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conftruction of the names. He produces a passage from Pindar, Olymp. 13, where they can be understood in no other fenfe; the words of the poet, in English, are these. Here Eunomia dwells with her fifters, Dica the safe foundations of cities, and Irana endowed with the fame manners, with the other, the disposers of riches to men, the golden daughters of Themis good in counsel. We are to obferve the difference of the names in Hefiod and Pindar is only from a change of the dialect in the latter. Mombritius has taken the hours in the same sense:

Dein horas Themis ediderat, Jovis altera conjux, Juftitiam, legemque bonam pacemque virentem.

The poet before makes the Fates spring from Night; a mistake therefore must be in one place; Le Clerc fuppofes it here. Mr. Robinfon, to avoid the contradiction which is made by the common interpretation of Mogas, &c. here places Mapas after apas, in the conftruction, and not after TEX; which gives it a better fenfe; however, apaiser Magas, with their names as they stand here, will not well admit of this conftruction which Mr. Robinson makes, "bonæ leges, juftitia, et pax, "humanam fortem pulchram et felicem reddunt." I am inclined to think the three verfes here concerning the fates fpurious: I am fure they are ab

furd.

Ver. 1251. Aglaia from ayλaes, fplendid; Euphrofyne fignifies joy; Thalia from Jaia, banquets.

Ver. 1257. Perfephone, by the Latins called Proferpina, Le Clerc derives from the Phoenician word perifaphoun, in English hidden fruit, which means the fruit committed to the earth; Jove, therefore, whether we understand him as the Supreme Being, or phyfically the air, is properly called the father of Perfephone, and Ceres her mother. Pluto is the heat in the earth which contributes towards maturing the fruits. Befides this interpretation, a story is told of Ceres, a queen of Sicily, whofe daughter was forced away by Pluto.

Ver. 1264. Grævius makes one inference from the Mufes having diadems of gold on their heads, which is that luxury in drefs which prevailed among the ancients. On this occafion he uses the words of Ælian from his Various History, book 1. chap. 18. "Who can deny that the women among "the ancients abounded in luxury?”

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mountains of Thrace. Eeva, or Lucina, is from beilidia, the caused to bring forth; a proper name for a goddess who prefides over human birth. Le Clers.

The meaning of this may be, that to the fupreme beings, or to earth and air, which are here Jupiter and Juno, we owe our birth, our bloom of youth, and vigour or maturity; which are denoted by Lucina, Hebe, and Mars.

Ver. 1280. The vulgar reading of this paffage is this; nor is it in any edition I have seen otherwife.

Ήρη δ' ηφαισον κλυτον εν φιλότητι μιγείσα

Генато.

Juno, joining in love, brought forth the renowned Vulcan; than which reading nothing can be more abfurd. This is a flagrant inftance of the ignorance of the tranfcribers; nor indeed are those free from cenfure who have had the care of the prefs in the printed editions. The very words which follow point out the mistake of v piλornTI. —καὶ ζαμενησε, καὶ κρίσιν ᾧ παραποίη.

She used her utmost endeavours, and contended with her husband. For what did the contend with her husband? To bring forth without his affiftance, as he did without her. Had the poet intended to make Vulcan the fon of Jupiter and Juno, he would have placed him in the lift with Hebe, Mars, and Lucina; but, instead of that, he lets the birth of Minerva, though he had given an account of it before, intervene, that the reason of the refentment of Juno may immediately appear: let us therefore read it 8 φιλότητι μιγείσα, and the fenfe will be this: Juno, without the joys of love, brought forth the renowned Vulcan, refolving to revenge herfelf on her husband. Thus Tzetzes and Grævius take it; and thus Mombritius has tranflated it:

Sic quoque, nullius commixta libidine, Juno
Te Vulcane tulit.

Sic quoque is here very proper, because it alludes to the preceding lines of the birth of Minerva. Housos, I believe, comes from as, to burn, and from as, to deftroy. I have another reason which may poffibly enforce this reading, and which I have never met with. As Vulcan is called the god of artificers, in metals he is rightly the fon of Juno only, who is fometimes phyfically ta

Ver. 1267. Le Clerc fays Phœbus Apollo comes from the Hebrew phe-bo-bapollon, having a wonder-ken for the earth. ful mouth; but we must take notice that the poet calls him only Apollo here. Artemis, whom the Latins call Diana, the fame critic derives from the Phoenician words bar, a mountain, and thamah, admired.

Ver. 1271. The poet means by this, that Juno was the last of goddeffes whom he took to his bed, and whom he made his wife; the reft were only concubines. The word axis, a wife, our author ufes to none but Juno.

Hebe, the goddess of youth is derived from the Hebrew word eb, to flourish; Apts, in Latin Mars, from Hari, which fignifies a mountain-man: it is well known that the feat of Mars was on the

Ver. 1285. Triton is feigned to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, and by later poets made the trumpeter of Neptune. Le Clerc takes the name from the Chaldean word retat, he stirred up a clamour.

Ver. 1288. This paffage, where Terror and Fear are made the fons of Mars, wants no explanation; why Harmonia is the daughter of him and Venus I know not, unless the poet means that beauty is fometimes the reward of courage.

Ver. 1296. Maia is one of the Pleiades; how fhe may be faid to be the daughter of Atlas, fee in the Works and Days, book 2. note I The Scho liaft interprets Hermes, being the meffenger of the

gods, thus; the herald of heaven is that which brings divine things to light.

Ver. 1300. Bacchus is faid to be born of Simele, which word Le Clerc derives from the Phanician terlab, which fignifies a virgin ripe for man. The Greek name of Bacchus is Aavuros, which is literally the fon of Jove; fome have a different derivation, but fince this agrees with his birth, according to the Theonogy, it will be needlefs to feck any other. He is the god who prefides over the vintage; therefore, as all pleafures are from God, he is juftly derived from the fame fource. See farther in the Difcourfe at the end.

Ver. 1304. The story of Jupiter poffeffing Alcmena in the fhape of her husband Amphitryon, is well known: Hercules phyfically fignifics ftrength and courage, which are from Jove.

Ver. 1347 Thefe verfes of Chrỳfaor and Callirhoe, are, doubtlefs, placed here by mistake, fince they were introduced before in a more proper manner: here they are abfurd, because Chryfaor and Callirhoe are not reckoned mortals.

Ver. 1354. I believe Memnon and Hemathion were called by the ancient Greeks, fons of Aurora, because they were of the orientals which fettled in Greece. Memnon was king of Ethiopia, which country is in the east from Greece. Le Clers. Tzetzes tells us, that Macedon was fo called from Hemathion, who was flain by Hercules; but that does not agree with Memnon being flain by Achilles, because the distance of time betwixt Hercules and Achilles was too long, befides Memnon was flain in his youth, which increases the error in point of time. The reason which Lord Bacon gives for Memnon being the fon of Aurora, is, that as he was a youth whofe glories were shortlived, he is properly faid to be the son of the morning, whofe beauties foon pass away. The fame remark, perhaps, may be applied to Hema

Ver. 1366 Vulcan and Aglaia are here hufband and wife; but Venus is made the confort of Vulcan by other authors. Vulcan, the god of ar- | tificers in fire, and Aglaia, one of the Graces, are properly joined, because, by the help of both, all that is ornamental is brought to perfection. Vul-thion and Phaethon. can is called lame, because fire cannot fubfift without fuel. These two are brought together, but no children are born of them, which does not anfwer the title of the generation of the gods, therefore improperly introduced in a poem under that title, as are the other persons who meet and not propa. gate.

Ver. 1312. Hercules is married to Hebe, that is, to eternal youth, the reward of great and glorious actions.

Ver. 1318. Circe, as an enchantress, is properly faid to be a daughter of the Sun; and Medea, for the fame reafon, is juftly derived from the fame fource.

Ver. 1332. We are now come to the last part of the poem, where goddeffes fubmit to the embraces of mortals. How ridiculous would thefe ftories feem, were they to be understood in the very letter: Such, therefore, (an obfervation I have made before) as remain obfcure to us, we must conclude to have loft of their explanation through the length of time in which they have been handed down to us. The meeting of Jafon and Ceres in Crete, plainly fignifies the land being cultivated by that hero; and Plutus, the god of riches, being the produce of their loves, means the fruits of his labour and industry.

Ver. 1366. Many paffages may be collected, from which the Argonauts will appear to have been Theffalian merchants, who failed to Colchis; but, fince Hefiod intended not to relate the expedition, it would be needless to give the history here. Le Clerc.

Ver. 1380. Æacus, Achilles, and Æneas, are names well known in hiftory, and seem to be mentioned only as the reputed fens of goddeffes by mortals without any phyfical view; which feems to be the end of introducing Agrius, Latinus, and other names.

Ver. 1394. Le Clerc takes Naufinous to be the inclination which Ulyffes had to leave Calypfo, and Naufithous the ship in which he failed from her; both words, indeed, are expreffive of fuch meanings, but as many persons have had names from their difpofitions, offices, or some particular circumftance of their lives, or names given them fignificant of fome quality or employment, yet not applicable to those who are fo named, we are not certain whether these are defigned as real names or not.

Ver. 1403. This concludes the Theogony, as the poem now ftands, from which it appears, that the poet writ or intended to write, of women of renown; but fuch a work could not come under the title of the Theogony; of which fee farther

Ver. 134c. Cadmus and Harmonia have, doubtlefs, fome relation to perfons in hiftory. Polydore, in the fifth fection of my Difcourfe on the Writ the Scholiaft, fays, was fo called, because the godsings of Heliod. diftributed their gifts at the nuptials of his parents.

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A DISCOURSE

ON THE THEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE ANCIENTS.

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Hermes invented letters, and the lyre of three chords, the firft inftituted divine worship, and ordained facrifices to the gods.

The fame hiftorian proceeds to relate the expedition of Ofiris, who was accompanied by his brother Apollo, who is faid to be the first that pointed out the laurel. Ofiris took great delight in mafic, for which reafon he carried with him a company of musicians, among which were nine yirgins eminent for their fkill in finging, and in other fciences, whom the Greeks call the Mufes, and Apollo they ftyle their prefident. Ofiris at his return was deified, and afterwards murdered by his brother Typhon, a turbulent and impious man. is and her fon revenged themselves on Typhon and his accomplices.

The Greeks, doubtlefs, derived great part of their religion from the Egyptians; and though Herodotus tells us, in one place, that Hefiod, with Homer, was the first who introduced a l'heogony among the Grecians and the first who gave names to the gods, yet he contradicts that opinion in his fecond book, where he fays Melampus feems to have learned the ftorics of Bacchus from Cadmus and other Tyrians, which came with him from Phenicia to the country now called Boeotia he must therefore mean that Hefiod and Homer were the first who gave the gods a poetical drefs, and who used them with more freedom in their writ-tarch, in his treatife of Ifis and Ofiris, feems to ings than preceding authors. think the Grecian pocts, in their stories of Jupiter Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and Paufanias, all and the Titans, and of Bacchus and Ceres, indebtmention Cadmus fettling in Boeotia, and Egyp-ed to the Egyptians. tian colonies in other parts of Greece; and Herodotus fays almost all the names of the gods in Greece were from Egypt: to enforce which, I have tranflated the following account from Diodorus Siculus.

We learn from the Egyptians that many by nature mortal, were honoured with immortality for their wildom, and inventions which proved ufeful to mankind, fome of which were kings of Egypt; and to fuch they gave the names of the celeftial deities. Their first prince was called Hees, from the planet of that name, the fun. We are told that Hpasos, or Vulcan, was the inventor of fire, that is, the use of it; for feeing a tree on the mountains blafted from heaven, and the wood burning, he received much comfort from the heat, being then winter; from this he fired fome combuftible matter, and preferved the use of it afterwards to men, for which reafon he was made ruler of the people. After this Chronos, or Saturn reigned, who married his fifter Rhea, of whom five deities were born, whofe names were Ofiris, Ifis, Typhon, Apollo, Aphrodite. Ofiris, is Bacchus and Ifis, Ceres, or Demeter. Ifis was married to Ofiris, and, after the flared the dominion, made many difcoveries for the benefit of life; fhe found the ufe of corn, which grew before neglected in the fields like other herbs; and Ofiris began to cultivate the fruit-trees. In remembrance of these perfons annual rites were decreed, which are now preferved; in the time of harvest they offer the firft-fruits of the corn to Ifis, and invoke her.

Thus far Diodorus in his first book; and Plu

Diodorus, in his third book, tells us Cadmus, who was derived from Egypt, brought letters from Phoenicia, and Linus was the firit among the Greeks who invented poetic numbers and melody, and who writ an account of the actions of the first Bacchus; he had many difciples, the most renowned of which were Hercules, Thamyris, and Orpheus. We are told by the fame author, that Orpheus, who was let into the theology of the Egyptians, applied the generation of the Ofiris of old, to the then modern times, and, being gratified by the Cadmeans, inftituted new rites Simele, the daughter of Cadmus, being deflowered, bore a child of the fame likenefs, which they attributed to Ofiris of Egypt; Orpheus, who was admitted into the myfteries of the religion, endea voured to veil her fhame, by giving out that Simele conceived by Jove, and brought forth Bacchus. Hence men, partly through ignorance, and partly through the honour which they had for Orpheus, and confidence in him, were deceived.

From these paffages we learn that the religion and gods of Egypt were, in part, tranflated with the colonies into Greece; but they continued not long without innovations and alterations. Linus firit fung the exploits of the first Bacchus or Ofiris; he, doubtlefs, took all the poetical liberty that he could with his fubject: Orpheus after him banished the first Bacchus from the theology, and introduced the fecond with a lie to conceal the fhame of a polluted woman. In short, all the ftories

A DISCOURSE ON THE THEOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY OF THE ANCIENTS.

which were told in honour of thofe Egyptians, who had deserved well of their country, were, with their names, applied to other perfons. Thus, according to the hiftorian, the divine Orpheus fet oat with bribery, flattery, and delusion.

Hefiod begins his Theogony with the firft principle of the heathen system, that Chaos was the parent of all, and Heaven and Earth the parents of all visible things. That Heaven is the father. fays Plutarch, in his Inquiry after God, appears from his pouring down the waters which have the fpermatic faculty, and Earth the mother, becaufe fhe brings forth. This, according to the opinion of Pitarch, and many more, was the origin of the multiplicity of gods, men efteeming thofe bodies in the heavens and on the earth, from which they received benefit, the immediate objects of their gratitude and adoration: the finie were the matives alterwards which induced them to pay divine honours to mortal men, as we fee in the account we have from Diodorus. The design of the poet was to give a catalogue of thofe deities who were, in any fenfe, esteemed as fuch in the times in which he lived, whether fabulous, hiftorical, or phyfical; but we must take notice that even where a story had rife from fable, or hiftory, he feems to labour at reducing it to nature, as in that of the mufes: what was before of mean original, from nine minarels, flaves to a prince, is tendered great by the genius of the poet.

I shall conclude, thinking it all that is farther

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different ends, fome with a view to the nature of things, and other to civil affairs.

We have another fign, and that no fmall one, of this hidden fenfe which we have been speaking of; which is, that fome of thefe fables are in the narration, that is, in themfelves literally underfood, fo foolish and absurd, that they feem to proclaim a parable at a distance. Such as are prebable may be feigned for amusement, and in imitation of hiftory; but where uo fuch defigns appear, but they seem to be what none would imagine or relate, they must be calculated for other ufes! What a fiction is this! Jove took Metis for his wife, and as foon as he perceived her pregnant, eat her, whence he himself conceived, and brought forth Pallas, armed from his head. Nothing can appear more monftrous, more like a dream, and more out of the courfe of thinking, than this ftory in itfelf. What has a great weight with me, is, that many of these tables feem not to be invented by those who have related them, Homer, Hefind, and other writers; for were they the fictions of that age, and of those who delivered them down to us, nothing great and exalted, according to my opinion, could be expected from fuch an origin: but if any one will deliberate on this fubje&t attentively, thefe will appear to be delivered and related as what were before believed and received, and not as tales then first invented and communicated befides, as they are told in different manners by authors of almoft the fame times, they are

neceflary to be faid, and particularly on the My-eafily perceived to be common, and derived from

thology, with the following translation from the preface of Lord Bac: n to his treatife on the Wifdom of the Ancients.

I am not ignorant how uncertain fiction is, and how liable to be wrefted to this or that fenfe, nor how prevalent wit and difcourfe are, fo as ingenioudly to apply fuch meanings as were not thought of originally: but let not the follies and license of few leffen the esteem due to parables; for that would be profane and bold, fince religion delights in fach veils and fhadows: but, reflecting on human wisdom, I ingeniously confefs my real opinion is, that mystery and allegory were from the original intended in many fables of the ancient prets; this appears apt and confpicuous to me, whether ravished with a veneration for antiquity, or because I find fuch coherence in the fimilitude with the things fignified, in the very texture of the fable, and in the propriety of the names which are given to the perfons or actors in the fable; and no man can pofitively deny that this was the fefe propofed from the beginning, and incuttrioudly veiled in this manner, How can the conformity and judgment of the names be obfcure to any? Metis being mad the wife of Jove plainly Leifs courfei No one fhould be moved if he: met me finds any addition for the fake of Eiftory. by wayf embellishment, or if chronology hold har per to be confounded, or if part of ene fahle fheald be tran-ferred to another, and a new alegory intred ced; for there were all neceffary and to be expected, feeing th. y are the inventions of men of different ages, and who writ to

old memorial tradition, and are various only from the additional embellishments which diverfe writers haye beftowed on them.

In old times, when the inventions of men, and the conclufions deduced from them, were new and uncommon, parables, and fimiles, of all kinds abounded. As hieroglyphics were more ancient than parables, parables were more ancient than arguments. We shall clofe what we have here faid, with this obfervation; the wisdom of the ancients was either great or happy; great if these figures were the fruits of their industry, and happy if they locked no farther, that they have afforded matter and occafion fo worthy contempla

tion.

POSTSCRIPT.

I CANNOT take my leave of this work without expreffing my gratitude to Mr. Theobald for his kind affiftance in it. Much may with juftice be faid to the advantage of that gentleman, but his own writings will be teftimonies of his abilities, when, perhaps, this profeffion of my friendship for him, and of my zeal for his merit, shall be forgot.

Such remarks as I have received from my friends I have diftinguished from my own, in juftice to thofe by whom I have been fo obliged, left, by a general acknowledgment only, fuch errors as may have poffibly committed, fhould, by the wrong guefs of fome, be unjustly imputed to them. Feb. 15. 1728. THOMAS COOKE

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