tears. Niobe is often mentioned as a person concerned in the deluge; at least is introduced with persons who had an immediate relation to it.25 [Eusebii Chron. p. 24. 1. 55.] [x]. Plato in his Timaeus speaking of the most ancient times, mentions the age of Phoroneus and Niobe, as such; and the aera of the first deluge under Ogyges. In the passage alluded to she is joined with Phoroneus and Deucalion, two persons principally concerned in that event. It occurs where Plato is speaking26 [Plato in Timaeo. Vol. 3. p. 22.] [x], , of the first Phoroneus and Niobe, and of the things subsequent to the deluge of Deucalion. Sophocles in the passage above speaks of her as a Deity: and she is said to have been worshiped in27 [Athenagoras. p. 290. [x].] Cilicia. By some she was represented as the mother of28 [[x]. Pausan. L. 2. p. 191. 145. Homer. Schol. L. i. v. 123.] Argus.



As the ancients described the ark, the [x], like a lunette; it was in consequence of it called [x], and [x], which signify a Moon: and a crescent became a common symbol on this occasion. The chief person likewise, the Patriarch, had the name of Meen and Menes, and was worshiped all over the east as Deus Lunus; especially at Carrhae, Edessa, and other cities of Syria and Mesopotamia. His votaries were styled Minyae; which name was given to them from the object of their worship. Wherever the history of the Deluge occurs these names will be found. I have spoken of the cities of Phrygia, and the memorials there preserved. At Caroura near mount Sipylus, Zeus was worshiped under the title of Meen, Menes, and Manes: and his temple is taken notice of by Strabo;29 [L. 12. p. 869. [x], Car-Our, Templum Ori. Orus was the same as Menes.] [x] (not [x]) [x]. Close under the same mountain stood the city Magnesi,; which signifies the city of Manes, but expressed with a guttural Magnes. The people of the country were called Minyae. Some persons from this place, styled Magnetes apud Maeandrum, built at no great distance, Antiochea30 [Strabo. L. 12. p. 864.]. Here too were some particular rites observed in honour of the same Deity, whom they distinguished by a significant epithet, and called [x]31 [Ibid. Wherever there was a city Magnesia, or people Magnetes, there will be found some history of the ark.]. [x]. Here was a college dedicated to the rites of Meen Arkaeus; where a great number of priests officiated; and where they had large estates endowed for that service. This [x] is no other than the Deus Lunus, the same as Noah, the Arkite. Strabo mentions several temples of this Lunar God in different places: and one in particular, similar to that abovementioned, at the city Antioch in Pisidia. He calls it, as the present reading stands, [x], which we may from the title of the former temple venture to alter to [x]. He is speaking of Cabira; and says:32 [L. 12. p. 835.] [x]. In this city is a temple of Meen Arkaeus, by which is meant a temple of the Lunar Deity. Such also is the temple among the Albani: and that in Phrygia: and the temple of Meen, which gives name to the place, where it stands. The temple also of Meen Arkaeus in Pisidia and that in the region near Antiochea have the same reference. All these were dedicated to the same Arkite Deity called Lunus, Luna, and Selene: styled also by different nations Meen, Man, Menes, and Manes.

Sometimes instead of Arkaeus, the term Arkite is exhibited Archaeus, which may be referred to a different idea. Thessaly was said to have been originally named Purrha from the wife of Deucalion, whom the ancient poet Rhianus mentions by the title of [x].

33 [Strabo. L. 9. p. 677. See Scholia Apollon. Rhod. L. 3. v. 1089.] [x]

Archaea may signify ancient; but in this place, as well as in many instances, which I shall hereafter produce, I imagin, that it has a more particular reference. In short, Archaea seems here to be the same as Archia, and Architis, from the ark: from which both people and places were indifferently styled [x], and [x]; Arkites, and Archites. Hyginus puts the matter in great measure out of doubt by using this term as a proper name. He styles this personage Archia, and makes her the wife of Inachus, the son of the Ocean, and the same as Deucalion. He adds, that they had a son Phoroneus, the first man who reigned upon earth, whose history is attended with circumstances of great moment. 34 [C. 143. p. 250. In another place he calls this personage Argia; and makes Io her daughter. Ex Inacho et Argia Io. c. 145. p. 253. Io, sive Niobe. ibid.] Inachus, Oceani filius, ex Archia forore fua procreavit Phoroneum, qui primus mortalium dicitur35 [Primus Junoni sacrificasse dicitur. Lutatius Placidus in Stat. Theb. L. 4. v. 589.] regnasse. Homines ante faecula multa fine oppidis legibusque vitam egerunt, una lingua utentes sub Jovis imperio. Idem nationes distribuit. Turn discordia inter mortales esse coepit. [Google translate: Inachus, the son of Oceanus, begat Phoroneus by his father Archia, who is said to be the first of mortals to have reigned Men Before the end of the towns and the laws of the tartar, they lived many lives, using one language under the Thursday command. He distributes the same to the nations. Then there began to be a discord among men.]

The Grecians, though they did not know the purport of the word [x], Arguz or Argus, have yet religiously retained it, and have introduced it in these different shapes. And as the ark has sometimes been made a feminine, and the mother of Niobe; so at other times it is mentioned as her son, and she is supposed to have been the mistress of Jupiter. So inconsistent is the ancient theology.36 [Hyginus. c. 145. p. 252.] Hanc (Nioben) Jupiter compressit; et ex ea natus est Argus, qui suo nomine Argos oppidum cognominavit. [Google translate: This (Niobe) Jupiter suppressed and from her was born Argus, who by his own name he named the town Argos.] In short, whereever there is any history of the Deluge, there will be some mention introduced of Argus: and, conversely, where any account occurs concerning Argus, or Argeans, there will be some history of a ship, and allusion to the Deluge. Thus at Argos there was a temple of Poseidon [x], the God of inundations: and it is erected upon account of a deluge, which the natives supposed to have been confined to the limits of their own country. In these parts, says37 [[x]. Pausan. L. 2. p. 161.] Pausanias, is a temple denominated from Poseidon the God of inundations: for the people have a tradition that this Deity had brought a Deluge over the greater part of the country; because Inachus and some other umpires had adjudged the land to Juno, rather than to him. Juno however at last obtained of him, that the waters should retreat: and the Argeans in memorial of this event raised a temple to Poseidon the God of deluges, at the place, whence the water began to retire. As you proceed a small degree farther, there is the mound ([x]) of Argus, who is supposed to have been the son of Niobe, the daughter of Phoroneus. I have shewn in a prior treatise that these mounds, styled [x], were not places of burial, but sacred hills, on which in ancient times they sacrificed. [x] is the mount of the ark, or Argo. All the history above given, however limited to a particular spot, relates to the ark and to the flood which universally prevailed.

In the same city was a remarkable altar dedicated to Zeus, the God of rain,38 [Pausan. L. 2. p. 154.] [x]. Zeuth was distinguished by the title of Sama El, which the Greeks rendered [x]. He was worshiped upon Mount Parnes in Attic,: and the circumstances attending his history are remarkable, as they stand in Pausanias.39 [Pausan. L. i. p. 78.] [x] In Attica is the mount Pentelicus -- also another, called the mountain of Parnes -- Upon the latter stands a statue of Zeuth Parnethius in brass; and an altar to the same God, styled Sama El, or Semaleos. There is also another altar, and when they sacrifice upon i, they invoke, sometimes the God of rams; sometimes the Deity who escaped, or rather who averted the evil; styling him [x]. This writer mentions also upon the mountain Hymettus40 [Pausan. L. i. p. 78.] [x]: altars to Zeuth Pluvius, and to Apollo sirnamed the looker out, or looking forwards.

If we consider the histories of Danae, Danaus, and the Danaides, we shall find them to be fragments of history which relate to the same event. Danae is said to have been the mother of Perseus, who was conceived in showers, exposed in an ark, and at last a king of Argos. She is likewise represented as the mother of Argus, who founded in Italy 41 [Ardea -- quam dicitur urbem. Acrisioneis Danae sundasse colonis. Virg. AEn. L. 7. v. 409. She was supposed to have given name to Daunia; and to have settled there with her two sons, Argeos and Argos. Servius in Virg. AEn. L. 8. v. 345. Tibur Argeo positum colono. Horat. L. 2. Od. 6. v. 5.] Ardea, and Argiletum: the true history of which places amounts to this, that they were founded by people styled Arkites. Danaus, who came into Greece, is said to have come over in the first long ship which was constructed; but the more ancient account i, that he was the first builder of a ship, which he designed and finished under the direction of Minerva, or divine wisdom:42 [Apollodor. L. 2. p. 63.] [x]. This is the same story which is told of Argus, the supposed son of Inachus and Niobe. It is likewise said of Danaus, when he came to Greece, that he came over nave biprora, called by Greeks [x]; and that he built the Acropolis at Argos. But the navis biprora [Google translate: ship biprora ] was not a vessel commonly made use of to pass the seas: it was a copy of the sacred ship of Isis: and I have shewn the history to which it alluded. I should therefore think that this story does not relate to the arrival of any particular person from43 [It is said that Danaus came from the Thebais of Egypt, where stood Chemmis near the city Noa. Perseus was worshiped here. Herodot. L. 2. c. 91. He calls the city [x]. The person alluded to under the character of Danaus was far prior to the aera, allotted to him in the Grecian history. He is said to be the son of Belus, the son of Neptune: also the brother of Sesodis, the same as Seth and Zuth. The name of the ship was Danais. [x]. Schol. in Apollon. Rhod. L. i. v. 4. The daughters of Danaus are supposed to have introduced the [x] from Egypt: [x]. Herod. L. 2. c. 171.] Egypt; but to the first introduction of rites from that country; and especially the memorial of the Argo from whence the place took its name. And that there was such an introduction of rites appears from Hypermnestra the supposed daughter of Danaus, being esteemed the44 [[x]. Euseb. Chron. p. 29. 1. 40.] priestess of Juno at that place. If, as I have imagined, the words [x] and [x] are derived from Nau, and Noah; the name of Danaus relates not to a man, but is in reality45 [[x], Da, Chaldaice, haec, ista, hoc, illud. See Daniel, c. 4. v. 27, and c. 7. v. 3. Of this last I shall treat hereafter at large.] da Naus, and signifies literally the ship. The aera therefore of Danaus is the aera of the ship: being the precise time, when some model of this sacred vessel was introduced; and the rites also and mysteries with which it was attended. The fifty daughters of Danaus were fifty priestesses of the Argo, who bore the sacred vessel on festivals. I have mentioned that there was a temple in Egypt, called Ca Nobus, erected to the God of seas, to whom the element of water in general was sacred. Throughout the whole history of Danaus and his daughters there will be found allusions to the rites of this God. The Danaides are said to have been sent in quest of water: to have brought water to46 [Danaus is said to have founded Argos. [x] Euripid. in Archelao apud Strabon. L. 5. P. 339.] Argos: to have invented [x], or47 [[x]. Strab. L. 8. p. 570. All Greeks in the time of Homer seem to have been called Danai.] vessels for water: and lastly, were supposed to have been doomed in the shades below to draw water in buckets which were full of holes. Every circumstance of this history is from Egypt. The natives of that country were very assiduous in conveying water from one place to another. They likewise had particular jars, which were sacred to the God whom the Greeks called Canobus; and were formed with a representation of him. These Canobic vessels were sometimes made of48 [They were called[x]. Hesych.] porous stone: at other times of earth manufactured in such a manner as to have small holes in the bottom through which they used to filter the water of the Nile, when it was either turbid or saline.49 [Suidas. [x] Ipsum Canobi simulacrum, pedibus perexiguis, attracto collo, et quasi fugillato, ventre tumido, in modum hydriae, cum dorso aequaliter tereti formatur. [Google translate: The image of the canvas itself, with very little feet, with a drawn neck, and as it were pelted The belly is swollen, like a pitcher, with a smooth shape on its back.] Russin. Hist. Eccles. L. 11. c. 26.] [x]. This practice of filling vessels, which could not hold the water put into them, seemed such a paradox to the Grecians, that when they came to consign some of their priests and deities to the infernal mansions, they made this the particular punishment of the Danaides on account of their cruelty.



Among the various personages under which the Patriarch was represented, the principal seems to have been that of Dionusus. He was by the mythologists supposed to have had a second birth, and a renewal of life, in the Theba or Ark. Hence he was termed [x]; which the Greeks interpreted a Theban born, and made him a native of Boeotia: but he was originally only worshiped there; and his rites and mysteries came from Egypt. This injustice of the Greeks in taking to themselves every Deity, and hero, was complained of by the Egyptians.50 [Diodorus Sic. L. i. p. 21.] [x].

The principal terms, by which the ancients distinguished the Ark were Theba, Baris, Arguz, Argus, Aren, Arene, Arne, Laris, Boutus, Boeotus, Cibotus. Out of these they formed different personages, and as there was apparently a correspondence in these terms, they in consequence of it invented different degrees of51 [Of this turn in the Greeks innumerable in instances will occur, as we proceed: some few I will here subjoin. [x]. Steph. Byzant. [x] Apollon. Rhod. L.?. v. 1085. Schol. [x]. Diod. Sic. L. 4. p. 269. [x]. Lycoph. v. 644. Schol. Arena OEbali, vel Bibali filia. Hygini Fab. 14. p. 46. [x]. Pausan. L. 9. p. 711. Niobe said to have been the daughter of Tantalus and Dione. Hyginus, Fab. 9. p. 32. [x]. Apollodor. L. 2. p. 39. [x]. Ibid. Niobe the sister of Pelops, and wife of Amphion. Strabo. L. 8. p. 552. [x]. Lycoph. Schol. ad v. 1207.] relation. Hence a large family has arisen from a few antiquated words which related to the same history, and of which many were nearly synonymous. In the account given above, we may perceive that the Ark, and the chief person of the Ark, are often confounded: but by the light, which is here afforded, the truth, I think, may be easily discovered.

It is difficult to imagine that two different dynasties could have identical or almost identical dynasty functions. The probability of such a coincidence is extremely small already for dynasties composed of 10 rulers. Nevertheless, the number of such coincidences, for even longer dynasties of 15 rulers, turns out to be unexpectedly large. N.A. Morozov, who noticed the coincidence between the ancient Rome and the ancient Jewish state, discovered the first examples of surprisingly identical pairs of dynasty graphs. A formal method to study such similarities was introduced by A.T. Fomenko (see the reference list in [2]).

There is another surprise, besides coincidence of the dynasty functions, the other numerical functions confirm with very high probability that these dynasties are indeed the same. It brings us to a suspicion that in fact we are dealing with repetitions in the conventional version of the history. Fomenko discovered dozens of strong coincidences, sometimes between three and more dynasties. But, there are no more such coincidences in the history of the better-documented epochs, for example starting from the 16th century....

These parallels suggest that the traditional history of ancient times consist of multiple recounts of the same events scattered in many locations at various times. The first scientist who realized it was N.A. Morozov (see [1]). Further progress was made by A.T. Fomenko who succeeded to decipher the principle structure of these duplicates in Roman and Biblical history

-- Investigation of the Correctness of the Historical Dating, by Wieslaw Z. Krawcewicz, Gleb V. Nosovskij and Petr P. Zabreiko

[admin]

Part 1 of 2

Vol. 2, P. 473-515

Of The Argo, and Argonautic Expedition

"The season of Sisira is from the first of Dhanishtha to the middle of Revati; that of Vasanta from the middle of Revati to the end of Rohini; that of Grishma from the beginning of Mrigasiras to the middle of Aslesha; that of Versha from the middle of Aslesha to the end of Hasta; that of Sanad from the first of Chitra to the middle of Jyeshtha; that of Hemanta from the middle of Jyeshtha to the end of Sravana."

This account of the six Indian seasons, each of which is co-extensive with two signs, or four lunar stations and a half, places the solstitial points, as Varaha has asserted, in the first degree of Dhanishtha, and the middle, or 6°40', of Aslesha, while the equinoctial points were in the tenth degree of Bharani and 3°20' of Visacha; but in the time of Varaha, the solstitial colure passed through the 10th degree of Punarvasu and 3°20' of Uttarashara, while the equinoctial colure cut the Hindu ecliptic in the first of Aswini and 6°40' of Chitra, or the Yoga and only star of that mansion, which, by the way, is indubitably the Spike of the Virgin, from the known longitude of which all other points in the Indian Zodiac may be computed. It cannot escape notice, that Parasara does not use in this passage the phrase at present, which occurs in the text of Varaha; so that the places of the colures might have been ascertained before his time, and a considerable change might have happened in their true position without any change in the phrases by which the seasons were distinguished; as our popular language in astronomy remains unaltered, though the Zodiacal asterisms are now removed a whole sign from the places where they have left their names. It is manifest, nevertheless, that Parasara must have written within twelve centuries before the beginning of our era, and that single fact, as we shall presently show, leads to very momentous consequences in regard to the system of Indian history and literature.

On the comparison which might easily be made between the colures of Parasar and those ascribed by Eudoxus to Chiron, the supposed assistant and instructor of the Argonauts, I shall say very little; because the whole Argonautic story, (which neither was, according to Herodotus, nor, indeed, could have been originally Grecian) appears, even when stripped of its poetical and fabulous ornaments, extremely disputable; and whether it was founded on a league of the Helladian princes and states for the purpose of checking, on a favourable opportunity, the overgrown power of Egypt, or with a view to secure the commerce of the Euxine and appropriate the wealth of Colchis; or, as I am disposed to believe, on an emigration from Africa find Asia of that adventurous race, who had first been established in Chaldea; whatever, in short, gave rise to the fable, which the old poets have so richly embellished, and the old historians have so inconsiderately adopted, it seems to me very clear, even on the principles of Newton, and on the same authorities to which he refers, that the voyage of the Argonauts must have preceded the year in which his calculations led him to place it.[!!!]

-- XXVII. A Supplement to the Essay on Indian Chronology, by the President (Sir William Jones), Asiatic Researches, Volume 2, 1788

Nor shall I meddle with Sir Isaac Newton's astronomical argument for fixing the time of the Argonautic expedition (and of course the time of the fall of Troy, which was only one generation later), from the position of the solstitial and equinoctial points on the sphere which Chiron made for the use of the Argonauts. I am too little acquainted with the science of astronomy to speak pertinently on the subject. I shall only observe that Mr. Whiston does not agree with Dr. Shuckford concerning the grounds of the argument. 

"The fallacy of this argument (says Dr. Shuckford) cannot but appear very evident to any one that attends to it: for suppose we allow that Chiron did really place the solstices, as Sir Isaac Newton represents (though I should think it most probable that he did not so place them), yet it must be undeniably plain, that nothing can be certainly established from Chiron's position of them, unless it appears, that Chiron knew how to give them their true place.

"If indeed it could be known what was the true place of the solstitial points in Chiron's time, it might be known, by taking the distance of that place from the present position of them, how much time has elapsed from Chiron to our days.
 
But I answer, it cannot be accurately known from any schemes of Chiron what was the true place of the solstices in his days; because, though it is said that he calculated the then position of them, yet he was so inaccurate an astronomer, that his calculation might err four or five degrees from their true position."

Mr. Whiston (p. 991) writes thus:

"As to the first argument from the place of the two colures in Eudoxus from Chiron the Argonaut, preserved by Hipparchus of Bithynia, I readily allow its foundation to be true, that Eudoxus's sphere was the same with Chiron's, and that it was first made and showed Hercules and the rest of the Argonauts in order to guide them in their voyage to Colchis. And I take the discovery of this sure astronomical criterion of the true time of that Argonautic expedition (in the defect of eclipses) to be highly worthy the uncommon sagacity of the great Sir Isaac Newton, and in its own nature a chronological character truly inestimable. Nor need we, I think, any stronger argument in order to overturn Sir Isaac Newton's own Chronology, than this position of the colures at the time of that expedition, which its proposer has very kindly furnished us withal."

In p. 996:

I now proceed to Eudoxus's accurate description of the position of the two colures as they had been drawn on their celestial globes, ever since the days of Chiron, at the Argonautic expedition, and as Hipparchus has given us that description in the words of Eudoxus."

Again (p. 1002):

"Sir Isaac Newton betrays his consciousness how little Eudoxus's description of Chiron's colures agreed to his position of them, by pretending that these observations of the ancients were coarse and inaccurate. This is true if compared with the observations of the moderns which read to minutes; and, since, the application of telescopic sights to astronomic instruments, to ten or fewer seconds. But as to our present purpose this description in Eudoxus is very accurate, it both taking notice of every constellation, through which each of the coloures passed, that were visible in Greece; and hardly admitting of an error of half a degree in angular measures, or thirty-six years in time. Which is sufficiently exact."

How far Mr. Whiston has succeeded in his argumentation about the neck of the swan and the tail of the bear, &c. I must leave to others to consider. I shall only observe, with regard to the last paragraph cited from his discourse, that when Sir Isaac Newton calls the observations of the ancient astronomers coarse, he cannot well be understood to use that word but in a comparative sense, that sense in which Mr. Whiston admits it may be justly used. For otherwise Sir Isaac would not have inferred any thing as certain from those ancient observations. Now, in p. 95, after he has finished his argument from Chiron's sphere, he thus writes:

"Hesiod tells us, that sixty days after the winter solstice, the star Arcturus rose at sunset: and thence it follows, that Hesiod flourished about 100 years after the death of Solomon, or in the generation or age next after the Trojan war, as Hesiod himself declares.
 
From all these circumstances, grounded upon the coarse observations of the ancient astronomers, we may reckon it certain, that the Argonautic expedition was not earlier than the reign of Solomon: and if these astronomical arguments be added to the former arguments taken from the mean length of the reigns of kings according to the course of nature; from them all we may safety conclude, that the Argonautic expedition was after the death of Solomon, and most probably that it was about forty-three years after.
 
The Trojan war was one generation later than that expedition -- several captains of the Greeks in that war being sons of the Argonauts,"

&c.
 
By the last words here cited, I am brought round again to the point from whence I set out in this discourse, the fall of Troy...

-- Remarks on the History of the Seven Roman Kings, Occasioned by Sir Isaac Newton’s Objections to the Supposed Two Hundred and Forty-Four Years’ Duration of the Regal State of Rome, from The Roman History From the Building of Rome to the Ruin of the Commonwealth, Illustrated with Maps, by N. Hooke, Esq., 1823

[x]. Palaephatus.

My purpose has been universally to examine the ancient mythology of Greece; and by diligently collating the evidences afforded, to find out the latent meaning. I have repeatedly taken notice, that the Grecians formed variety of personages out of titles, and terms unknown: many also took their rise from hieroglyphics misinterpreted. The examples, which I have produced, will make the reader more favourably inclined to the process, upon which I am about to proceed. Had I not in this manner opened the way to this disquisition, I should have been searful of engaging in the pursuit. For the history of the Argonauts, and their voyage, has been always esteemed authentic, and admitted as a chronological aera. Yet it may be worth while to make some inquiry into this memorable transaction; and to see if it deserves the credit, with which it has been hitherto favoured. Some references to this expedition are interspersed in most of the writings of the1 [The principal are those, which follow. (1) Author of the Orphic Argonautica; (2) Apollonius Rhodius; (3) Valerius Flaccus; (4) Diodorus Siculus. L. 4. p. 245; (5) Ovid. Metamorphosis. L. 7; (6) Pindar, Pyth. Ode 4; (7) Apollodorus. L. I. p. 4; (8) Strabo. L. 3. p. 222; (9) Hyginus. Fab. 14. p. 38.] ancients. But beside these scattered allusions, there are compleat histories transmitted concerning it: wherein writers have enumerated every circumstance of the operation.

By these writers we are informed, that the intention of this armament was to bring back a golden fleece, which was detained by AEetes king of Colchis. It was the fleece of that ram on which Phrixus and2 [Hyginus. Fab. 2. p. 18. Pausan. L. 9. p. 778.] Helle fled to avoid the anger of Ino. They were the two children of Athamas, conceived by ([x]) a cloud: and their brother was Learchus. The ram, upon which they escaped, is represented, as the son of3 [Hyginus, Fab. 3. p. 21.] Neptune and Theophane. Upon his arrival at Colchis Phrixus sacrificed it to Mars, in whose temple the fleece was suspended. Helle was supposed to have fallen into the sea, called afterwards the Hellespont, and to have been drowned. After an interval of some years, Pelias, king of Jolchus, commissioned Jason, the son of his brother AEson, to go, and recover this precious fleece. To effect this a ship was built at Pagasae, which city lay at no great distance from Mount Pelion in Thessaly. It was the first that was ever attempted; and the merit of the performance is given to Argus, who was instructed by Minerva, or divine wisdom. This ship was built partly out of some sacred timber from the grove of Dodona, which was sacred to Jupiter Tomarias. On this account it was said to have been oracular, and to have given verbal responses; which history is beautifully described by Claudian.4 [De Bello Getico. V. 16. [x]. Orph. Argonautica. V. 1153.]

Argois trabibus jactant sudasse Minervam:
Nec nemoris tantum vinxisse carentia sensu
Robora; sed, caeso Tomari Jovis augure luco,
Arbore praefaga tabulas animasse Ioquaces.
[Google translate: They boast that Minerva had sweated on Argo's beams;
Nor was the wood so complicated by the lack of sense
Encourage but, after the grove of Jupiter the augur Tomari had been slain,
The prefaced tree frames have encouraged the gossip.]

As soon as this sacred machine was compleated, a select band of heroes, the prime of their age and country, met together, and engaged in this honourable enterprize. Among these Jason was the chief; by whom the others were summoned, and collected. Chiron, who was famous for his knowledge, and had instructed many of those young heroes in science, now framed for their use a delineation of the heavens: though some give the merit of this operation to Musaeus. This was the first sphere constructed: in which the stars were formed into asterisms for the benefit of the Argonauts; that they might be the better able to conduct themselves in their perilous voyage. The heroes being all assembled, waited for the rising of the Peleiades; at which season they set5 [[x]. Theoc. Idyl. 13. v. 25.] sail. Writers differ greatly about the rout, which they took at their setting out; as well as about the way of their return. The general account is, that they coasted Macedonia, and proceeded to Thrace; where Hercules  engaged with the giants; as he is supposed to have done in many other places. They visited Lemnos, and Cyzicus; and from thence came to the Bosporus. Here were two rocks called the Cyanean, and also the Symplegades; which used to clash together with a mighty noise, and intercept whatever was passing. The Argonauts let a Dove fly, to see by her fate, if there were a possibility of escaping. The Dove got through with some difficulty; encouraged by which omen the heroes pressed forward; and by the help of Minerva escaped. After many adventures, which by the Poets are described in a manner wonderfully pleasing, they arrive at the Phasis, which was the chief river of Colchis. They immediately address AEetes; and after having informed him concerning the cause of their coming, demand a restitution of the fleece. The king was exasperated at their claim; and resused to give up the object in view, but upon such terms, as seemed impracticable. Jason however accepted of the conditions: and after having engaged in many labours, and by the assistance of Medea soothed a sleepless dragon, which guarded the fleece, he at last brought off the prize. This being happily effected, he retired privately to his ship, and immediately set sail; at the same time bringing away Medea, the king's daughter. As soon as AEetes was apprized of their flight, he fitted out some ships to pursue them: and arriving at the Thracian Bosporus took possession of that pass. The Argonauts having their retreat precluded, returned by another rout, which by writers is differently represented. Upon their arrival in Greece they offered sacrifices to the Gods; and consecrated their ship to Neptune.

What is alluded to in this romantic detail, may not perhaps at first sight be obvious. The main plot, as it is transmitted to us, is certainly a fable, and replete with inconsistency and contradiction. Yet many writers have taken the account in gross: and without hesitation, or exception to any particular part, have presumed to fix the time of this transaction. And having satisfied themselves in this point, they have proceeded to make use of it for a stated aera. Hence many inferences, and deductions have been formed, and many events have been determined, by the time of this fanciful adventure. Among the most eminent of old, who admitted it as an historical truth, were Herodotus, Diodorus, Strabo; and with them every Grecian Mythologist: of the fathers, Clemens, Eusebius, and Syncellus. Among the moderns, the principal are Scaliger and Petavius: and of our country, Archbishop Usher, Cumberland, Dr. Jackson, and Sir Isaac Newton, This last speaks of it without any difsidence; and draws from it many consequences, as from an event agreed upon, and not to be questioned: an aera, to which we may safely refer. It was a great misfortune to the learned world, that this excellent person was so easily satisfied with Grecian lore; taking with too little examination, whatever was transmitted to his hands. By these means many events of great consequence are determined from very uncertain and exceptionable data. Had he Iooked more carefully into the histories, to which he appeals, and discarded, what he could not authenticate; such were in all other respects his superior parts, and penetration, that he would have been as eminent for moral evidence, as he had been for demonstration. This last was his great prerogative, which when he quitted, he became like Sampson shorn of his strength; he went out like another man. This history, upon which he builds so much, was founded upon some ancient traditions, but misinterpreted greatly. It certainly did not relate to Greece; though adopted by the people of that country. Sir Isaac Newton, with great ingenuity has endeavoured to find out the time of this expedition by the place of the6 [Newton's Chronology, p, 83, 84.] Colures then, and the degrees, which they have since gone back. And this he does upon a supposition that there was such a person as Chiron: and that he really, as an ancient poet would persuade us, formed a sphere for the Argonauts.

7 [Auctor Titanomachiae apud Clementem. Strom. L. I. p. 360. [Google translate: The author of Titanomachia with Clement. Strom. L. I. p. 360.]] [x]

In answer to this the learned Dr. Rutherforth has exhibited some curious observations: in which he shews, that there is no reason to think that Chiron was the author of the sphere spoken of, or of the delineations attributed to him. Among many very just exceptions he has one, which seems to me to be very capital, and which I shall transcribe from him.8 [Rutherforth's System of Natural Philosophy. Vol. 2. p. 849.]

Beside Pagasae, from whence the Argonauts failed, is about 39°; and Colchis, to which they were failing, is in about 45° north latitude. The star Canobus of the first magnitude, marked [x] by Bayer, in the constellation Argo, is only 37° from the south pole: and great part of this constellation is still nearer to the south pole. Therefore this principal star, and great part of the constellation Argo could not be seen, either in the place, that the Argonauts set out from, or in the place, to which they were failing. Now the ship was the first of its kind; and was the principal thing in the expedition: which makes it very unlikely, that Chiron should chuse to call a set of stars by the name of Argo, most of which were invisible to the Argonauts. If he had delineated the sphere for their use, he would have chosen to call some other constellation by this name: he would most likely have given the name Argo to some constellation in the Zodiac: however, certainly, to one that was visible to the Argonauts; and not to one which was so far to the south, that the principal star in it could not be seen by them, either when they set out, or when they came to the end of their voyage.

These arguments, I think, shew plainly, that the sphere could not have been the invention of9 [Sir Isaac Newton attributes the invention of the Sphere to Chiron, or to Musaeus. Some give the merit of it to Atlas; others to Palamedes. [x] -- Sophocles in Nauplio. The chief constellation, and of the most benefit to Mariners, is the Bear with the Polar star. This is said not to have been observed by any one before Thales: the other, called the greater Bear, was taken notice of by Nauplius: [x]. Theon. in Arat. V. 27. [x]. Schol. Apollonii. L. I. v. 134.] Chiron or Musaeus; had such persons existed. But I must proceed farther upon these principles; for to my apprehension they prove most satisfactorily, that it was not at any rate a Grecian work: and that the expedition itself was not a Grecian operation. Allowing Sir Isaac Newton, what is very disputable, that many of the asterisms in the sphere relate to the Argonautic operations; yet such sphere could not have been previously constructed, as it refers to a subsequent history. Nor would an astronomer of that country in any age afterwards have so delineated a sphere, as to have the chief memorial in a manner out of sight; if the transaction to which it alluded, had related to Greece. For what the learned Dr. Rutherforth alledges in respect to Chiron and Musaeus, and to the times in which they are supposed to have lived, will hold good in respect to any Grecian in any age whatever. Had those persons, or any body of their country, been authors of such a work; they must have comprehended under a figure, and given the name of Argo to a collection of stars, with many of which they were unacquainted: consequently their Iongitude, latitude, and reciprocal distances, they could not know. Even the Egyptians seem in their sphere to have omitted those constellations, which could not be seen in their degrees of latitude, or in those which they frequented. Hence many asterisms near the southern pole, such as the Croziers, Phoenicopter, Toucan, &c. were for a long time vacant, and unformed: having never been taken notice of, till our late discoveries were made on the other side of the line. From that time they have been reduced into asterisms, and distinguished by names.

If then the sphere, as we have it delineated, was not the work of Greece, it must certainly have been the produce of10 [Diodorus says that the Sphere was the invention of Atlas; by which we are to understand the Atlantians. L, 3. p. 193.] Egypt. For the astronomy of Greece confessedly came from that11 [[x]. Herodot. L. 2. c. 4. [x] Clemens Alexand. Strom. L. I. p. 361.] country: consequently the history, to which it alludes, must have been from the same quarter. For it cannot be supposed, that in the constructing of a sphere the Egyptians would borrow from the12 [The Egyptians borrowed nothing from Greece. [x]. Herodot. L. 2. c. 49. See also Diodorus Siculus. L. I. p. 62, 63. of arts from Egypt.] Helladians, or from any people whatever: much less would they crowd it with asterisms relating to various events, in which they did not participate, and with which they could not well be acquainted: for in those early days the history of Hellas was not known to the sons of Mizraim. Many of the constellations are apparently of Egyptian original; and were designed as emblems of their Gods, and memorials of their rites and mythology. The Zodiac, which Sir Isaac Newton supposed to relate to the Argonautic expedition, was an assemblage of Egyptian hieroglyphics. Aries, which he refers to the golden fleece, was a representation of Amon: Taurus of Apis: Leo of Arez, the same as Mithras, and Osiris. Virgo with the spike of corn was13 [[x]. Eratosthenis Asterism. [x].] Isis. They called the Zodiac the grand assembly, or senate, of the twelve Gods, [x]. The planets were esteemed [x], lictors and attendants, who waited upon the chief Deity, the Sun. These, says the Scholiast upon14 [[x]. Scholia Apollon. Argon. L. 4. v. 261.] Apollonius, were the people who first observed the influences of the stars; and distinguished them by names: and from them they came to15 [[x]. Herod. L. 2. c. 49 and 50. [x]. Plato in Phaedro. v. 3. p. 274.] Greece.

Strabo, one of the wisest of the Grecians, cannot be persuaded but that the history of the Argonautic expedition was true: and he takes notice of many traditions concerning  it in countries far remote: and traces of the heroes in many places; which arose from the temples, and cities, which they built, and from the regions, to which they gave name. He mentions particularly, that there still remained a city called16 [[x]. L. I. p. 77.] Aia upon the Phasis; and the natives retained notions, that AEetes once reigned in that country. He takes notice, that there were several memorials both of Jason and Phrixus in Iberia, as well as in Colchis. 17 [[x]. p. 77.]

In Armenia too, and as far off as Media, and the neighbouring regions, there are, says Strabo, temples still standing, called Jasonea; and all along the coast about Sinope, upon the Pontus Euxinus; and at places in the Propontis, and the Hellespont, as far down as Lemnos, the like traces are to be observed, both of the expedition undertaken by Jason, and of that, which was prior, by Phrixus. There are likewise plain vestiges of Jason in his retreat, as well as of the Colchians, who pursued him, in Crete, and in Italy, and upon the coast of the Adriatic.18 [[x]. Ibid. p. 39.] They are particularly to be seen about the Ceraunian mountains in Epirus: and upon the western coast of Italy in the gulf of Poseidonium, and in the islands of Hetruria. In all these parts the Argonauts have apparently been.

In another place he again takes notice of the great number of temples erected to19 [Ibid. p. 798.] Jason in the east: which were held in high reverence by the barbarous nations. Diodorus Siculus also mentions many tokens of the20 [L. 4. p. 259. [x]. Strabo. L. 5, p. 342. He mentions near Paestum [x]. L. 6. p. 386. Near Circaeum [x]. Lycoph. v. 1274. See the Scholia: also Aristotle [x]. p. 728 and Taciti Annales. L. 6. c. 34.] Argonauts about the island AEthalia, and in the Portus Argous in Hetruria; which latter had its name from the Argo. And he says, many speak of it as a certainty, that the like memorials are to be found upon the Celtic coast; and at Gades in Iberia, and in divers other places.

From these evidences so very numerous, and collected from parts of the world so widely distant, Strabo concludes that the history of Jason must necessarily be authentic. He accordingly speaks of the Argo and Argonauts, and of their perils and peregrinations, as of facts21 [[x]. Strabo. L. I. p. 77.] universally allowed. Yet I am obliged to dissent from him upon his own principles: for I think the evidence, to which he appeals, makes intirely against his opinion. I must repeat what upon a like occasion I have more than once said, that if such a person as Jason had existed, he could never have performed what is attributed to him. The Grecians have taken an ancient history to themselves, to which they had no relation: and as the real purport of it was totally hid from them, they have by their colouring and new modelling what they did not understand, run themselves into a thousand absurdities. The Argo is represented as the first ship built; and the heroes are said to have been in number according to Valerius Flaccus, fifty-one. The author of the Orphic Argonautica makes them of the same22 [He seems to speak of fifty and one. [x]. Argonaut, v. 298. Theocritus styles the Argo [x]. Idyl. 13. V. 74.] number. In Apollonius Rhodius there occur but forty-four: and in Apollodorus they amount to the same. These authors give their names, and subjoin an history of each person: and the highest to which any writer makes them amount, is23 [Natalis Comes makes the number of the Argonauts forty-nine; but in his catalogue he mentions more.] fifty and one. How is it possible for so small a band of men to have achieved, what they are supposed to have performed. For to omit the sleepless dragon, and the bulls breathing fire; how could they penetrate so far inland, and raise so many temples, and found so many cities, as the Grecians have supposed them to have founded? By what means could they arrive at the extreme parts of the earth; or even to the shores of the Adriatic, or the coast of Hetruria? When they landed at Colchis, they are represented so weak in respect to the natives, as to be obliged to make use of art to obtain their purpose. Having by the help of the King's daughter, Medea, stolen the golden fleece, they immediately set sail. But being pursued by AEetes, and the Colchians, who took possession of the pass by the Bosporus, they were forced to seek out another passage for their retreat. And it is worth while to observe the different routs, which they are by writers supposed to have taken: for their distress was great; as the mouth of the Thracian Bosporus was possessed by AEetes; and their return that way precluded. The author of the Orphic Argonautics makes them pass up the Phasis towards the Maeotis: and from thence upwards through the heart of Europe to the Cronian sea, or Baltic: and so on to the British seas, and the Atlantic; and then by Gades, and the Mediterranean home. Timagetus made them proceed northward to the same seas, but by the24 [Scholia in Apollon. L. 4. v. 259.] Ister. According to Timaeus they went upwards to the fountains of the Tanais, through the25 [Diodorus Sic. L. 4. p. 259. Natalis Comes. L. 6. p. 317.] Palus Maeotis: and from thence through Scythia, and Sarmatia, to the Cronian seas: and from thence by the Atlantic home. Scymnus Delius carried them by the same rout. Heliod, and Antimachus, conduct them by the southern ocean to26 [Scholia in Apollon. supra.] Libya; and from thence over land to the Mediterranean. Hecataeus Milesius supposed them to go up the Phasis, and then by turning south over the great continent of Asia to get into the Indian ocean, and so to the27 [Scholia. Ibid.] Nile in Egypt: from whence they came regularly home. Valerius Flaccus copies Apollonius Rhodius, and makes them sail up the Ister, and by an arm of that river to the Eridanus, and from thence to the28 [[x]. Apollon. Rhod. L. 4. v. 627.] Rhone: and after that to Libya, Crete, and other places. Pindar conducts them by the Indian ocean. 29 [Pyth. Ode 4. p. 262.] [x]

Diodorus SIculus brings them back by the same way, as they went out: but herein, that he may make things plausible, he goes contrary to the whole tenor of history. Nor can this be brought about without running into other difficulties, equal to those, which he would avoid. For if the Argonauts were not in the seas spoken of by the authors above; how could they leave those repeated memorials, upon which Strabo builds so much, and of which mention is made by30 [L. 4. p. 259.] Diodorus? The latter writer supposes Hercules to have attended his comrades throughout: which is contradictory to most accounts of this expedition. He moreover tells us, that the Argonauts upon their return landed at Troas; where Hercules made a demand upon Laomedon of some horses, which that king had promised him. Upon a refusal, the Argonauts attack the Trojans, and take their city. Here we find the crew of a little bilander in one day perform what Agamemnon with a thousand ships and fifty thousand men could not effect in ten years. Yet31 [[x]. Diodor. L. I. p. 21. Homer gives Hercules xix ships, when he takes Troy. [x]. Iliad. E. V. 642.] 'Hercules lived but one generation before the Trojan war: and the event of the first capture was so recent, that32 [Anchises is made to day, Satis una superque Vidimus excidia, et capsr superavimus urbi. Virg. AEneid. L. 2. v. 642.] Anchises was supposed to have been witness to it: all which is very strange. For how can we believe, that such a change could have been brought about in so inconsiderable a space, either in respect to the state of Troy, or the polity of Greece?

After many adventures, and Iong wandering in different parts, the Argonauts are supposed to have returned to Iolcus: and the whole is said to have been performed in33 [[x]. Apollodorus. L. I. p. 55.] four months; or as some describe it, in34 [[x]. Scholia in Lycoph. V. 175.] two. The Argo upon this was consecrated to Neptune; and a delineation of it inserted among the asterisms of the heavens. But is it possible for fifty persons, or ten times fifty, to have performed such mighty operations in this term; or indeed at any rate to have performed them? They are said to have built temples, founded cities, and to have passed over vast continents, and through seas unknown; and all this in an open35 [The Argo was styled [x] by Diodorus; and the Scholiast upon Pindar: also by Euripides. It is also called [x]. Orphic Argonaut. V. 1261. and V. 489. [x].] boat, which they dragged over mountains, and often carried for leagues upon their shoulders.

If there were any truth in this history, as applied by the Grecians, there should be found some consistency in their writers. But there is scarce a circumstance, in which they are agreed. Let us only observe the contradictory accounts given of Hercules. According to36 [Herodotus. L. 7. c. 193.] Herodotus he was left behind at their first setting out. Others say, he was left on shore upon the coast of37 [Apollonius Rhodius. L. I. v. 1285. Theocrit. Idyll. 13.] Bithynia. Demaretes and Diodorus maintain that he went to38 [Apollodorus. L. I. p. 45. Diodorus. L. 4. p. 251.] Colchis: and Dionysius Milesius made him the captain in the39 [Apollodoriis. L. I. p. 45.] expedition. In respect to the first setting out of the Argo, most make it pass northward to Lemnos and the Hellespont: but40 [Herodotus. L. 4. c. 179. [x].] Herodotus says, that Jason sailed first towards Delphi, and was carried to the Syrtic sea of Libya; and then pursued his voyage to the Euxine. The aera of the expedition cannot be settled without running into many difficulties, from the genealogy and ages of the persons spoken of. Some make the event41 [Euseb. Chron. Versio Lat. p. 93.] ninety years, some42 [Thrasyllus apud Clement. Alexand. Strom. L. I. p. 401. Petavius 79 years. Rationarii Temp. Pars secunda, p. 109.] seventy-nine, others only forty years before the aera of Troy. The point, in which most seem to be agreed, is, that the expedition was to Colchis: yet even this has been controverted. We find by Strabo, that43 [[x]. Strabo. L. I. p. 80. [x], Strabo, L. I. p. 77.] Scepsius maintained, that AEetes lived far in the east upon the ocean, and that here was the country, to which Jason was sent by Pelias. And for proof of this he appealed to Mimnermus, whose authority Strabo does not like: yet it seems to be upon a par with that of other poets; and all these traditions came originally from poets. Mimnermus mentions, that the rout of Jason was towards the east, and to the coast of the ocean: and he speaks of the city of AEetes as lying in a region, where was the chamber of the Sun, and the dawn of day, at the extremities of the eastern world.

44 [Strabo. L. I. p. 80.] [x]

How can we after this trust to writers upon this subject, who boast of a great exploit being performed, but know not whether it was at Colchis, or the Ganges. They could not tell satisfactorily who built the Argo. Some supposed it to have been made by Argus: others by Minerva.45 [Athenaeus, L. 7. c. 12. p. 296.] Possis of Magnesia mentioned Glaucus, as the architect: by Ptolemy Hephaestion he is said to have been46 [Apud Photium. p. 475.] Hercules. They were equally uncertain about the place, where it was built. Some said, that it was at Pagasae; others at Magnesia; others again at Argos.47 [Scholia in Lycoph. V. 883.] [x]. In short the whole detail is filled with inconsistencies: and this must ever be the case, when a people adopt a history, which they do not understand, and to which they have no pretensions.

I have taken notice, that the mythology, as well as the rites of Greece, was borrowed from Egypt: and that it was founded upon ancient histories, which had been transmitted in hieroglyphical representations. These by length of time became obscure; and the sign was taken for the reality, and accordingly explained. Hence arose the fable about the bull of Europa, the fish of Venus, and Atargatis, the horse of Neptune, the ram of Helle, and the like. In all these is the same history under a different allegory, and emblem. I have moreover taken notice of the wanderings of Rhea, of Isis, of Astarte, of Iona: and lastly of Damater: in which fables is figured the separation of mankind by their families, and their journeying to their places of allotment. At the same time the dispersion of one particular race of men, and their flight over the face of the earth, is principally described. Of this family were the persons, who preserved the chief memorials of the ark in the Gentile world. They Iooked upon it as the nurse of Dionusus, and represented it under different emblems. They called it Demeter, Pyrrha, Selene, Meen, Argo, Argus, Arcas, and Archaius ([x]). And although the last term, as the history is of the highest antiquity, might be applicable to any part of it in the common acceptation; yet it will be found to be industriously introduced, and to have a more immediate43 [It is found continually annexed to the history of Pyrrha, Pelias, Aimonia, and the concomitant circumstances of the Ark, and Deluge. [x]. Schol. in Lycoph. v. 1206. [x]. [x]. Schol. in Apollon. L. I. V. 137.] reference. That it was used for a title is plain from Stephanus Byzantinus, when he mentions the city Archa near mount Libanus. [x]. Upon one of the plates backwards is a representation from Paruta of the Sicilian Tauro-Men with an inscription49 [Parutae Sicilia. p. 104.] [x]. This is remarkable; for it signifies literally Deus Arkitis: and the term [x] above is of the same purport, an Archite. The Grecians, as I have said, by taking the story of the Argo to themselves, have plunged into numberless difficulties. What can be more ridiculous than to see the first constructed ship pursued by a navy, which was prior to it? But we are told, to palliate this absurdity, that the Argo was the first Iong50 [Longa nave Jasonem primum navigasse Philostephanus Auctor est. [Google translate: Philostephanus is the founder of Jason, the first to have sailed on a Iong ship.] Plin. L. 7. c. 56. Herodotus mentions the Argonauts [x]. L. I. c. 2.] ship. If we were to allow this interpretation, it would run us into another difficulty: for Danaus, many generations before, was said to have come to51 [[x]. Scholia in Apollon. L. I. v. 4.] Argos in a long ship: and Minos had a fleet of Iong ships, with which he held the sovereignty of the seas. Of what did the fleet of AEetes consist, with which he pursued the Argonauts, but of Iong ships? otherwise how could he have been supposed to have got before them at the Bosporus, or overtaken them in the Ister? Diodorus indeed omits this part of the history, as he does many other of the principal circumstances, in order to render the whole more consistent. But at this rate we may make any thing of any thing. We should form a resolution, when we are to relate an ancient history, to give it fairly, as it is transmitted to us; and not try to adapt it to our own notions, and alter it without authority.

In the account of the Argo we have undeniably the history of a sacred ship, the first which was ever constructed. This truth the best writers among the Grecians confess; though the merit of the performance they would fain take to themselves. Yet after all their prejudices they continually betray the truth; and shew, that the history was derived to them from Egypt. Accordingly Eratosthenes tells us,52 [[x]. Eratosthenes in [x]. 35.]

that the asterism of the Argo in the heavens was there placed by divine wisdom: for the Argo was the first ship that was ever built: [x], it was moreover built in the most early times, or at the very beginning; and was an oracular vessel. It was the first ship that ventured upon the seas, which before had never been passed: and it was placed in the heavens as a sign, and emblem for those, who were to come after.

Conformably to this Plutarch informs us,53 [[x]. Isis et Osiris. V. i. p. 359.]

that the constellation, which the Greeks called the Argo, was a representation of the sacred ship of Osiris: and that it was out of reverence placed in the heavens.

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I have spoken at large both of Osiris, and his sacred ship: and we know to what it alludes, and that it was esteemed the first ship54 [[x]. Theon in Aratum de Argo nave.] constructed. It was no other than the Ark, called by the Greeks Argus, and Arcas, and represented above as [x]. Hence the Grecians, though some few would represent the Argo as only the first Iong ship; yet in general speak of it, as the first ship which was framed. And although their account of it is attended with numberless inconsistencies, yet they religiously abide by the truth. Eratosthenes above, to prevent all misinterpretation, explains his meaning by saying,

The Argo was the first ship that divided the waters of the sea, which before had never been penetrated:

55 [Asterism 35.] [x]. Hence also Catullus keeps to this ancient tradition, though he is guilty of great inconsistency in speaking of ships, which were still prior. He says of the Argo,

56 [Epithalam. Pelei et Thetidos. V. 11.] Illa rudem curfu prima imbuit Amphitriten. [Google translate: She first imbues Amphitrite with a rude course.]

Commentators have endeavoured to explain away the meaning of this passage: and have gone so far as to alter the terms prima imbuit to prora imbuit, that the author may not contradict himself. But they spoil the rhythm, and render the passage scarce sense. And after all, the same difficulty occurs repeatedly in other writers. There was certainly a constant tradition that the Argo was the first ship; and that it was originally framed by divine wisdom. The author of the Orphic Argonautics represents it in this light; and says, that Juno gave a commission to Minerva to build it out of her regard to Jason.

57 [Orphic Argonautica. V. 66. This writer acts with the same inconsistency as Catullus: for after having represented the Argo as the first ship, he mentions the Pheacians, as a people prior to it, and very expert in navigation. [x]. V. 1292. He also speaks of [x]. V. 1298.] [x],

The like is said by Theon upon Aratus, 58 [Theon in Aratum. The Argo is termed [x]. Apollonius. L. i. v. 551. The same is to be found in Apollodorus. [x]. L. I. p. 42.] [x].

It was placed in the heavens by Minerva, as a memorial, that the first ship was devised by her.

All the Latin Poets have closely copied this tradition. Lucan speaks of navigation commencing from the aera of the Argo.

59 [Lucan. Pharfal. L. 3. v, 193.] Inde lacessitum primum mare, cum rudis Argo
Miscuit ignotas temerato littore gentes.

[Google translate: The first provoked from the sea, with raw Argo He mingled unknown nations on the desecrated shore.]

This, according to Manilius, was the reason of its being inserted in the sphere.

60 [Manilii Astron. L. i. v. 403.] In Coelum subducta, mari quod prima cucurrit.

[Google translate: Having been drawn up into heaven, he ran to the sea which was the first.]

All the other61 [Prima Deum magnis canimus freta pervia nautis, Fatidicamque ratem. Valerius Flaccus. L. i. v. i. Haec fuit ignoti prima carina maris. Martial. L. 7. Epig. 19. Aequor Jasonio pulsatum remige primum. Ovid. de Ponto. L. 3. Epist. 1. V. I. Primaeque ratis molitor Jason. Ovid. Metam. L. 8. v. 302. Per non tentatas prima cucurrit aquas. Ovid. Trist. L. 3. Eleg. 9. v. 8. Prima malas docuit mirantibus aequora ventis Peliaco pinus vertice caesa vias. Ovid. Amorum. L. 2. Eleg. 11. v. i. Vellera cum Minyae nitido radiantia villo Per mare non notum prima petiere carina. Metamorph. L. 6. v. 721. Prima sretum scandens Pagasaeo littore pinus Terrenum ignotas hominem projecit in undas. Lucan. L. 6. v. 400. See also Scholia upon Euripides. Medea, v. i. [Google translate: We sing the first God with great seas, accessible to sailors, and fatidical ship. Valerius Flaccus L. i. v i. This was the first unknown keel of the sea. Martial. L. 7. Epig. 19. The sea was beaten by Jason's rowers for the first time. Ovid. from the Black Sea L. 3 Epist. 1. V. I. Jason is the constructor of the first raft. Ovid. Goal L. 8. v. 302 He ran through the water and did not attempt the first day. Ovid. Trist. L. 3. Eleg. v 8. The first taught me the wonder of the sea and the bad winds Pines were cut down on the top of the Pines' streets. Ovid. of Ioves. L. 2. Eleg. v i. Minya fleece with sparkling glistening fleece The first keel was not known by the sea. Metamorph. L. 6. v. 721 Climbing the plain of Pagasa on the shore of the pine An earthy unknown man cast into the waves. Lucan. L. 6. v. 400. See also Scholia upon Euripides Medea i.] poets are uniformly of this opinion; and they speak the sense of the best mythologists, who preceded. Hyginus, who made it his sole purpose to collect the various traditions of the mythic ages, concludes his account of the Argo in these words:62 [Hyginus. Fab. 14. p 55.] Haec est navis Argo, quam Minerva in sideralem circulum retulit ob hoc, quod ab fe effet aedificata, ac primum in pelagus deducta. [Google translate: This is the ship Argo, which Minerva He referred to the constellation as a circle, on account of the fact that it was built by Fe, and was first led down to the sea.]

From hence, I think, it is plain, that the history of the Argo related to an ancient event, which the Egyptians commemorated with great reverence. The delineation in the sphere was intended as a lasting memorial of a wonderful deliverance: on which account one of the brightest stars in the southern hemisphere is represented upon the rudder of the ship. The star by the Egyptians was called Canobus; which was one of the titles of their chief Deity; who under this denomination was looked upon as the particular God of mariners. There was a city of this name upon the most western branch of the Nile, much frequented by63 [[x]. Strabo. L. 17. p. 1153.] sailors: and there was also a temple called by Stephanus, [x] the temple of Canobus Neptunius, the great God of mariners. Over against it was a small island named Argaeus.64 [Steph. Byzant.] [x]. Argaius, Archaius, and Argous, all relate to the same history. The temple at Canobus seems to have been a stately edifice; and to have had a sacred inclosure, as we may infer from Dionysius.

65 [[x]. v. 13. [x]. Proclus de Sphaera.] [x].

The star of this Deity was put upon the rudder of the Argo, to shew, that Providence was its guide. It is mentioned by Vitruvius; who calls it Canopus, and says, that it was too low to be seen in Italy.66 [Vitruvius. L. 9. c. 7.] Stella Canopi, quae his regionibus est ignota. [Google translate: The star of Canopus, which of these countries is unknown.] It was also scarce high enough to be seen in any part of Greece. Eudoxus is said to have just discerned it from an eminence near67 [Strabo. L. 2. p. 180. [x]. Scholia Dionys. v. 10.] Cnidus. But there is scarce a place in Europe of a latitude so far south as68 [It could scarcely be seen at Rhodes, which was nearly the same latitude as Cnidus.[x]. Proclus de Sphaera. Scholia in Dionys. [x]. v. 11.] Cnidus: in all the celebrated places in Greece it was utterly invisible. This alone would prove, that the sphere could not be the work of a Grecian; and that this asterism could have no relation to that country. The star Canobus, as I have shewn, was denominated from an Egyptian Deity; and placed in the sphere with a particular design, and attended with a very interesting history: but both the star itself, and the history, to which it related, was in great measure a secret to the Greeks. Not a word is said of it in their ancient accounts of the69 [Canopus, and Canobus, was the same as the God Esorus, or Asorus, who was worshiped in Palestine and Syria; and was supposed to have been the founder of Carthage. He is represented by Hesychius, as the pilot of the Argo. [x]. Artemis was styled [x]. Pausan. L. 2. p. 240. and 274. Asorus, and Azorus, was the same as the Hazor of the Scriptures.] Argo.  

The cause of all the mistakes in this curious piece of mythology arose from hence. The Arkites, who came into Greece, settled in many parts, but especially in Argolis and Thessalia; where they introduced their rites, and worship. In the former of these regions they were commemorated under a notion of the arrival of Da-Naus, or Danaus. It is supposed to have been a person, who fled from his brother AEgyptus, and came over in a sacred ship given him by Minerva. This ship, like the Argo, is said to have been the first ship constructed: and he was assisted in the building of it by the same Deity, Divine wisdom.70 [Apollodorus. L. 2. p. 63. See also Scholia in Apollon. Argonaut. L. I. V. 4.] [x] . Both histories relate to the same event. Danaus upon his arrival built a temple called Argus, to Iona, or Juno; of which he made his daughters priestesses. The people of the place had an obscure tradition of a deluge, in which most perished; some few only escaping. The principal of these was 71 [Natalis Comes. L. 8. c. 17. p. 466.] Deucalion, who took refuge in the Acropolis, or temple. Those who settled in Thessaly, carried with them the same memorials concerning72 [Strabo. L. 9. p. 660 and 677. [x]. Schol. in Apollon. L. 4. v. 266.] Deucalion, and his deliverance; which they appropriated to their own country. They must have had traditions of this great event strongly impressed upon their minds; as every place, to which they gave name, had some reference to that history. In process of time these impressions grew more and more faint; and their emblematical worship became very obscure, and unintelligible. Hence they at last confined the history of this event to their own country: and the Argo was supposed to have been built, where it was originally enshrined. As it was reverenced under the symbol of the Moon, called Man, and Mon; the people from this circumstance named their country Ai-Mona, in aftertimes rendered Aimonia. And we are informed by the Scholiast upon73 [Strabo. L. 9. p. 677. Schol. Apollonii. L. 3. v. 1087.] Apollonius, that it had of old many other names; such as Pyrrhodia, which it received in memory of Pyrrha the wife of 74 [She was the wife of that Deucalion, [x]. Apollonius Rhod. L. 3. v. 1087.] Deucalion. The history given of the region, by the ancient poet Rhianus, is very curious, and shews plainly the original of this Arkite colony.

75 [Scholia Apollon. supra.] [x] [76 [The country [x] is in like manner styled [x] by Callimachus, in speaking of the Argonauts. [x]. See Strabo. L. i. p. 78.].

In this country were the cities Arne, Larissa, Argos, Theba, and Magnesia; all denominated from the same worship. Here was77 [[x]. Apollon. L. I. v. 580.] [x], the promontory of the Doves; and the sea port Iolcus, of the same purport as Argos and Theba. It was one of the most ancient cities of Thessaly, in which the Argo was supposed to have been laid up: and the name shews the true history of the place. It was denominated from the Ark, styled [x]; which was one of the Grecian names for a large ark or float. Iolcus was originally expressed Iaolcus, which is a variation of Aia-Olcas, the place of the Ark. Medea in Apollonius makes use of the true name, when she speaks of being wasted to Greece.

78 [Apollon. Rhod. L. 3. v. 1110. Homer also styles it [x]. Odyss. A: v. 255.] [x]

Pagasae in the feminine is the same as Pegasus: and received its name from a well known emblem, the horse of Poseidon; by which we are to understand an ark, or ship.79 [Artemidorus. L. i. c. 58.] [x]. By horses, says Artemidorus, the poets mean ships; and hence it is, that Poseidon is styled Hippius. For there is a strict analogy between the poetical horse on land, and a real ship in the sea. Hence it came, that Pegasus was esteemed the horse of Poseidon, and often termed [x]; a name, which relates to a80 [[x]. Palaephatus.] ship, and shews the purport of the emblem. The ark, we know, was preserved by divine providence from the sea, which would have overwhelmed it: and as it was often represented under this symbol of a horse, it gave rise to the fable of the two chief Deities contending about horses.

81 [Orph. Argonaut, v. 1275.] [x].

It was upon this account that the cities named Argos had the title of [x], Hippii and Hippobotae. I have mentioned that the Arkite worship was introduced into Italy by people styled Arcades, and Argaei: and here was an82 [[x]. Strabo. L. 5. p. 329. See also L. 8. p. 568. [x].] Argos Hippium in the region of Daunia. I imagine, that none of these appellations related to the animal, an horse; but to an emblem, under which in those places the ark was83 [There is no satisfactory history, that any of these places were really famous for horses: and though the poet says Aptum dicet equis Argos [Google translate: He will be fitted for the horses of Argos]; yet I have reason to think, that the notion arose from a mistake in terms. I imagine, that the term [x] was originally differently expressed; and that it signified, Hippo-Bat, or the temple of the Ark. It was sometimes represented by a Cetus; and Nonnus under the character of Perseus describes some Perezites, who settled in Daunia, founding a temple under this emblem. [x]. Nonni Dionys. L. 47. p. 1232. Hence we may see that there is a correspondence in all these histories.] reverenced. Daunia itself is a compound of Da-Ionia, and signifies the land of the Dove. In Thessaly every place seems to have had a reference to this history. Two of the chief mountains were Pelion, and Ossa; one of which signifies the mountain of the Dove, and the other of the84 [[x]. Scholia in Iliad. B. v. 93. [x]. Apollon. Argon. L. 3. v. 1110.] Oracle. Near Pagasae and Iaolcus was a promontory named Pyrrha, and near it two islands, named the islands of85 [[x]. Strabo. L. 9. 665.] Pyrrha and Deucalion. These circumstances contain no internal evidence of the Grecian Argonautic history; but afford wonderful evidence of the Arkites, and their rites, which were introduced in all these places. The Grecians took the history to themselves; and in consequence of this assumption, wherever they heard that any people under the title of Arcades or Argaei settled, they supposed that their Argo had been. Hence they made it pass not only through the most distant seas, but over hills, and mountains, and through the midst of both Europe and Asia; there being no difficulty, that could stop it. They sent their heroes to Colchis, merely because some of their family had settled there. They made them visit Troas and Phrygia, where was both a city Theba, and Larissa, similar to those in their own country. Some Arcades had settled here; who were supposed to have been led by Dardanus, the brother of Jason. Virgil, I know not why, would make him come from Italy: but86 [L. i. p. 48.] Dionysius Halicarnassensis, a better mythologist, styles him Arcas; by which we are to understand an Arkite: and says, that after a deluge he came with his nephew Corybas from Arcadia to Samothrace; and from thence to Phrygia. There were innumerable colonies of Arkites, who went abroad, and made various settlements: but the Grecians have ascribed the whole to the Arcades, Argasi, and Argonautae of their own country. Yet after all their prejudices they afford many curious traditions; so that from the collateral history we may always perceive who these Argives and Argonauts were. Hermione, one of the most ancient cities in Greece, was said to have been built by Argives. The true name was Herm-Ione, a compound of two Egyptian titles; and by them was denoted a city sacred to the Arkite Dove. Samos was particularly dedicated to Juno: and we are told, that some Argonauts came hither, and brought the image of the Goddess from87 [[x]. Pausania;. L. 7. p. 530.] Argos; for the reception of which they built the chief temple in the island. But upon inquiry we shall find, that these Argonauts were no other than the ancient Macarians. The Grecians describe them in the singular by the name of Macareus; whom they suppose to have come to88 [Diodorus Sic. L. 5. p. 347. [x].] Samos, Lesbos, and other Asiatic islands after the deluge; and to have raised temples to the Gods; and renewed the religious rites, which had been omitted, while those islands lay89 [[x]. Ibid.] desolate. There was a remarkable mountain in Samos, named90 [Strabo. L. 10. p. 747. [x]. Dercetus is called Cercetus by Ampelius, c. 9. See Hyginus, notes, p. 343.] Cercetus; undoubtedly from some building sacred to the Cetus, the same as Atargatus, and Dagon. Tarfus, a city of the highest antiquity, was founded by the first Ionim in Syria. This too was said to have been built by people from91 [[x]. Steph. Byzant.] Argos. The city Gaza in Palestine was named both Iona, and Minoa: the latter of which names it was said to have received from92 [[x]. Steph. Byzant.] Ion of Argos. I have taken particular notice of the city Cibotus in Lydia; which was apparently denominated from the Ark, and retained many memorials of the Deluge. This was said to have been built by one of the daughters of93 [Strabo. L. 12. p. 868. Lindus, Jalysus, and Camirus, in Rhodes, were said to have been named from some of the daughters of Danaus. Strabo. L. 14. p. 966. The temple at Lindus [x]. Ibid. p. 967.] Danaus; consequently by the people of Argos. If we Iook into the history of94 [[x]. Nonnus. L. 25. p. 648. v. 12.] Danae, and her son Perseus, the like circumstances will be observable. After they had been exposed in an ark, they are said to have come to Argos. From thence they passed into Italy; where some of their company settled upon the Portus Lunus, and Portus Argous: others founded the cities Larina, Ardea, and Argos Hippium in Daunia. All which was supposed to have been performed by Argonauts and Argives. Even95 [Euseb. Chron. p. 27. 29.] Memphis in Egypt is supposed to have had the same origin. This too, if we may believe the Grecians, was built by Argives. But by this was certainly meant Arkites: for Argos itself in the Peloponnesus could not have supplied persons to have effected, what was supposed to have been done. There were some Ionim, who settled upon the Orontes; where they built the city Iona, called afterwards Antiochea. These also were termed Argives by the Greeks, and were supposed to have come from Argos. Cedrenus accordingly styles them96 [P. 22. [x]. [x]. Chron. Paschale. p. 42.] [x], the Ionitae from Argos. It is also said by another writer,97 [[x] (It should be [x]. Chron. Pasch. p. 40.] that Perseus being informed that there were Ionitae in Syria, who were by nation Argives, made them a visit, and built for them a temple. He did the same in Persis; and in both regions instituted Puratheia: and the name, which he gave to each of these edifices, was the temple of the everlasting fire. These temples however were not built by Perseus; but erected to his honour. For I have shewn that Perseus was a Deity, the same as Helius, and Osiris: and he was worshiped in these places by the Ionim, who were Arkites. The accounts therefore, which have been given above, may be all admitted as true, if instead of Perseus we substitute Peresians, and Perezzites; and instead of natives of Argos we read Argoi, and Arkitae, or as it is sometimes rendered,98 [So the title was expressed in Syria. The Goddess upon mount Libanus was styled Venus Architis. Macrob. Sat. L. i. c. 21.] Architae. People of these denominations did settle in Palestine; and occupied a great part of Syria. From thence they came to Greece and Italy: though the Grecians have reversed the history; and would persuade us that they proceeded from Hellas, and more particularly from99 [Even among the Grecians the term Argivus was not of old confined to Argos. [x]. All the Grecians, says Hesychius, are Argivi. Hence we may perceive, that though it was sometimes limited to one district, yet it was originally taken in a greater latitude. [x]. Plutarch. Quaest. Romanae. p. 272. It is used continually in this acceptation by Homer.] Argos. The ultimate, to which we can apply, is Egypt. To this country we must Iook up for the original of this much mistaken people, the Ionim, Arkitae, and Argonauts. Here was the most ancient city Theba: and from hence we may obtain the best accounts of these Colonies, which were diffused so widely. Apollonius Rhodius mentions that the various peregrinations of the Argonauts were appointed by an oracle; and says, that it came from Theba in Egypt.

100 [L. 4. 260.] [x].

This was the city, where the Arkite rites in1 [I say in Egypt: for these rites came originally from Chaldea, being introduced by the Cuthite Shepherds.] Egypt were first instituted; and from which all other cities called Theba seem to have had their name. It stood high upon the Nile: and if any body should ask, whence it was so denominated, Nonnus can give a precise and determinate answer.

2 [Donys. L. 41. p. 1068.] [x]

The purport of which, I think, is plainly, that Theba upon the most southern part of the Nile, in the remotest region of Egypt, was built, and named, after the ark, which was the true and original Theba.

The chief title, by which the Argonauts were distinguished, was that of Minyae: the origin of which appellation has been matter of debate among most writers upon this subject. The most general account is, that there was a person named Minyas, a king of Orchomenos in Thessaly; from whose daughters the Argonauts were in great measure descended.

3 [Apollon. L. i. v. 229.] [x]

The Scholiast upon Pindar speaks to the same purpose; and says, that the Minyae were [x], an ancient race, and descended from4 [[x], Schol. in Pindar. Olymp. Ode 13. p. 124. [x]. Homer. Iliad. B. v. 511. [x]. Schol. ibid. [x]. Schol. in Lycoph. v. 874.] Minyas of Thessaly. This Minyas was the son of Callirrhoe, and Poseidon: though Pausanias makes him the son of5 [[x]. Pausan. L. 9. p. 783.] Chruses: and other writers vary still more in their6 [See Scholia upon Pindar. Pyth. Ode 4. p. 240. Also Schol. Apollon. L. i. v. 230. Servius in Virg. Eclog. 4. v. 34. [x]. Schol. in Lycoph. v. 874.] opinions. These genealogies are fictitious, and inconsistent; and consequently not at all satisfactory. The Argonauts are enumerated by many authors; and are described as coming from places widely separated: on which account there could not have subsisted between them the relation here supposed. They could not be so generally descended from a king of Orchomenos: for they are represented as natives of very different regions. Some of them came from Pylos, Taenarus, and Lacedaemon: others from Phocis, and AEtolia. There were others, who came from countries still more remote: from7 [Orpheus came from Thrace; also Zethus and Calais from the same quarter: Eurytus and Echion from Ephesus: Anceus from Samos; Erginus from Miletus: Deucalion from Crete: Thersanon from Andros, Hyginus. Fab. 14. p. 38.] Thrace, and the regions about Mount Haemus; also from Samos, Ephesus, and places in Asia.

I have already given some intimations that the Minyae, however expressed, were no other than the worshipers of the Lunar Deity Menes: and under this title there occur people in many different parts. We must not then Iook for the original of the term Minyae in Greece; but from among those people, through whom it was derived to the Helladians. There were Minyae, or8 [[x]. Dionys. [x]. v. 959. Minnaeique maris prope Rubri littora vivunt [Google translate: The Minnaeans live near the shores of the Red Sea.]. Priscian. Periegesis. v. 888. [x]. Steph. Byzant. See Strabo. L. 16. 1122.] Minnaei upon the Red Sea; Minyae near9 [Mina appellati vel ab agro hujus nominis Colchorum, &c. [Google translate: named Mina, or from the territory of the Colchi of this name.] Servius in Virg. Eclog. 4. v. 34.] Colchis; a city Minya, and people denominated from it, in10 [[x]. Steph. Byzant. Minyae in Arcadia. Strabo. L. 8. p. 519.] Phrygia. In the island Sicily were Menaei, the same as the Minyae in Greece. Their chief city was11 [Stephanus. [x]. See Cluver. L. 2. c. 7. Sicilia. p. 339. called now Minio.] Menae near the country of the Leontini; where the emblem of the sacred Bull was so religiously preserved. All these places will be found to have been thus denominated from the same rites and worship. The people, who were called Minyae, or Menians, were Arkites: and this denomination they took from the Ark; and also from the Patriarch, who was at times called Meen, Menes, and Manes. Those therefore, who in any part of the world went under this appellation, will universally be found to have a reference to the same object. The principal, and probably the most ancient, Minyae, were those, whose country is mentioned in12 [Euseb, Praep. Evang. L. 9. p. 414. [x].] Nicolaus Damascenus by the name of Minyas. This people resided at the bottom of Mount Ararat, where the Ark first rested. I have mentioned, that they called this mountain Baris from the appulse of the sacred ship; and retained many memorials of the Deluge. At no great distance, in the same region, was a city named13 [Antoninus, p. 148. p. 214. It is called [x] by Hierocles Grammaticus, p. 703. ibid.] Arcas, and Arca. The Minnaei upon the Red Sea were Arabians, who all worshiped the Lunar Deity. By this they did not refer to the Moon; but to the genius of the Ark, whom they styled Menith, Maneth, and Mana. One of their chief cities was named14 [Steph. Byzant. Pliny mentions Sabaei Minaei. L. 6. c. 28.] lManna-Carta, from this Goddess there worshiped. They called her also Mather, and Mither, similar to the15 [Selden de Diis Syris. Syntag. 2. p. 179. 180. Meneth is mentioned in the Alcoran as an Arabian idol.] Mithra of the Persians: by which was signified the mother of Gods, and men. Of the Minyae near Magnesia and mount Sipulus, and in the neighbourhood of16 [Their chief city was named Minua; which Stephanus places [x].] Cibotus, I have taken notice before. They preserved, as I have shewn, wonderful evidences of the Deluge: and many thought that the Ark itself rested in their country, upon the mountains of Celaenae. The Menaei in Sicily were situated upon the river Menais. They had traditions of a Deluge; and a notion, that Deucalion was saved upon mount AEtna; near which was the city17 [Steph. Byzant. [x]. Diodorus. L. 11. p. 67.] Noa. There were of old Minyae in Elis, upon the river18 [Pausanias. L. 5. p. 387.] Minyas, which ran by the city Arene, as we learn from Homer. He renders it Minyeius.

19 [Iliad, A. v. 721.] [x].

The city Arena is literally the city of the Ark. It seems to have been situated upon a sacred hill called20 [It is rendered Samicon by Strabo. [x]. Strabo. L. 8. p. 532, 533. Sama-Con, signum caeleste, sive signum Dei [Google translate: Sama-Con, a heavenly sign or sign of God.]. Strabo supposes that Samos and Samicon were so named from Sama, high: [x]. And Sama certainly had that meaning: but in this place Sama signifies signum; similar to [x] and [x], which were derived from it.] Sama-Con, near the grove and temple of Iona: in all which names we may see a reference to the same rites and history. The most celebrated city of this name ([x]) was Orchomenes in Thessaly; which was so denominated from the Lunar God, and from the rites spoken of above. Hence it was also called Almon, and the region Almonia; equivalent to Aimon and Aimonia, by which it was also distinguished. 21 [Steph. Byzant.] [x]. Pliny affords evidence to the same purpose. 22 [L. 4. c. 8. Harduin reads Salmon.] In Thessalia autem23 [Orchomenus is a compound of Or-Chom-Men, three titles, which need no explanation.] Orchomenus Minyeus antea diclus, et oppidum Almon, ab aliis Elmon. Oppidum Almon and Elmon signifies literally the town of the God Lunus, or Deity of the Ark: for the Ark, as I have repeatedly shewn, was expressed and reverenced under the figure of a lunette. All the natives of these cities called Magnesia, were properly Minyae, and named from the same worship. Iolcos in Thessaly was the city of the Ark, and hence called also24 [In Thessalia Larisa, aliquando Iolcos. Mela. L. 2 c. 3.] Larissa: on which account the ancient inhabitants were styled25 [[x]. Schol. Apollon. L,. i. v. 763. [x] quafi [x]. Selenitae.] Minyas, and the country26 [[x]. Schol. Apollon. L. i. v. 584. Some make Iolcos the same as Pagasae, where the Argo was built. Pagasae was in Magnesia. [x]. Schol. Apollon. L. i. v. 238.] Magnesia. As the name of the Deity Meen and Manes was changed to Magnes; so the people thence denominated had also the title of Magnetes: which was the usual appellation given to them by the natives of Asia.

Thus have I endeavoured to shew that the Argonautic expedition, as represented by the Greeks, was a fable: and I have proceeded to ascertain the true object, to which it related. The Grecians in their accounts of the heroes have framed a list of persons who never existed. And had there been such persons, as they represented; yet they would have been far too few to have effected, what they are supposed to have performed. Jason has been esteemed the chief in all their adventures. But this is a feigned personage, made out of a sacred title. Strabo takes notice of many temples in the east called Jasonea, which were held in high reverence by the natives of those parts.27 [L. 11. p. 798.] [x]. Marcellinus mentions the 28 [L. 2. p. 288.] mountain of Jason near Ecbatana in Media: and in another place he represents that city as situated at the bottom of this29 [L. 3. p. 289. Egbatana sub monte Jasonio [Google translate: Egbatana under Mount Jason.]] mountain. Some of these temples flood in30 [Strabo. L. i. p. 77. and L. 11. p. 769.] Armenia: others were to be met with as far off as the31 [[x]. Ibid p. 798.] [x]. ] Pylae Caspiae, near Bactria, and Margiana. In all these countries we may observe names of cities, which had a reference to the Arkite history; such as32 [Hieronymus Grammat. apud Antonin. Itin. p. 703. [x]. Antonini Itin. p. 148. Arcas.] Arca,33 [Xenophon. [x]. p. 308. There was also a Larissa in Syria. Strabo. L. 16. p. 1092.] Larissa,34 [Strabo. L. 11. p. 803. [x] upon mount Taurus near Egbatana: the same probably as the Jasoneum.] Baris,35 [[x]. Strabo. L. 12. p. 811.] Argos: and we have reason to infer that the temples of Jason related to the same event. Some of these are mentioned by Justin as of great antiquity, and much reverenced; which however Parmenio, the general of Alexander, ruined. 36 [L. 42. c. 3.] Quae Parmenio, dux Alexandri, post multos annos dirui jussit [Google translate: Which Parmenius, Alexander's chief he ordered it to be razed after many years.]. To suppose with Strabo, that all these temples, and cities, situated in regions so remote, were built by Jason of Greece, would be idle. Besides, there are writers, who mention the like memorials of the Argonauts among the Iberians, and Celts, upon the great37 [Diodor. Sic. L. 4. p. 259.] Atlantic; and all along the coast of Hetruria. Jason was certainly a title of the Arkite God, the same as Arcas, Argus, Inachus, and Prometheus: and the temples were not built by him, but erected to his honour. It is said of this personage, that, when a child, he underwent the same fate as Osiris, Perseus, and Dionusus:38 [Natalis Comes. L. 6. p. 315.] in arca opertus et clausus est, tanquam mortuus [google translate: covered in box and closed up like a dead]: He was concealed and shut up in an Ark, as if he had been dead. Justin places him in the same light as Hercules, and Dionusus: and says that by most of the people in the east he was looked up to as the founder of their nations; and had divine honours paid to him.39 [Justin. L. 42. c. 3. p. 589. Tacitus. Annal. L. 6. c. 34.] Itaque Jasoni totus ferine Oriens ut conditori, divinos honores, templaque constituit [Google translate: Accordingly, for Jason, the East was almost entirely inspired by the honors of its founder, he established temples.]. I suspect, that AEson, Jason,40 [It may be worth while to see the history, which the mythologists give of these personages. Jasus was the son of Argus. Apollodorus. L. i. p. 59, 60. Jasius, Janigena, tempore Deucalionis, cujus nuptiis interfuit Io, Hoffman from Berosus. [x]. See Servius in AEneid. L. 3. v. 168. 170. [x]. Pausan. L. 2. p. 145. [x]. Ibid. L. 5. p. 412. AEson was restored to second youth. [x]. Auctor Reditus.] Jasion, and Jasius, were originally the same title; though at this time of day we cannot perhaps readily arrive at the purport. Argos was styled Jason; which further confirms me, that it was an Arkite title. Eurymachus in Homer tells Penelope, that she would have a greater number of lovers,

41 [Odyss. [x]. v. 245.] [x]

Strabo also mentions42 [[x], L. 8. p. 568.] Jason Argos, and Hippium. The same is repeated by Hesychius. Hence I am led to think, that all those temples, mentioned by Strabo under the name of Jasonea, were temples of43 [The temple of Juno Argiva, among the Lucanians in Italy, was said to have been built by Jason. Strabo. L. 6. p. 386.] Argos, the Ark. Many of them were in Armenia, the region of the most ancient Minyae, in the vicinity of mount Baris; where the Ark really rested, and where the memorials of the Deluge were religiously preserved.

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Part 1 of 3

Volume 3, p. 1-63

Of the Migration and Dispersion of Nations

[x]. Georgius Monachus, p. 66.

In the Mosaic history we have an account of the antediluvian world being destroyed by a deluge, the family of one man excepted, which was providentially preserved. The manner of their preservation I have described; and have shewn that the ark rested upon Mount Ararat, in a province of Armenia. This was the region in which mankind first began to multiply, and from whence they afterwards proceeded to their different places of allotment. It will therefore be necessary to give some account of this country; as from such an inquiry we shall find innumerable evidences still arise in confirmation of the primaeval history: and there will be also many proofs obtained in confirmation of my opinion, concerning the migration of mankind.

Armenia lay to the north of Aramea, or Mesopotamia: and one might be led to think, from the similarity of terms, that Armenia and Aramea were the same name. This, however, was not the case. Aramea was the land of Aram: but Armenia, which was separated from it by1 [Strabo. L. 11. p. 792. 798.] Mount Taurus, was denominated from Ar-Men, and Har-Men, the mountain where the ark rested. It was a branch of the abovementioned Taurus: and was distinguished by several appellations, each of which was significant, and afforded some evidence to the history of the deluge. It was called Ararat, Baris,2 [See Vol. II. of this work, p. 442.] Barit, Luban, which last signified Mons Lunaris, or the Mountain of Selene. It had also the name of Har-Min, and Har-Men, which was precisely of the same signification. The people who lived round it were called Minni and Minyae; and the region had the name of Armenia from the mountain, which was the great object of reverence in this country. The name is to be found in the prophet Jeremiah, where he is calling together various foreign powers to make an invasion upon Babylon.3 [Jeremiah, c. 51. v. 27. Sulcitate super eam gentes; annunciate adversus illam regibus Ararath Menni. Vulgate. [Google translate: Sing praises to her, O nations; declare against her to the kings of Ararat and Minni.]]

Set up a standard in the land; blow the trumpet among the nations; prepare the nations against her. Call together against her the kingdoms of Ararat Minni, and Ashchenaz.

By Ararat-Minni is signified the region about Mount Ararat, which was possessed by the Minyae. The passage is by the Chaldee Paraphrast very justly rendered [x], Armini, the same as Armenia. From hence the learned Bochart infers with good reason, that the name of Armenia was taken from this Ararat of the Minni, called Ar-Mini.4 [Geog. Sacra. L. i. c. 3. p. 20.] Videtur Armeniae vox conflata esse ex [Google translate: The voice of Armenia appears to be fused] [x], Har Mini, id est Mons Mini [Google translate: Har Mini, which is Mini Mountain], five Montana Miniadis. Something similar is to be found in Amos; where the same mountain is mentioned under the name of [x],5 [C. 4. v. 3.] Har-Munah, or mountain of the Moon.6 [ ] Jerome takes notice of this passage, and mentions how differently it has been rendered by expositors; a circumstance which must happen, when writers are of different countries and of different times.6 [ Hieron. et Theodoretus. See Bochart. Geog. Sacra. L. i. c. 3. p. 20.] Hieronymus et projiciemini inquit in locis Armeniae, quae vocantur Armona. Denique Symmachus ita interpretatus est, et projiciemini in Armenia: pro quibus LXX montem Remman, Aquila montem Armona, Theodotio montem Mona. [Google translate: Jerome says, "You will be cast in the places of Armenia they are called Armona. Finally Symmachus interpreted this and you will be cast into Armenia: for which 70 Mount Remman Aquila mount Armona, Theodotius mountain Mona.]7 [Bochart supra. p. 20. [x]. Ibid.] Bochart, who quotes this passage, at the close asks, What if Mini, Minyas, and Monah should after all prove to be the same name, only differently expressed? We may safely answer that they are; and that they relate to the same history. Even the Remman of the LXX is a transposition of the true name; and a mistake for8 [This is manifest from the Vulgate, in which it is rendered, Et projiciemini in Ar-mon.] Ar-Man, the same as Ar-Mini in the Chaldaic Paraphrase, as Ar-Mona of Aquila, Ar-Muna of Amos, and the Mountain Mona of Theodotion. They all signify Mons Lunus, and relate to the Arkite emblem Selene, of which I have before treated.

The most common name given to the mountain was Ararat; and by this it has been distinguished by Moses. This is a compound of Ar-Arat, and signifies the Mountain of Descent, and is equivalent to [x], of the Hebrews. That the name was a compound of Ar-Arat, is plain from Hatho the Armenian, who mentions it out of composition by the name of Arath:9 [Hatho Armenius. See Purchas. Vol. 3. p. 110.] In Armenia edt altior mons, quam fit in toto orbe terrarum, qui Arath vulgariter nuncupatur; et in cacumine illius mentis arca Noae post diluvium primo stetit. [Google translate: In Armenia the mountain is higher than it does in all over the world, which is commonly called Arath; and At the top of that mountain, the ark of Noah stood first after the flood.] Josephus tells us expressly, that it was called by the natives the Mountain of Descent, which he translates [x], on account of the Patriarch here first descending from the ark.10 [Josephus. Antiq. Lib. i. c. 3. p. 16.] [x]. The same is mentioned by11 [[x]. Eustathius Antiochenus. See Bochart above, p. 20.] Eustathius Antiochenus. By Jerome it is styled the place of exit.12 [Hieron. in Eusebianis.] Nunc locum Armenii exitum vel egressum vocant. [Google translate: Now place Armenians going call or exit.] The sacred writer seems to have industriously expressed the name of this mountain, as it was exhibited by the natives. He accordingly calls it in the provincial dialect13 [Pro [x] Mosis reperitur in Codice Samaritano [Google translate: For Moses is found in the Samaritan Code] [x], Hararat. Le Clerc. Vol. i. p. 72.] Ar-Arat; which would have been rendered Har-Irad by the Hebrews. By this is signified [x], or place of descent. The region round about was called Araratia, and also Minyas, where the Minyae resided, of whom I have taken notice before. This probably, after the general migration, was one of the oldest colonies in the world. Nay, it is not impossible, but that the region may have been originally occupied by a people styled Minyae, who out of a false zeal adhered to the spot, and would never depart from it. From the similitude which the natives of these parts bore to the Syrians and Arabians, in religion, customs, and language, it appears plainly that they were one of the14 [[x]. Strabo, L. i. p. 70. One of the principal cities in this part of Armenia was Cu-Coufus, which signifies the place of Chus. See Hierocles [x]. p. 703. [x].] Cuthite branches.

We may be assured, that the ark was providentially wafted into Armenia; as that region seems to have been particularly well calculated for the reception of the Patriarch's family, and for the repeopling of the world. The soil of the country was very fruitful, and especially of that part where the Patriarch first made his descent. Some have objected to the Mosaic account of the dove and olive, and will not allow that the ark could have rested in Armenia, because travellers of late have discovered no olives in that15 [Tournefort. Letter 7th.] country: they therefore infer that there never were any trees of this sort in that region. In like manner, there may be in these days no balsam at Jericho, nor date trees in Babylonia: but it does not follow that there were none of old. We must not therefore set aside ancient histories faithfully transmitted because the same occurrences do not happen at this day. But the inference is not only trifling, but false. Strabo was a native of Asia Minor; and he speaks of the fertility of Armenia, and especially of the region Gogarene, which he particularly mentions as productive of the olive.16 [L. 11. p. 800.] [x]. He had been speaking of various parts of Armenia, and then adds,

After these succeeds Gogarene. All this country abounds with fruits and trees for the use of man, and with those also which are evergreen. It likewise produces the OLIVE.

I have mentioned that Arene was one name of the ark; and many places were so denominated in memorial of it. It is to be observed that there is scarcely any eastern name which begins with a vowel or common aspirate, but is at times to be found expressed with a guttural. The city Ur was called Cur, Cour, and Chora: Aza was rendered Gaza: Ham, Cham; Hanes, Chanes: Hala, Habor, and Haran; Chala, Chabor, and Charan. So Arene, an ark or ship, was expressed17 [Many places are to be found in Media, Susiana, and Armenia, named Carene and Carina. See Cluver. Geog.] Carene: from whence came the Carina of the Romans. The term Go-Carene ([x]) signifies literally the place or region of the ark. I do not, however, imagine, that this was precisely the spot, where the18 [Gogarene was beyond the Cyrus, and a northern province. See Strabo, Stephanus, and others. It was at too great distance from Ararat, which was upon the river Araxes.] descent was first made, though the name was given in memorial of that event; a circumstance common to many other places. I make no doubt but that the region of the Minyae, at the foot of Mount Arad, or Ar-Arat, was the district where the Patriarch and his family first resided. It was upon the river19 [The Araxes is properly the river of Arach, or Aracha, which signifies the river of the ark.] Araxes, and one of the mediterranean provinces of Armenia. It was called20 [Isaiah. c. 37. v. 38. and 2 Kings, c. 19. v. 37. Ararat, regio Armeniae. Hieron. in Isaiam. Araratia, in medio regionum (Armeniae) loco. Moses Chorenensis. Geog. p. 361. [Google translate: Isaiah. c. v. and 2 Kings, c. v Ararat, the region of Armenia. Hieron In Isaiah Araratia, in the middle of the regions (Armenia) Moses of Chorenensis Geog. p. 361] Ararat and Araratia from the mountain; and seems to have been a fine21 [Habet Araratia montes camposque, atque omnem soecunditatem. Idem. p. 361. [Google translate: Ararat has mountains and plains, and all the land. The same thing p. 361.] country, productive of every thing necessary for life. The whole of Armenia appears to have been22 [Habet Armenia rerum ubertatem. Id. p. 358. Strabo says of Armenia, [x]. L. 11. p. 800.] fruitful; and we have the attestation of Strabo that it produced the olive. It seems, for the most part, to have been of a very high situation. One province was styled, on this account, Armenia Alta. It bordered upon Araratia westward; and the account given of it by Moses Chorenensis is remarkable.23 [Geog. p. 358.] Armenia Alta inter omnes regiones revera altissima est; quippe quae ad quatuor coeli partes fluvios emittit. Habet praeterea montes tres, feras plurimas, aves utiles, thermas, falinas, atque aliarum rerum ubertatem, et urbem Carinam [Google translate: Armenia Alta inter all the regions in fact are very high; for the four things it sends out rivers in different parts of the sky. It has three mountains plenty of wild beasts, useful birds, bathhouses, fawns, and other animals the richness of things and the city of Carina.].

Armenia Alta is one of the highest regions in the world; for it sends out rivers in contrary directions towards the four cardinal points in the heavens. It has three mountains, and abounds with wild animals, and species of fowl for food, also with hot baths, and mines of salt, and with other things of utility; and the chief city is called24 [Some of the principal cities in Armenia were Carina, Arca, Comana, Ararathia, Cucoufus. See Hierocles [x]. p. 703. These names are very remarkable.] Carina.

The region styled Araratia was also very high, though it had fine plains and valleys between the mountains. A country of this nature and situation must, after the flood, have been soonest dried, and consequently the soonest habitable. And it seems also, in an eminent degree, to have contained every requisite for habitation. The mountain still has the name of Ararat, which it has retained through all ages; and the province beneath is at this day peculiarly styled25 [Ermenia of D'Anville. See his curious map of Armenia, entitled, Carte generale de la Georgie et de l'Armenie, definee a Petersbourg, en 1738, d'apres les Cartes, Memoires, et Observations des Gens du Pays, &c. publiee en 1766. [Google translate: Ermenia of D'Anville. See his curious map of Armenia, entitled, Carte generale de la Georgie et de l'Armenie, definee a Petersbourg, en 1738, d'apres les Cartes, Memoires, and Observations des Gens du Pays, &c. public en 1766]] Ar-Meni. This name seems by the natives to have been originally limited to the 26[It was the same as Ararat, which was extended in the same manner. But Jerome says, Ararat non est tota Armenia. L. 11. in Esaiam. [Google translate: "Ararat is not all Armenia." L. 11. in Isaiah.]] region of the ark; but writers in after times have spoken of it with a greater latitude, and extended it to a large country. It was of great repute, and its chief city very ample, before it was ruined by the Tartars. The learned Roger Bacon mentions that it once had eighty churches:27 [Rogeri Baconi Pars major de Aquilonaribus Mundi partibus. See Purchas, Vol. 3. P. 55. [Google translate: Roger Bacon's Major Part of the Northern Parts of the World. See Purchas, Vol. 3. P. 55] Fuerunt in ea civitate octoginta ecclesiae Hermenorum [Google translate: They were in that city eighty to the church of the Hermenians.].

The mountain was also called28 [See Cartwright's Travels, p. 30. and William de Rubruquis. c. 48. [x]. Strabo. L. 11. p. 772.] Masis, and likewise Thamanim and Shamanim, the purport of which is remarkable. I have before taken notice of the sacred Ogdoas in Egypt, which was held in great veneration. It consisted of eight29 [See Vol. II. of this work, p. 234.] personages described in a boat, who were esteemed the most ancient gods of the country. This number was held sacred, and esteemed mysterious by other nations. It is observable that the Chinese have somewhat more than two hundred principal elementary characters; and out of these all other representations are formed by which in writing they express their ideas. By these combinations the characteristic is, in some degree, made a definition of the thing represented, and it has often a relation to the original history. Some of these have a reference to this mystical number eight, of which I shall give two instances of a very curious nature. They are taken from the letter of that learned Jesuit at30 [Lettre de Pekin fur le Genie de la Langue Chinoise, &c. A Bruxelles, 1773. p. 32.] Pekin, who wrote in answer to some queries sent by the Royal Society at London. Le caractere de barque, vaisseau, est compose de la figure de vaisseau, de celle de bouche, et du chissre huit: ce qui peut faire allusion au nombre des personnes, qui etoient dans l'arche. On trouve encore les deux caracteres huit, et bouche avec celui d'eau pour exprimer navigation heureuse. Si c'est un hazard, il s'accorde bien avec le fait. [Google translate: The boat character, ship, is composed of the figure of ship, of that of mouth, and number eight: which may allude to the number of the people who were in the ark. We find again the two characters eight, and mouth with that of water to express happy browsing. If it is a coincidence, it agrees well with the fact.] The same reference to the number eight is to be observed in the history of Mount Masis, or Ararat. It was called the Mountain Thamanim, or Tshamanim; and there was a town towards the foot of the mountain of the same name, which was supposed to have been built by Noah. Now Thaman is said in the ancient language of the country to have signified eight, and was analogous to the [x], Shaman, of the31 [See Bochart. Geog. Sacra. L. i. p. 18.] Hebrews, which denotes the same number. Ebn32 [Vol. i. p. 40. Vocatur autem hodie terra Thamenin. In another place he adds, Cumque egressi essent, urbem extruxerunt, quam Thamanin appellarunt, juxta numerum fuum, quasi dicas, Nos Octo sumus. p. 43. [Google translate: Vol. i. p. 40. And this day is called the land of Thamenis. In another place he adds, And when they were departing, they built a city, which they called Thamanin, near the number one, as if you were saying, We are eight. p. 43.]] Patricius mentions the Ark resting upon Ararat, and calls the district below the region of the Thamanin. He also mentions the city of the same name; and he says, that it was so called from the eight persons who came out of the Ark. Other writers express it Thamanim, which is a plural from Thaman. Terra Thamanim signifies the region of the eight persons; whose history needs no explanation. It is so rendered by Elmacini, who speaks of the town, and styles it,33 [L. i. c. i. p. 14. Thamininum vel Thsamininum pagum. [x]. Agathias, L. 4.] pagum, quem extruxit Noa, postquam ex Arca egressus est [Google translate: the village which Noa built after the Ark left]:

the place, which Noah built, after that he came out of the ark.

William de Rubruquis, who travelled into Tartary in the year 1253, and returned by Armenia, has a remarkable passage to this purpose.34 [See Purchas, Vol. 3. p. 50. but especially the original. Araxi et Naxuanae duos imminere montes Massis nomine; in quibus Arca resedit: et Cemainum oppidum ab octo illis ibi conditum, qui ab Arca exiverunt: idque patere ex ipso nomine, quo octo significatur. Rubriquis. The town of Naxuan is mentioned by Ptolemy, L. 5. c. 13, and placed upon the Araxes. In the map of D'Anville, it is expressed Nactshevan; and is situated upon the river, at a small distance from Mount Ararat.]

Near the city Naxuan, there are mountains called Masis, upon which they say that the Ark of Moses rested. There are two of these mountains, the one greater than the other, and the Araxes runneth at the foot of them. There is also a little town Cemainum, which is by interpretation eight; for they say it was so called from the eight persons who came out of the Ark, and built it. This is plain from the name; for Cemainum signifies eight. They call the mountain the mother of the world.

From hence we may perceive that what this writer renders Cemainum should rather have been expressed Shemainum, or Shemanum; for it is undoubtedly the same as the Themanim and Thamanim of Elmacini and others, and analogous to the [x], Shaman of the Hebrews. The town of the Thamanim, or Shamanim, was so called from those eight primaeval persons who were said to have founded it. There is reason to think that it was the same as Naxuan, a very ancient city, which is mentioned by Ptolemy, and placed upon the Araxes. The editor of Moses Chorenensis has some curious observations upon the history of this place.35 [L. i. c. 29. p. 71.]

This town, which seems to be the Naxuana of Ptolemy, is close upon the plain of Araratia; and held in great regard by the Armenians, who give out that it is the most ancient place in the world, and built immediately after the Deluge by Noah. Galanus, a Roman Presbyter, who wrote an account of the Armenian Church being reconciled to the Church of Rome, tells us that, according to the natives, the true name is Nachidshevan. By this, they say, is signified36 [I believe that the name related to the history of the Patriarch; but whether the etymology is precisely true, I question.] THE FIRST PLACE OF DESCENT. Hence there can be no doubt but this is that place in Armenia of which Josephus takes notice and says, that by the natives it was called [x], or the place of37 [Josephus. Ant. L. i. c. 3. p. 16.] descent.

In the map of D'Anville it is expressed38 [They have a tradition that Noah died here. See Tavernier. L. i. c. 4. p. 16.] Nactshevan, and placed at the distance of a few miles to the east of Mount Ararat, in the true region of Har-Men, or Armenia, which retains its name to this day.

I have mentioned that the same names have been given to different places, where the Arkite rites were instituted under the titles of Baris, Meen, and Selene. Hence the same event was supposed to have happened in different places, and the like history has been recorded.

It is difficult to imagine that two different dynasties could have identical or almost identical dynasty functions. The probability of such a coincidence is extremely small already for dynasties composed of 10 rulers. Nevertheless, the number of such coincidences, for even longer dynasties of 15 rulers, turns out to be unexpectedly large. N.A. Morozov, who noticed the coincidence between the ancient Rome and the ancient Jewish state, discovered the first examples of surprisingly identical pairs of dynasty graphs. A formal method to study such similarities was introduced by A.T. Fomenko (see the reference list in [2]).

There is another surprise, besides coincidence of the dynasty functions, the other numerical functions confirm with very high probability that these dynasties are indeed the same. It brings us to a suspicion that in fact we are dealing with repetitions in the conventional version of the history. Fomenko discovered dozens of strong coincidences, sometimes between three and more dynasties. But, there are no more such coincidences in the history of the better-documented epochs, for example starting from the 16th century....

These parallels suggest that the traditional history of ancient times consist of multiple recounts of the same events scattered in many locations at various times. The first scientist who realized it was N.A. Morozov (see [1]). Further progress was made by A.T. Fomenko who succeeded to decipher the principle structure of these duplicates in Roman and Biblical history.

-- Investigation of the Correctness of the Historical Dating, by Wieslaw Z. Krawcewicz, Gleb V. Nosovskij and Petr P. Zabreiko

Mount Taurus extended a great way eastward of Armenia: and one part of it, in the province of Adarbayn in Persia, is still called Al Baris, similar to the name by which Ararat was of old distinguished.39 [He calls the ridge of Taurus El Bors, p. 197. This is a variation of El Baris. Taurus is expressed by the natives Tabaris: from whence we may infer, that the former term is only a contraction of the latter; and that from Tabaris and Tavaris came the names of Tauris and Taurus, both the city and mountain. Har Ta-Baris is the mountain of the Ark.] Sir Thomas Herbert travelled this way in 1626; and he mentions one peak near the city Tauris remarkably high, which he with great reason imagines to have been one of those where stood the Iasonea mentioned by Strabo. This hill was called40 [P. 201.] Da Moan; and the town at the foot of it had the same name. By this, according to the natives, is signified [a second plantation. But Mon and Moan was the name of the Arkite type, as I have abundantly shewn: and "Da" was the ancient41 [See of this work Vol. II. p. 443.] Chaldaic particle analagous to "the" in our own language. Da Maon related to the Arkite Moon, and the history of the place still evidences the fact, for they have an ancient tradition that the Ark was driven to this mountain.42 [Herbert's Travels, p. 201. The mountain Da Moan signifies Mons Lunus, or Lunaris.]

They spare not to aver, says the author, from a tradition, that upon this mountain of Damoan the Ark rested.

Hard by is a village named Morante, where they suppose the wife of43 [Tavernier. L. i. c. 4. p. 20.] Noah to have died. I mention these accounts, however inaccurately transmitted, to shew how universal the history was of that great event, of which I have been treating. The scene of action was attributed to different places; but the real appulse [act of striking against something (such as a point)] of the ark was upon the mountain of Arat, called Ar-arat, in the province of Har-Men, upon the river Arach, or Araxes.

After the sacred writer has described the preservation of Noah and his family, and their descent from the Ark, he gives a short history of the Patriarch, and mentions his residence upon the spot, and his planting of the44 [Genesis. c. 9. v. 20, 21.] vine. He afterwards proceeds to shew how the reparation of mankind was effected in that family, and how they multiplied upon the earth. When they were greatly increased, he gives a list of their generations, and describes them with great accuracy upon their separating, according to their places of destination: and concludes with telling us, 45 [Genesis. c. 10. v. 5.]

By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.

And again,46 [Genesis. c. 10. v. 32.]

These are the families of the sons of Noah, after their generations, in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth, after the flood.

I have spoken upon this subject in a former47 [Observations and Inquiries relating to various parts of Ancient History, p. 261.] treatise; and have shewn that this distribution was by the immediate appointment of God. We have full evidence of this in that sublime and pathetic hymn of Moses, where he addresses himself to the people whom he had so long conducted, and was now going to leave for ever.48 [Deuteron. c. 32. v. 7.]

Remember [says he] the days of old; consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance; when he separated the sons of Adam; he set the bounds of the people, according to the number of the children of Israel: for the Lord 's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

By this we may see, that the whole was by God's appointment; and that there was a reserve for a people who were to come after. St. Paul likewise speaks of it expressly as a divine ordinance.49 [Acts. c. 17. v. 26.].[x]

God made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth; and determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation.

This is taken notice of by many of the fathers. Eusebius in particular mentions50 [[x]. Euseb. Chron. p. 10.] the distribution of the earth: and adds,

that it happened in the two thousand six hundred and seventy-second year of the creation, and in the nine hundred and thirtieth year of the Patriarch's life. Then it was that Noah, by divine appointment, divided the world between his three sons.

The Masoretic Text of the Torah places the Great Deluge 1,656 years after Creation, or 1656 AM (Anno Mundi, "Year of the World"). Many attempts have been made to place this time-span at a specific date in history. At the turn of the 17th century CE, Joseph Scaliger placed Creation at 3950 BCE, Petavius calculated 3982 BCE, and according to James Ussher's chronology, Creation took place in 4004 BCE, dating the Great Deluge to 2348 BCE.

-- Genesis flood narrative, by Wikipedia

The like is to be found in51 [Syncellus. p. 89.] Syncellus,52 [Epiphanius. L. 2. t. 2. p. 703.] Epiphanius, and other writers. The Grecians had some traditions of this partition of the earth, which they supposed to have been by lot, and between Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto.

53 [Callim. Hymn, in Jovem. v. 61.]

The sons of Cronus ascertain'd by lot
Their several realms on earth.

Homer introduces Neptune speaking to the same purpose,

54 [Iliad. O. v. 187.] [x].

We are from Cronus and from Rhea sprung,
Three brothers; who the world have parted out
Into three lots; and each enjoys his share.

The tradition probably came to Greece from Egypt; and we have it more fully related in Plato.55 [In Critia. Vol. 3. P. 109.] [x].

The gods of old obtained the dominion of the whole earth, according to their different allotments. This was effected without any contention; for they took possession of their several provinces in an amicable and fair way by lot.

It is said of Noah, from whom all the families upon earth were derived,56 [Genesis. c. 6. v. 9.] that he was a just man, and perfect in his generation: and that he walked with God. We may suppose that his sons shewed him always great reverence: and after they were separated, and when he was no more, that they still behaved in conformity to the rules which he established. But there was one family which seems to have acted a contrary part; and however they may have reverenced his memory, they paid little regard to his institutions. It is said, that57 [Genesis, c. 10. v. 8.]

Cush begat Nimrod. He began to be a mighty one in the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod, the mighty hunter before the Lord. And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneb, in the land of Shinar. Out of that land went forth Ashur, and builded Nineve, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen, between Nineve and Calah, the same is a great city.

We have, in this narration, an account of the first rebellion in the world; and the grounds of this apostasy seem to have been these. At the distribution of families, and the allotment of the different regions upon earth, the house of Shem stood first, and was particularly regarded. The children or Shem were Elam and Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. Their places of destination seem to have been not far removed from the region of descent, which was the place of separation. They in general had Asia to their lot, as Japhet had Europe, and Ham the large continent of Africa. And in Asia, the portion of Elam was to the east of the river Tigris, towards the mouth of it, which country, by the Gentile writers, was styled Elymais: and opposite to him, on the western side, was Amur. In like manner, above Ashur, upon the same river was Aram, who possessed the countries called Aram and Aramea: and opposite to him was Arphaxad, who in after times was called58 [Justin. L. i. c. 3. Ptolemy expresses the country Arrapachitis. L. 6. c. I. The chief city was Artaxata.] Arbaches and Arbaces, and his country Arphacitis. Lud probably retired to Lydia, and bordered upon the sons of Japhet, who were possessed of some regions in Asia Minor. This was the original disposition of these families; but the sons of Chus would not submit to the divine dispensation; and59 [[x]. Chron. Paschale. p. 28. Nimrod was styled Orion, and Alorus by the Gentile writers; and is acknowledged to have been the first king upon earth, and to have reigned at Babylon. [x]. Euseb. Chron. p. 5. Syncellus says the same, p. 37. 79. We meet with the same history in another place of the Chron. Paschale. p. 36. also Johan. Antiochen. L. 2. p. 18.] Nimrod, who first took upon himself regal state, drove Ashur from his demesnes, and forced him to take shelter in the higher parts of Mesopotamia. This was part of the country called Aram, and was probably ceded to him by his brother. Here the Ashurites built for their defence a chain of cities equal in strength and renown to those which had been founded by Nimrod. We have, in this detail, an account of the first monarchy upon earth, and of the tyranny and usurpations which in consequence of it ensued.

The sacred historian after this mentions another act of a rebellious purpose, which consisted in building a lofty tower with a very evil intent. Most writers have described this and the former event, as antecedent [before] to the migration of mankind, which they suppose to have been from the plains of Shinar: but it will be my endeavour to shew that the general migration was not only prior, but from another part of the world. The words of the historian are these:60 [Genesis.. c. 11. v. 1.]

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar. And they said, Go to, let us build us a city, and a tower whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men builded. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is one; and they have all one language; and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand each other's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth; and they left off to build the city: therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth; and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth.

It had been in the preceding chapter mentioned, where the family of Shem was enumerated, that

unto61 [Genesis. c. 10. v. 25. Peleg signified division.] Heber were born two sons; the name of one was Peleg; for in his days was the earth divided.

I think, that we may, from the preceding portions of Scripture, observe two different occurrences, which are generally blended together. First, that there was a formal migration of families to the several regions appointed for them, according to the determination of the Almighty: Secondly, that there was a dissipation of others, who stood their ground, and would not acquiesce in the divine dispensation. These seem to have been two distinct events, and to have happened in different places, as well as at different times. In the beginning of the latter history, mention is made of people's journeying, and proceeding towards a place of settlement. It is generally thought, that the whole of mankind is included in this description; and it is inferred from the words of Moses.

And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

But I am not certain that these words afford any proof to this opinion: for, in respect to what is here said, I do not see but that a migration of families might have happened antecedently to this journeying from the east. The passage, when truly translated, does not by any means refer to the whole of mankind. According to the original, it is said indeterminately,

that in the journeying of people from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar.

The purport, therefore, of the whole passage amounts only to this, that before there was any alteration in the language of mankind, a body of people came from the east to the place above specified. This is all that is said: so that I am far from being satisfied that the whole of mankind was engaged in this expedition from the east. The Scripture does not seem to say so: nor can there be any reason assigned, why they should travel so far merely to be dissipated afterwards. We have reason to think, that soon after the descent from the Ark, the Patriarch found himself in a fine and fruitful country; for so it is described by62 [L. 11. p. 800. Ararat, regio in Armenia campestris est; per quam Araxes sluit; incredibilis ubertatis. Hieron. in Esaiam. c. 37. [Google translate: Ararat, a country in Armenia, is a plain; by whom Araxes slit incredible plenty. Hieron In Isaiah. c. 37] See Tavernier's Travels, p. 14, 15. and Tournefort. Letter 7th.] Strabo and others; and there is nothing that we can suppose to have been done at Shinar, but might have been effected in the spot where he first resided; I mean in respect to migration. The region about Ararat may be esteemed as nearly a central part of the earth; and it is certainly as well calculated as any other for the removal of colonies upon the increase of mankind. The Ethnic writers, in their accounts of the wanderings of Isis and Jonah, seem to allude to the journeying of mankind; and they speak of the country about Caucasus as the place from whence those travels began. The same is to be observed in the original history of the Minyae, which is called the retreat of the Argonautae: for they retire from the region about Caucasus to the remotest parts of the earth: and it is well known that Ararat in Armenia is a part of that vast chain of mountains called Caucasus and Taurus. Upon these mountains, and in the adjacent country, were preserved more authentic accounts of the Ark than almost in any other part of the world. Moses Chorenensis takes notice of the many memorials relating to ancient times which were preserved by the people of Armenia. They were commemorated in their poems, songs, and sacred hymns.63 [L. i. c. 5. p. 19.] Caeterum veteres Armenii in carminibus fuis, cantilenis ad cymbala, ac tripudiis, longe copiosiorem de his rebus mentionem agitant.

"The ancient Armenians in their poems and hymns, which are accompanied with cymbals and dances, afford a far more copious account of these events than any other nation.

The place where mankind first resided, was undoubtedly the region of the Minyae, at the bottom of Mount Baris, or Luban, which was the Ararat of Moses. Here I imagine, that the Patriarch resided; and64 [Apud Euseb. Chron. p. 8.] Berosus mentions that in this place he gave instructions to his children, and vanished from the sight of men. But the sacred writings are upon this head silent: they only mention his planting the vine, and seemingly taking up his abode for a long time upon the spot. Indeed, they do not afford us any reason to infer that he ever departed from it. The very plantation of the vine seems to imply a purpose of residence. Not a word is said of the Patriarch's ever quitting the place; nor of any of his sons departing from it, till the general migration. Many of the fathers were of opinion that they did not for some ages quit this region. According to Epiphanius, they remained in the vicinity of Ararat for five generations, during the space of six hundred and fifty-nine years.65 [Haeref. L. i. p. 5.] [x]

After the Ark upon the decrease of the waters had rested upon the mountains of Ararat, upon that particular eminence called Lubar, which bounds the countries of the Armenians and the Cardueans, the region where it settled became the first place occupied by mankind. Here the Patriarch Noah took up his residence, and planted the vine. In this place he saw a large progeny descend from him, children after children -- to the66 [The same is mentioned by this writer in another place. [x]. L. 1. p. 6.] fifth generation, for the space of six hundred and fifty-nine years.

During the residence of mankind in these parts, we may imagine that there was a season of great happiness. They for a long time lived under the mild rule of the great Patriarch, before laws were enacted or penalties known. When they multiplied, and were become very numerous, it pleased God to allot to the various families different regions, to which they were to retire: and they accordingly, in the days of Peleg, did remove, and betake themselves to their different departments. But the sons of Chus would not obey. They went off under the conduct of the archrebel Nimrod; and seem to have been for a long time in a roving state; but at last they arrived at the plains of Shinar. These they found occupied by Assur and his sons, for he had been placed there by divine appointment. But they ejected him, and seized upon his dominions, which they immediately fortified with cities, and laid the foundation of a great monarchy. Their leader is often mentioned by the Gentile writers who call him Belus. He was a person of great impiety; who, finding that the earth had been divided among the sons of men by a divine decree, thought proper to counteract the ordinance of God, and to make a different distribution. This is often alluded to in the Ethnic writings; and Abydenus particularly mentions, that67 [[x]. Euseb. Praep. Evang. L. 9. p. 457.] Belus appointed to the people their place of habitation. Dionysius refers to this Belus and his associates, when he is speaking of the deities, who were the ancestors of the Indo-Cuthites.

68 [V. 1173.]

They first allotted to each roving tribe
Their share of sea, and land.

This is the beginning of that period which, upon account of the rebellion then first known, was by the Greek writers alluded to under the title of [x], Scuthismus. This ejectment of Assur seems to shew, that these transactions were after the general migration; for he was in possession of the province allotted to him till he was ejected by this lawless people.

In the beginning of this history it is said that they journeyed from the east when they came to the land of Shinar. This was the latter part of their rout: and the reason of their coming in this direction may, I think, be plainly shewn. The Ark, according to the best accounts, both sacred and profane, rested upon a mountain of Armenia called Minyas, Baris, Lubar, and Ararat. Many families of the emigrants went probably directly east or west, in consequence of the situation to which they were appointed. But those who were destined to the southern parts of the great continents which they were to inhabit, could not so easily and uniformly proceed; there being but few outlets to their place of destination. For the high Tauric ridge and the69 [Strabo, L. 11. p. 798.] Gordyean mountains came between, and intercepted their due course. How difficult these mountains were, even in later times, to be passed may be known from the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks who had served under Cyrus the younger. They came from these very plains of Shinar; and passing to the east of the Tigris they arrived at these mountains, which with great peril they got over. But in the times of which we are treating they must have been still more difficult to be70 [In later times there were only two passages southward. Armenia orientales Ciliciae sines attingit, atque ad Taurum montem patet -- atque ex ea duo aditus in Syriam patent. [Google translate: Eastern Armenia It touches a dam in Cilicia, and extends to Mount Taurus - and from it there are two entrances to it Syria is open.] Moses Chorenens. Geog. p. 354.] surmounted: for after the deluge, the hollows and valleys between these hills, and all other mountainous places, must have been full of slime and mud; and for a great while have abounded with stagnant waters. We know from ancient history that it was a long time before passages were opened and roads made through places of this nature. I should therefore think that mankind must necessarily for some ages have remained near the place of descent from which they did not depart till the time of the general migration. Armenia is in great measure bounded either by the Pontic sea, or by mountains' and it seems to have been the purpose of Providence to confine the sons of men to this particular region, to prevent their roving too soon. Otherwise, they might have gone off in small parties before the great families were constituted, among whom the world was to be divided. The economy and distribution assigned by Providence would by these means have been defeated. It was upon this account that at the migration, many families were obliged to travel more or less eastward who wanted to come down to the remoter parts of Asia. And in respect to the Cuthites, who seem to have been a good while in a roving state, they might possibly travel to the Pylae Caspia, before they found an outlet to descend to the country specified. In consequence of this, the latter part of their rout must have been in the direction mentioned in the Scriptures, which is very properly styled a journeying from the east. I was surprised, after I had formed this opinion from the natural history of the country, to find it verified by that ancient historian Berosus. He mentions the rout of his countrymen from Ararat after the deluge; and says that it was not in a strait line, but people had been instructed 71 [Euseb. Chron. p. 8. [x]. Hesych.] [x],

to take a circuit, and so to descend to the regions of Babylonia.

In this manner, the sons of Chus came to the plains of Shinar, of which Babylonia was a part; and from hence they ejected Assur, and afterwards trespassed upon Elam in the region beyond the Tigris.

It may still be urged that all mankind must certainly have been at Babel:

for the whole earth

and its language are mentioned72 [C. 11. v. i.]; and it is said, that God confounded there the language of all the earth. But this, I think, can never be the meaning of the sacred writer: and it may be proved from the premises upon which those in opposition proceed. The confusion of speech is by all uniformly limited to the region about Babel. If we were to allow that all mankind were included in this spot, how can we imagine that the sacred historian would call this the whole earth? If mankind were in possession of the greater part of the globe this figurative way of speaking would be natural and allowable. But if they are supposed to be confined to one narrow interamnian district, it is surely premature, for we cannot suppose that the language of the whole earth would be mentioned before the earth was in great measure occupied, which they do not allow. And if what I assert be granted, that the earth was in some degree peopled, yet the confusion is limited to Babel; so that what is mentioned in the above passage can never relate to the whole earth.

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Part 2 of 3

There are two terms which are each taken in different acceptations; and upon these the truth of this history depends. In the first verse of this chapter it is said, that Col Aretz, the whole earth, was of one language (or rather lip) and way of speaking. The word Col signifies the whole[i], and also [i]every. By Aretz is often meant the earth: it also signifies a land or province; and occurs continually in this latter acceptation. We find in this very chapter, that the region of Shinar is called Aretz Shinar; and the land of Canaan 73 [V. 32. So Aretz Havilah, the land of Havilah. Genesis. c. 2. v. 11. [x], Aretz Cush, v. 12. the land of Cush. The Psalmist makes use of both the terms precisely in the sense, which I attribute to them here. Their sound is gone out into every land: Col Aretz, in omnem terram. Pf. 19. v. 4.] Aretz Canaan. The like may be seen in the preceding chapter, and in various parts of Scripture. I shall therefore adopt it in this sense; and lay before the reader a version of the whole passage concerning Babel, rendering the terms above as I have observed them at times exhibited by some of the best judges of the original.

1. And every region was of one lip and74 [Et omnis terra labium unum, et verba una. Versio Ariae Montani. [Google translate: And all the earth has one language and one word. The version of Aria Montani.] [x], Sept.] mode of speech.

2. And it came to pass, in the journeying of people from the east, that they found a plain in the (Aretz) land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

3. And one man said to another, Go to; let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly; and they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.

4. And they said, Go to; let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a mark or signal that we may not be scattered abroad upon the surface of every region.

5. And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the children of men were building.

6. And the Lord said; Behold, the people is one (united in one body); and they have all one lip or pronunciation, and this they begin to do; and now nothing will be retrained from them which they have imagined to do.

7. Go to; let us go down and there confound their lip, that they may not understand one another's lip or pronunciation.

8. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence over the face of every region; and they left off to build the city.

9. Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the lip of the whole land; and from thence did the Lord scatter them over the face of every region, or of the whole earth.

This I take to be the true purport of the history, from whence we may infer that the confusion of language was a partial event, and that the whole of mankind are by no means to be included in the dispersion from Babel. It related chiefly to the sons of Chus, whose intention was to have founded a great, if not an universal, empire; but by this judgment their purpose was defeated.

That there was a migration first, and a dispersion afterwards, will appear more plainly if we compare the different histories of these events.75 [Genesis. C. 10. v. 25. 31. 32. [x]. Syncellus. p. 79.]

In the days of Peleg the earth was divided, and the sons of Noah were distinguished in their generations in their nations; and by these were the nations divided in the earth AFTER THE FLOOD.

We see here uniformity and method, and a particular distribution. And this is said to have happened not after the building of the tower, or confusion of speech, but after the flood. In the other case, there is an irregular dissipation without any rule and order.76 [Genesis. c. 11. v. 8. 9.]

So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of every region; and they left off to build the city, and FROM THENCE (from the city and tower) did the Lord scatter them abroad.

This is certainly a different event from the former. In short, the migration was general, and all the families among the sons of men were concerned in it. The dispersion at Babel, and the confusion, was partial; and related only to the house of Chus and their adherents. For they had many associates, probably out of every family, apostates from the truth; who had left the flock of their fathers and the religion of the true God, that they might enlist under the rule of the Cuthites and follow their rites and worship. For when Babel was deserted we find among the Cuthites of Chaldaea some of the line of77 [Genesis. c. 11. v. 28. 31.] Shem, whom we could scarcely have expected to have met in such a society. Here were Terah and Nahor, and even Abraham, all upon forbidden ground; and separated from the family to which they belonged. This Joshua mentions in his exhortation to the children of Israel.78 [Joshua. c. 24. v. 2.]

Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time, even Terah the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor, and they served other gods.

And we may well imagine that many of the branches of Ham were associated in the same manner, and in confederacy with the rebels; and some perhaps of every great division into which mankind was separated. To this Berosus [Berossus] bears witness, who says that in the first age Babylon was inhabited by people of different families and nations who resided there in great numbers.79 [Eusebii Chron. p. 6.] [x]

In those times Babylon was full of people of different nations and families who resided in Chaldea.

And as all these tribes are said to have been of one lip, and of the same words, that is, of the same uniform pronunciation, and the same express language, it seemed good to divine wisdom to cause a confusion of the lip, and a change in pronunciation, that these various tribes might no longer understand each other.80 [Genesis. c. 11. v. 7.]

Go to, let us go down, and there confound their [x], lip; that they may not understand one another's speech.81 [C. 11. v. 9.] Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth.

Our version is certainly in this place faulty as I have shewn: for by saphet, col haretz is not here meant the language of the whole earth, but of the whole region, or province; which language was not changed, but confounded, as we find it expressly mentioned by the sacred writer. This confusion of speech is by all uniformly limited to the country about Babel.

We must therefore, instead of the language of all the earth substitute the language of the whole country, for such is the purport of the terms. This was confounded by causing a 82 [By all the Grecian interpreters it is rendered [x], which can never denote a change; but only a confusion.] labial failure, so that the people could not articulate. It was not an aberration in words, or language, but a failure, and incapacity, in labial utterance. By this their speech was confounded, but not altered; for as soon as they separated, they recovered their true tenor of pronunciation; and the language of the earth continued for some ages nearly the83 [Upon this head, the person of all others to be consulted, is the very learned Monsieur Court de Gebelin, in his work entitled, Monde Primitif Analyse et Compare which is now printing at Paris, and is in part finished. The last published volume is particularly to be read; as it affords very copious and satisfactory evidences to this purpose; and is replete with the most curious erudition, concerning the history and origin both of writing and language.] same. This, I think, appears from many interview, taken notice of in Scripture between the Hebrews and other nations, wherein they speak without an interpreter, and must therefore have nearly the same tongue. And even the languages which subsist at this day, various as they may be, yet retain sufficient relation to shew that they were once dialects from the same matrix; and that their variety was the effect of time. If we may trust to an Ethnic writer, the evidence of Eupolemus is decisive; for he speaks of the dispersion as a partial judgment, inflicted upon those persons only who were confederate at Babel. His account is very particular, and seems to agree precisely with the purport of the Scriptures. He says,84 [[x]. Apud Euseb. Praep. L. 9. p. 418.]

that the city Babel was first founded, and afterwards the celebrated tower; both which were built by some of those people who had escaped the deluge [x]. They were the same who in after times were recorded under the character of the Giants, The tower was at length by the hand of the Almighty ruined, and these Giants were scattered over the whole earth.

By this we find that only a part of mankind was engaged in the building of the tower, and that those only were dispersed abroad; consequently, the confusion of speech could not be universal, no more than the dispersion of which it was the cause.

The people concerned in this daring undertaking encouraged each other to this work by saying,85 [Genesis. c. 11. v. 3.]

Go to; let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven, and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

What is in our version a name is by many interpreted a monument, a86 [According to Schultens, the proper and primary notion of [x], is a mark, or sign, standing out, raised up, or exposed to open view. Taylor's Hebrew Concordance, n. 1963. [x], is similar to [x], and [x] of the Greeks.] mark, or sign to direct: and this certainly is the sense of it in this passage. The great fear of the sons of Chus was that they might be divided and scattered abroad. They therefore built this tower as a land-mark to repair to; as a token to direct them; and it was probably an idolatrous temple, or high altar, dedicated to the host of heaven, from which they were never long to be absent. It is expressly said that they raised it to prevent their being scattered abroad. It was the original temple of Sama-Rama, whence the Babylonians were called Semarim. The apostates were one fourth of the line of Ham, and they had an inclination to maintain themselves where they first settled, instead of occupying the countries to which they were appointed. And that the sons of Chus were the chief agents both in erecting the tower of Babel, and in prosecuting these rebellious principles, is plain from a previous passage; for it is said of Nimrod, the son of Chus, that the beginning of his kingdom was Babel. We cannot therefore suppose this defection general, or the judgment universal. unless all mankind co-operated with this tyrant. Or supposing that the term of his life did not extend to the erecting of the tower, and that he only laid the foundation of the city. yet the whole was carried on by those of his family who were confessedly rebels and apostates. They acted in defiance of God, and were in a continual state of trespass towards man. And though some did join them, yet it is hardly credible that all should co-operate and so totally forget their duty. How can we imagine that Shem, if he were alive, would enter into a league with such people? or that his sons Elam, Aram, or Arphaxad would join them? The pre-eminence shewn them in the regions to which they were appointed, and the regularity observable in their destination, prove that they could not have been a part in the dispersion, and consequently not of the confederacy. Indeed, they had retired to their several departments before the erecting of the tower, and Assur, the second of the sons of Shem, so far from co-operating with this people, had been driven from his settlement by them, and forced to take shelter in another place. In short, there was a migration first and a dispersion afterwards, which latter was effected by a fearful judgment; a confusion of speech, through a failure in labial utterance. This judgment was partial, as was the dispersion in consequence of it. It related only to the Cuthites of Shinar and Babel, and to those who had joined themselves to them. They seem to have been a very numerous bod,: and, in consequence of this calamity, they fled away; not to any particular place of destination, but were scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth. And the truth of this will appear from the concurrent testimony of the most approved Ethnic writers.

Such is the account transmitted by Moses of the reparation of mankind after the flood, and of their migration, according to their families, to the regions appointed for them; of the rebellion also of the Cuthites, and the construction of the tower; and of the dissipation which afterwards ensued. This is a curious and inestimable piece of history which is authenticated in every part by the evidence of subsequent ages. As far as this history goes we have an infallible guide to direct us in respect to the place of destination to which each family retired. But what encroachments were afterwards made, what colonies were sent abroad, and what new kingdoms founded, are circumstances to be sought for from another quarter. And in our process to obtain this knowledge, we must have recourse to the writers of Greece. It is in vain to talk about the Arabian or Persic literature of modern date, or about the Celts and the Scythae; at least, according to the common acceptation, in which the last nation is understood. All knowledge of ancient times has been derived to us through the hands of the Grecians. They have copied from the most early writers of the east, and we have no other resources to apply to where the Mosaic history closes. It may perhaps be said that these helps must be very precarious, as little trust can be reposed in writers who have blended and sophisticated whatever came to their hands, where the mixture is so general that it is scarce possible, with the greatest attention, to distinguish truth from fable. It must be confessed that the truth is much disguised, yet it is by no means effaced, and consequently may be still retrieved. I hope, in the course of my argument, that this has been abundantly shewn. To pass a proper judgment on the Grecian histories we must look upon them collectively as a rich mine, wherein the ore lies deep, and is mixed with earth and other base concretions. It is our business to sift, and separate, and by refining to disengage it. This, by care and attention, is to be effected, and then what a fund of riches is to be obtained!

The last great event which I mentioned from the Mosaic account was the dissipation of the Cuthites from Babel, from whence they were scattered over the face of the earth, This is an aera to be much observed, for at this period the sacred penman closes the general history of the world. What ensues relates to one family, and to a private dispensation. Of the nations of the earth, and their polities, nothing more occurs, excepting only as their history chances to be connected with that of the sons of Israel. We must therefore have recourse to Gentile authority for a subsequent account. And, previously to this, we may from them obtain collateral evidence of the great events which had preceded and which are mentioned by Moses. We learn from the poets, and all the more ancient writers were poets, that there was a time when mankind lived a life of simplicity and virtue; that they had no laws, but were in a state of nature, when pains and penalties were unknown. They were wonderfully blessed with longevity, and had a share of health and strength in proportion to their years. At last there was a mighty falling off from this primitive simplicity, and a great change was effected in consequence of this failure. Men grew proud and unjust; jealousies prevailed, attended with a love of rule which was followed with war and bloodshed. The chief person who began these innovations was Nimrod. The Greeks often call him Nebrod, and Nebros, and have preserved many oriental memorials concerning him and his apostasy, and concerning the tower which he is supposed to have erected. He is described as a gigantic, daring personage; a contemner of every thing divine; and his associates are represented of a character equally enterprizing and daring.87 [[x] Euseb. Chron. p. 13.] Abydenus, in his Assyrian Annals, alludes to the insurrection of the sons of Chus, and to their great impiety. He also mentions the building of the tower and confusion of tongues; and says that the tower, analogous to the words of the Scripture, was carried up to heaven; but that the Gods ruined it by storms and whirlwinds, and frustrated the purpose for which it was designed, and overthrew it upon the heads of those who were employed in the work; that the ruins of it were called Babylon. Before this there was but one language subsisting among men; but now they had [x], a manifold sound or utterance. A war soon after ensued between Cronus and Titan. He repeats that the particular spot where the tower stood was in his time called Babylon88 [Strabo speaks of a tower of immense size at Babylon, remaining in later times, which was a stadium every way. L. 16. p. 1073. These are nearly the dimensions of some of the principal pyramids in Egypt.]. It was so called, he says, from the confusion of tongues and variation of dialect, for in the Hebrew language such confusion is termed Babel. The Scriptures speak only of a confusion of tongue, but Abydenus mentions high winds which impeded the work and finally overthrew the tower. The like is mentioned in the Sibylline oracles, together with the confusion of tongues, which circumstance most of these writers, from not being well versed in the original history, have supposed to have been general89 [Theophilus ad Autolyc. L. 2. p. 371.]. And similar to the history of Abydenus, an account is here given of a war which broke out soon after.

Some traces of those fearful events, with which the dispersion is said to have been attended, seem to have been preserved in the records of Phenicia. Syria, and the greatest part of the country about Libanus was, as I have abundantly shewn, possessed by the sons of Chus, and even the city Tyre was under their rule. The people of this city were styled Phoenicians, and are said to have been driven from their first place of settlement, which we know to have been in Babylonia, by earthquakes.90 [Justin. L. 18. c. 3.] Tyriorum gens, condita a Phoenicibus fuit; qui terrae motu vexati Assyrium stagnum primo, mox mari proximum littus incoluerunt [Google translate: The nation of the Tyrians was founded by the Phoenicians; who were troubled by the Assyrian earthquake. At first they inhabited the shore next to the sea.].

I have mentioned the remarkable evidence of Eupolemus, who attributes the construction both of Babylon, and the Tower, to people of the giant race. By these are always meant the sons of Ham and Chus, so that it certainly was not a work of general co-operation. Epiphanius also takes notice of Babel, or Babylon;91 [L. i. p. 7.].

[x]. Which, he says, was the first city that was built after the flood [x]. From the very foundation of this city, there commenced an immediate scene of conspiracy, sedition, and tyranny, which was carried on by Nimrod: for royalty was then first assumed by Nimrod, who was the son of Chus, the AEthiop.

He is in all histories represented as a giant; and, according to the92 [[x]. NA. Chron. Pasch. p. 36. [x]. Johan. Malala. p. 18.] Persian accounts, was deified after his death and called Orion. One of the asterisms in the celestial sphere was denominated from him. The Scripture speaks of him as a mighty hunter; and Homer, in reference to these histories, introduces him as a giant and a hunter in the shades below.

93 [Homer. Odyss. L. A. v. 571.] [x]

Next I beheld Orion's tow'ring shade,
Chasing the savage race; which wild with fear
Before him fled in herds. These he had slain
Upon the cliffs, and solitary hills.
His arms, a club of brass, massy and strong,
Such as no force could injure.

The author of the Paschal Chronicle mentions all his attributes in speaking of him:94 [Chron. Pasch. p. 28.]

Nebrod, the great hunter and giant, the Ethiopian, whom the sacred writings make king of Babylon after the deluge.

The same author says that he first taught the Assyrians to worship fire[x]. By the Assyrians are meant the Babylonians, who in after times were included under that name, but in these days were a very distinct people. Nimrod, by the Grecians, was sometimes rendered [x], Nebros; which signifies also a fawn, whence in the history of Bacchus, and the Cuthites, there is always a play upon this term, as well as upon [x] and [x], Nebris and Nebrides.

They were not only the oriental historians who retained the memory of these early events; manifest traces of the same are to be found in the Greek poets who, though at first not easy to be understood, may be satisfactorily explained by what has preceded. The clue given above will readily lead us to the history to which they allude. The dispersion of the Cuthites is manifestly to be discovered under the fable of the flight of Bacchus, and the disunion of that formidable body which made so bold a stand, and the scattering of them over the face of the earth, is represented under the fable of dismembering the same person. It is said of him, that he was torn95 [Clemens Alexandr. Cohort, p. 15. [x]. Justin Mart. Apolog. L. i. p. 56. and p. 75. mentions [x]. Bacchus was the same as Osiris. Osiris, in consequence of this, is supposed to have been torn to pieces, and his limbs scattered. Plutarch, Isis & Osiris. See also Diodorus Sicul. L. 3. p. 196.] limb from limb: that his members were scattered different ways, but that he afterwards revived. The Scripture account is that the Lord scattered them abroad; not to any certain place of destination, but over the face of the whole earth. This is plainly referred to by Nonnus where he speaks of the retreat of Bacchus, and the dissipation of his associates, by whom are to be understood the Cuthites.

96 [Nonni Dionysiac. L. 34. p. 864.] [x]

His wavering bands now fled in deep dismay
By different routs, uncertain where they pass'd;
Some sought the limits of the eastern world;
Some, where the craggy western coast extends,
Sped to the regions of the setting sun.
Sore travel others felt, and wandered far
Southward; while many sought the distant north,
All in confusion,

He speaks of this people in the feminine, because many of the attendants upon Bacchus were supposed to have been women and were his priestesses; but the meaning of the story is evident. I shall shew that many of them fled by sea to India where they settled upon the great Erythrean Ocean. The poet has an eye to this likewise in another place where he speaks of the flight of Bacchus. He paints him in great terrors and in the utmost confirmation.

97 [Nonni Dionysiac. L. 20. p. 552.] [x]

Bacchus all trembling, as he fled away,
Call'd on the mighty Erythrean deep
To yield him shelter. Thetis heard his cries,
And as he plung'd beneath the turbid wave,
Received him in her arms: old Nereus too,
The Arabian God, stretch'd out his friendly hand,
And led him darkling thro' the vast abyss
Of founding waters.

The check, which Bacchus received, and his flight in consequence of it, is supposed by many to have been in Thrace. Here Lycurgus is said to have been king who drove Bacchus out of his dominions. But Lycurgus being made king of Thrace is like Inachus and Phoroneus being the same at Argos, Deucalion in Thessaly. These are all ancient traditions, ingrafted upon the history of the place by the posterity of those who introduced them. Diodorus Siculus98 [L. 3. p. 199.] assures us, that many writers, and particularly Antimachus, made Lycurgus a king of Arabia, and Homer places the scene of this transaction at Nusa, but which Nusa he does not say. In short, Lycus, Lycorus, Lycoreus, and with a guttural Lycurgus, were all names of the Deity, and by the Amonians appropriated to the Sun. Under the fable of99 [Lycus, SoL Maerob. Saturnal. L. i. p. 195. So also Lycoreus, in Callimach. Hymn, in Apoll. v. 19. [x] Lycurgus is Lycorus with a guttural: which' manner of pronunciation was very common among the ancients. So Reu or Rau is styled Ragau: the plains of Shinar, Singar and Singara: Sehor, Segor: Aza, Gaza: Nahum, Nachum: Isaac, Ischiac: Urhoe, the land of Ur, Urchoe, and Orchoe. The same place, styled [x], is by the LXX always rendered [x]. The rites of fire were originally called [x], but were changed to [x]. As Lycurgus was a title of the Deity, they sometimes gave it, which is extraordinary, to Bacchus himself, or at least to Dionusus. [x]. Strabo of the Thracians, and also of the Phrygians. L. 10. p. 722.] Lycurgus, who exterminated Bacchus and his associates, is veiled the true history of the just judgments of God upon Chus and his family, who fled every way from the place of vengeance, and passed the seas to obtain shelter.

The sacred writings mention only a confusion of tongues, but all Pagan accounts allude to some other fearful judgment with which this people were pursued till they were totally dissipated. Homer, speaking of Lycurgus, mentions this pursuit, but by a common mistake introduces Dionusus instead of Bacchus.

100 [Homer. Iliad. Z. v. 133.] [x]1 [Scholia in Homer, supra.] [x]

In a mad mood while Bacchus blindly rag'd,
Lycurgus drove his trembling bands confused
O'er the vast plains of Nusa. They in haste
Threw down their sacred implements, and fled
In dreadful dissipation. Bacchus saw
Rout upon rout; and lost in wild dismay
Plung'd in the deep: here Thetis in her arms
Receiv'd him, shuddering at the dire event.

By the [x], or nurses, of Bacchus are meant the priests and priestesses of the Cuthites. I make no doubt but the story is founded in truth, that there was some alarming judgment terrified with which the Bacchians, or Cuthites, fled different ways; that their priests, in confirmation, threw away what Hestiaeus styles2 [Euseb, Chron. p. 13.] [x], all their implements of false worship. In short, the hand of heaven hung heavy upon their rear till they had totally quitted the scene of their apostasy and rebellion, and betaken themselves to different quarters. The reason why the Cuthites combined in a strong body, and maintained themselves in their forbidden territory, was a fear of separation. Let us build us a tower, and make us a sign, lest we be scattered abroad. It was their lot to be totally dissipated, and they were the greatest wanderers of all nations; and the titles of [x] and [x] are peculiar to their history. They seem to have been in a roving state for ages.

From the start the Jew is
A murderer, Jesus Christ already said.
And when the Lord Jesus had to die,
When the Lord knew no folk
That could torture him to death
He picked the Jews.
Thus the Jews imagine
They are the chosen people ...

And when the Lord found the cross
Simply too heavy, he sought rest
At a door.
The Jew came with curses
And drove the Lord from the house,
Because he was master of the house.
It was the Jew Ahasvuerus ...
Since then the Jew is cursed.
2000 years already has he sought rest
The Jew Ahasvuerus,
All Judah behind him.
So he must wander without rest
From one land to the other.
And he knows not his homeland
The foreign Jew. As a villain
He travels through the land
And brings shame to himself ...

-- Trust No Fox on Green Heath and No Jew on His Oath, by Elwira Bauer

I have often taken notice of a custom which prevailed among the Grecians, and consisted in changing every foreign term that came under their view to something of similar sound in their own language, though it were ever so remote in sense. A remarkable instance, if I mistake not, may be found in this passage from Homer. The text manifestly alludes to the vengeance of the Deity and the dispersion of the sons of Chus. The term [x] Bou, in the Amonian language, signified any thing large and noble. The God Sehor was called Bou-Sehor. This was the Busiris ([x]) of the Greeks who retained this term in their own language, and used it in the same sense. Accordingly, [x] was a jolly fine boy, [x] a great sacrifice, [x] vast rocks, [x] a great boaster, [x] great hunger or famine. Hence Hesychius tells us [x]. By Bou is signified any thing great and abundant. The term Pleg, or Peleg, related to separation and dispersion; and when Homer mentions [x], the original word was Bou-pleg, or Bou-peleg, which means literally a great dispersion. In the Hebrew tongue, of which the Amonian was a collateral branch, [x], Pelach is to separate, and [x], Peleg, to sever and divide. The son of Heber was named Peleg3 [Genesis. c. 10. v. 25.] because in his days the earth was divided, and his name accordingly signified division and separation. But the poet, not knowing, or not regarding, the true meaning of the word Pleg, or Peleg, has changed it to an instrument of husbandry. And instead of saying that the Deity pursued the rebels and scattered them with (Bou-pleg) a great dissipation, he has made Lycurgus follow and beat them [x] with an ox-goad.