MYSTERIES

indeed with diffidence, that we presume to differ in our sentiments from such respectable authority. Whatever hypothesis this prelate had once adopted, so extensive was his reading, and so exuberant his intellectual resources, that he found little difficulty in defending it by an appearance of plausibility, if not of rational argumentation. The large quotations he has adduced from Plato and Cicero, do indeed prove that the sages and legislators of antiquity sometimes availed themselves of the influence derived from the doctrines of the mysteries, and from the authority they acquired by the opinion of their having been initiated in them; but that those men were the inventors and fabricators of them is a position for which his quotations do not furnish the most slender presumption. At the same time, we think it not altogether certain, that the doctrine of a divine Providence, and a future state of rewards and punishments, were revealed in the mysteries with all the clearness and cogency which is pretended by his lordship. But granting that the fabric was raised by the hands of sages and legislators, we imagine it would be rather difficult to discover what emolument that description of men could propose to derive from the enterprise.—The institution was evidently, and indeed confessedly, devised to conceal from the million those very doctrines and maxims, which had they known and embraced them, would have contributed most effectually to dispose them to submit to those wise regulations which their governors and legislators wished most ardently to establish. Experience has taught, that nothing has a more commanding influence on the minds of the vulgar, than those very dogmas, which, according to the Bishop, were communicated to the initiated. A conviction of the unity of the Deity, of his wisdom, power, goodness, omnipresence, &c. the steady belief of the immortality of the human soul, and of a future state of rewards and punishments, have in all ages, and in all countries, proved the firmest supports of legal authority. The very same doctrines, in the dawn of Christianity, contributed, of all other methods, the most effectually to tame and civilize the savage (A) inhabitants of the northern regions of Europe. Supposing those principles to have been inculcated by the mysteries, the most prudent plan legislators could have adopted, would have been to publish them to all mankind. They ought to have sent forth apostles to preach them to the savages whom they had undertaken to civilize. According to the learned prelate, they pursued the opposite course, and deprived themselves of those very arms by which they might have encountered and overthrown all the armies of savagism. Of all the legislators of antiquity, the Cretan alone was prudent enough to foresee and adopt this rational plan. Diodorus the Sicilian informs us †, that the mysteries of Eleusis, Samothracia, &c. which were elsewhere buried in profound darkness, were among the Cretans taught publicly, and communicated to all the world. Minos, however, was a successful legislator; and his intercourse with Jupiter Idæus extended his influence and established his authority. He was not under the necessity of calling in the mysteries to his assistance: on the contrary, it is highly probable that the universal knowledge of the doctrines of the mysteries among his countrymen contributed in a considerable degree to facilitate his labour, and ensure his success. The divine Author of the Christian economy, viewed in the light of a human legislator, saw the propriety of this procedure. Nothing was concealed in his institutions; nothing was veiled with mystery, or buried in darkness. The success was answerable to the wisdom of the plan. The million flocked to the evangelical standard: the gospel was preached to the poor, to the illiterate and the vulgar; and the meanest of mankind eagerly embraced its maxims. Wherever it prevailed, it produced civilization, morality, sobriety, loyalty, and every other private and social virtue.—Upon the supposition that the mysteries had contained and inculcated the principles and practices which the prelate supposes they did, the civilizers of mankind, legislators, magistrates, and princes, ought to have combined to make them public for the sake of their own tranquillity, and the more effectual support of their authority and influence. Upon the whole, we are inclined to believe that the mysteries were the offspring of Egyptian priestcraft, the offspring of Egyptian priestcraft; they were instituted with a view to aggrandize that order of men, to extend their influence, and enlarge their revenues. To accomplish those selfish projects, they applied every engine towards besetting the multitude with superstition and enthusiasm. They taught them to believe, that themselves were the distinguished favourites of heaven; and that celestial doctrines had been revealed to them, too holy to be communicated to the profane rabble, and too sublime to be comprehended by vulgar capacities. It is, we confess, exceedingly probable, that after the mysteries were instituted, and had acquired an exalted reputation in the world, legislators, magistrates, judges, and potentates, joined in the imposture, with the same views and from the same principles. Princes and legislators, who adopted by found their advantage in overawing and humbling the legislators, multitude, readily adopted a plan which they found so artfully fabricated to answer these very purposes. They had interest enough with the sacerdotal (B) mystagogues, to induce them to allow them to participate in those venerable rites which had already established the authority of that description of men in whose hands they were deposited. The views of both parties were exactly congenial. The respect, the admiration, and dependance on the million, were the ultimate objects of their ambition respectively.—Priests and princes were actuated by the very same spirit. The combination was advantageous, and of consequence harmonious. For these reasons we have taken the liberty of differing from his Lordship of Gloucester with respect (A) The Germans, Russians, and Scandinavians, who were never thoroughly civilized till the gospel was preached among them. (B) The mystagogues were the ministers who acted the chief part in celebrating the mysteries. to the persons who first instituted the secret mysteries of the Pagan religion. Another writer of considerable reputation in the republic of letters, is of opinion, that the mysteries were entirely commemorative; that they were instituted with a view to preserve the remembrance of heroes and great men, who had been deified in consideration of their martial exploits, useful inventions, public virtues, and especially in consequence of the benefits by them conferred on their contemporaries.—According to him, the (c) mysteries of Mithras were established for this very purpose. It would be no difficult matter to prove that the Persian deity of that name was the sun, and that his name and insignia jointly ascertain the truth of this assertion. The same writer extends this observation to the mysteries of the Egyptians, Phoenicians, Greeks, Hetruscans; and in a word, to all the institutions of that species throughout the world. In opposition to this singular opinion, it may be argued, we think with some show of reason, that the method of preserving the memory of great and illustrious men generally adopted, was the establishing festivals, celebrating games, offering sacrifices, singing hymns, dances, &c. We can recollect no secret mysteries instituted for that purpose at least in their original intention. If any usage of the commemorative kind was admitted, it was superinduced at some period posterior to the primary institution. At the same time, upon the supposition that the orgia of Bacchus were the same with those of the Egyptian Osiris, and that the mysteries of Ceres exhibited at Eleusis were copied from those of the Egyptian Isis, and allowing that the former was the sun, and the latter the moon; it will be difficult to find out the human persons whose exploits, adventures, inventions, &c. were intended to be immortalized by those institutions. Upon the whole, the mysteries were performed in secret; they were intended to be communicated only to a few; of course had they been instituted with a view to immortalize the memory of heroes and great men, the authors would have acted the most foolish and inconsistent part imaginable.—Instead of transmitting the fame of their heroes with eclat to posterity, they would by this procedure have consigned it to eternal oblivion. We must then recur to our first position. The mysteries were the offspring of bigotry and priestcraft; they originated in Egypt, the native land of idolatry. In that country the priesthood ruled predominant. The kings were engrafted into their body before they could ascend the throne. They were possessed of a third part* of all the land of Egypt. The sacerdotal function was confined to one tribe, and was transmitted unalienably from father to son. All the orientals, but more especially the Egyptians, delighted in mysterious and allegorical doctrines. Every maxim of morality, every tenet of theology, every dogma of philosophy, was wrapt up in a veil of allegory and mysticism. This propensity, no doubt, conspired with avarice and ambition to dispose them to a dark and mysterious system of religion. Besides, the Egyptians were a gloomy† race of men; they delighted in darkness and solitude. Their sacred rites were generally celebrated with melancholy airs, weeping, and lamentation. This gloomy and unsocial bias of mind must have stimulated them to a congenial mode of worship. In Egypt then we are to search for the origin of the mysteries. Both the nature of the institution and the genius of the people confirm this position; and historians, both ancient and modern, are agreed in admitting the certainty of the fact. The Osiris of Egypt, every body knows, was the original Bacchus; as the Isis of the same country was and Isis of the Ceres of the Greeks. The rites of Osiris were performed with loud shrieks and lamentations when he was put into the coffin; and with the most extravagant mirth, when he was in a manner raised from the dead, or supposed to be found again. Their hymns were upon the whole always composed in melancholy affecting strains; and consisted of lamentations for the loss of Osiris, the mystic flight of Bacchus, the wanderings of Isis, and the sufferings† of the gods. The Canaanites, who were a kindred tribe of the Mizraim or Egyptians, imitated them in their sacred rites. At Byblus, Berytus, Sidon, and afterwards at Tyre, they used particularly mournful dirges for the death of Adonis or Tammuz‡, who was the same with the Egyptian Osiris, i. e. the sun. The Egyptians, then, naturally inclined to gloom and secrecy, instituted a mode of worship congenial with their natural disposition of mind. The recess of the sun towards the southern hemisphere, was the death* of Osiris; the wanderings of Isis in search of her husband and brother, allegorically imported the longing of the earth† for the return of the fructifying influence of the solar heat. When that luminary returned towards the summer solstice, and grain, trees, fruits, herbs, and flowers adorned the face of nature, another festival was celebrated of a very different complexion from that of the former. In this season all Egypt was dissolved in the most extravagant mirth and jollity. During the celebration of those festivals, the priests formed allegorical representations of the sun and the earth (D). They personified the one and the other, and allegorized their motions, aspects, relations, sympathies, accesses, recesses, &c. into real adventures, peregrinations, sufferings, contests, battles, victories, defeats, and so forth. These, in process of time, were held up to the vulgar as real occurrences; and these in a few ages became the most essential articles of the popular creed. From this source were derived the conquests of Dionysus or Bacchus, so beautifully exhibited by Nonnus in his Dionysiacs; (c) Principio hoc ego quidem controversia vacare, arbitror, mysteria quæ vocantur, ritus fuisse idcirco institutos ne memoria periret veterum beneficiorum, inventorum, fatorum rerum gestarum quibus primi populorum conditores, aut alii præclari homines, decus nomen, et famam, inter suos sibi comparaverant. Neque hæc cuiquam sententia mirabilis videri poterit. Cud. Syst. Intellect. ed. Moshemii, p. 329. (D) Isis, among the Egyptians, sometimes signifies the moon, and sometimes the earth. Dionysiacs; the wanderings of Io, wonderfully adorned by Æschylus; and the labours of Hercules, afterwards usurped by the Greeks. Whether the Egyptians deified mortal men in the earliest ages has been much controverted. Jablonkski† has taken much pains to prove the negative. Diodorus‡ assures us, that they paid their monarchs a kind of divine adoration, even in their lifetime. Plutarch tells us plainly §, that some were of opinion that Isis, Osiris, Horus, Anubis, Typhon, were once mortal persons, who were exalted into demons after their death. The Sicilian, in his history of Isis and Osiris, Pan, Hermes, &c. plainly represents them as human personages; and informs us, that the Egyptians imagined, that after their decease they transmigrated into particular stars. From these authorities, we are inclined to believe that the Egyptians, as well as the other Pagans, did actually deify persons who had distinguished themselves in their days of nature by prowess, wisdom, useful arts, and inventions. This was a constant practice among the Greeks, who probably learned it from the people in question. The exploits of these heroes had been disguised by allegorical traditions and hieroglyphical representations. They had been magnified beyond all dimensions, in order to astonish and intimidate the vulgar. They had been interlarded with the most extravagant fables, in order to gratify their propensity towards the marvellous. All these secrets were developed in the mysteries. The catechumens (E) were informed of every particular relating to the birth, the life, the exploits, the adventures, the misfortunes, and decease of those heroic personages, and when, and by what means, they had attained to the high rank of divinities. At the same time we think it highly probable, that those demi-gods were represented in their state of exaltation and heavenly splendour. The magicians of Egypt were abundantly qualified for exhibiting angels in machines. The sons of virtuous men, who had not been eminent enough to merit the honour of deification, were shown in all the perfection of Elysian felicity; and perhaps the souls of tyrants, and of the children of (F) Typhon, were shown in Tartarus, suffering all the extremes of infernal punishment. From these exhibitions the mystagogues might naturally enough take occasion to read their pupils suitable lectures on the happy tendency of a virtuous conduct, and the dishonour and misery consequent upon a contrary course. They might set before them immortal renown, deification, and Elysium, on the one hand, and eternal infamy and misery on the other. This will probably be deemed the chief advantage accruing from this institution. Besides the communications above mentioned, the catechumens were taught many secrets of physiology, or the nature of the phenomena of the world. This Pharnutus* every where affirms, especially in his last book towards the end. Plutarch too informs us, that many of the Greek philosophers were of opinion, that most of the Egyptian fables were allegorical details of physical operations. Eusebius acquaints us†, that‡ Prop. the physiology, not only of the Greeks, but likewise Evangel of the barbarians, was nothing else but a kind of science of nature, a concealed and dark theology, involved in fable and fiction, whose hidden mysteries were so veiled over with enigmas and allegories, that the ignorant million were as little capable of comprehending what was said as what was suppressed in silence. This, says he, is apparent from the poems of Orpheus and the fable of the Phrygians and Egyptians. Dionysius of Halicarnassus likewise observes‡, † Antiq. that the fables of the Greeks detail the operations of Rom. nature by allegories. Proclus§ makes the same ob-§ In Tim. servation concerning the people in question. The Egyptians, says he, taught the latent operations of nature by fables. These physiological secrets were no doubt expounded Physiologito the initiated; and that the Egyptian priests were cal secrets deeply skilled in physiological science, can scarcely be expounded in the myquestioned, if we believe that Jannes and Jambres risteries ofvalled Moses with their enchantments. The preceding Egypt. detail comprehends all that was revealed to the Eoptœ in the original Egyptian mysteries. What articles might have been introduced afterwards we cannot pretend to determine. Be that as it may, one thing is certain, namely, that the vulgar were excluded from all those choice secrets, which were carefully reserved for the nobility and sacerdotal tribes. To them it was given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of darkness; but to those who were without, all was mystery and parable. While the laity fed on husks, the clergy and the quality feasted on royal dainties. The priests who had devised these allegories understood their original import, and bequeathed it as an inestimable legacy to their children. Here then we have the primary object of the mysteries, namely, to develop to the initiated the original and rational import of those allegorical and mystical doctrines which were tendered to the uninitiated, wrapt up in impenetrable allegory and obscurity. To the former, these were communicated and explained: The latter were obliged to stand at an awful distance, and retire as the Procul, O procul este profani, thundered in their ears. These allegorical traditions originated in Egypt, (see MYTHOLOGY.) It was the general bias of the oriental genius. The Egyptians, however, according to the most authentic accounts (G), were the greatest proficient in that science. The original subject of these institutions were, we imagine, the articles we have specified above: but in process of time, according to the natural course of things, numerous improvements were made, and many new rites, ceremonies, usages, and even doctrines, were superinduced, which were utterly unknown to the original hierophants, (H). Simplicity is, for (E) Catechumens were pupils who were learning the elements of any science. (F) Typhon was the evil genius, or devil, of the Egyptians. (G) As early as the age of Joseph, the Egyptians were skilled in the interpretations of dreams, divinations, &c. and in the age of Moses they were become wise men, magicians, &c. (H) Hierophant imports a priest employed in explaining the doctrines, rites, &c. communicated to the initiated. for the most part, one of the distinguishing characters of a new institution; but succeeding architects generally imagine that something is still wanting to complete the beauty, the regularity, the uniformity, the magnificence, and perhaps the convenience of the structure. Hence, at length, it comes to be so overloaded with adventitious drapery, that its primary elegance and symmetry are altogether defaced. This was the case with the earliest Egyptian mysteries. Their subject was at first simple and easy to be comprehended; in time it became complex, intricate, and unintelligible. 18Temples where the mysteries were celebrated. In order to celebrate those mysteries with the greater secrecy, their temples were so constructed as to favour the artifice of the priests. The fanes, in which they used to execute their sacred functions, and to perform the rites and ceremonies of their religion, were subterraneous apartments, constructed with such wonderful skill and dexterity, that every thing that appeared in them breathed an air of solemn secrecy. Their walls were covered with hieroglyphic paintings and sculpture, and the altar was situated in the centre of the apartment. Modern travellers have of late years discovered some vestiges of them, and bear witness to the above description of those dark abodes (1). In those subterraneous mansions, which the priests of that ingenious nation had planned with the most consummate skill, the kings, princes, and great men of the state, encountered the dangers and hardships contrived to prove their prudence, fortitude, patience, abstinence, &c. These were appointed to try their merit; and by these the hierophants were enabled to decide whether or not they were duly qualified for receiving that benefit. Upon these occasions we may believe, abundance of those magical tricks were exhibited, for which the magicians of Egypt were so much celebrated among the ancients. The strange and astonishing sights, the alternate successions of light and darkness, the hideous spectres exposed to view, the frightful howlings re-echoed by these infernal domes, the scenes of Tartarus and Elysium, exhibited alternately and in quick succession, must have made a deep and lasting impression on the mind of the affrighted votary (K). These scenes we shall describe more fully in the sequel. From the scenes exhibited in celebrating the Egyptian mysteries, especially those of Isis and Osiris, the Greeks seem to have copied their ideas of the infernal regions, and the subterraneous mansions of departed souls. Many colonies of Egyptians settled in Greece. From these the odes (L), or most early bards of Greece, learned them imperfectly. Of course, we find Homer's account of the infernal regions, and of the state of departed souls, lame and incoherent. Succeeding bards obtained more full and more distinct information. Euripides and Aristophanes seem to have paved the way for the prince of Roman poets. Plato and some of the other philosophers have shown by their descriptions or allusions, that the whole apparatus of Tartarus and Elysium had become a hackneyed topic some centuries before Virgil was born. This incomparable poet borrowed his ideas from Homer, Aristophanes, Euripides, Plato, &c. These, under his plastic hand, in the sixth Aeneid, grew into a system beautiful, regular, uniform, and consistent. The materials he has employed were created to his hand; he had only to collect, polish, arrange, and connect them.—The sentiments collected from the Platonic philosophy, and the inimitable episode copied from the annals of Rome, by the masterly skill which he has displayed in the application of them, form the chief excellencies of the piece. For the rest, he could well dispense with going to Eleusis (M): every old woman in Athens and Rome could repeat them. 20Egypt was then the native land of mysteries as well as of idolatry. Every god and goddess respectively had their mysteries; but as those of Isis and Osiris were the most celebrated, they of course became principal objects of pursuit as well as of imitation to the neighbouring nations. These, as is generally believed, were carried into Persia by Zoroastres, or Zerdusht, by whom they were consecrated to Mithras. On these we shall make some observations in the sequel.—Orpheus imported them into Thrace; Cadmus brought them into Bœotia, where they were sacred to Bacchus. Inachus established them at Argos in honour of Juno, the same with Isis (N); Cyniras in Cyprus, where they were dedicated to Venus. In Phrygia they were sacred to Cybele, the mother of the gods. Our learned readers, who will probably reflect that the Egyptians were in ancient times inhospitable to strangers, will perhaps be surprised that this fastidious and jealous people were so ready to communicate the arcana of their religion to foreigners.—But they will please recollect, that a great part of Greece was planted with colonies from Egypt, Phœnicia, Palestine, &c. This we could easily prove, did the bounds prescribed us admit such a degression. Orpheus, if not an Egyptian, was at least of oriental extraction. Inachus, Cadmus, and Melampus, are universally allowed to have been Egyptians. Erechtheus, in whose reign the Eleusinian mysteries were established, was an Egyptian by birth, or at least sprung from Egyptian ancestors. The Egyptians, then, in those early ages, did not view the Greeks in the light of aliens, but as a people nearly related either to themselves or the Phœnicians, who were their brethren. Upon this connexion we imagine it was, that in later times most of the sages of Greece, (1) See an excellent description of these subterraneous abodes, and of the process of probation carried on there, in a French romance, entitled the Life of Sethos. (K) Persons who had descended into Trophonius's vault were said to have been so terrified with shocking sights, that they never laughed during the remainder of their lives. (L) These were strolling poets like our minstrels, who frequented the houses of the great men of Greece, and entertained the company upon public occasions with singing and tales of other times. (M) Bishop Warburton has, with much ingenuity, and a vast profusion of reading, endeavoured to prove that Virgil borrowed the whole scenery of the sixth Aeneid from the sources mentioned in the text. (N) Isis was the moon, and the original Juno was the same planet. Greece, especially of Athens, found so hospitable a reception among that people. They probably viewed them in the light of propaganda; apostles able and willing to disseminate their idolatrous rites. This observation, which might be supported by numberless authorities, did the nature of the present inquiry permit, will, we think, go a great way towards obviating the objection. Although, as has been observed, every particular deity had his own peculiar mysterious sacred rites, yet of all others those of Mithras, Bacchus (O), and Ceres, were deemed the most august, and were most universally and most religiously celebrated. To these, therefore, we shall in a good measure confine ourselves, upon this occasion. If our readers shall become intimately acquainted with these, they may readily dispense with the knowledge of the rest, which are, indeed, no more than streams and emanations from these sources. We shall then, in the first place, present to our readers a brief sketch of the mysteries of Mithras. MITHRAS, or, according to the Persian, Mihr, was one of the great gods of the Asiatics. His worship was for many ages confined to Persia. Afterwards, however, it was propagated so far and wide, that some have imagined they had discovered vestiges of it even in Gaul. Mihr, according to Dr Hyde*, signifies love, and likewise the sun. If we might presume to differ from so a respectable authority, we should conjecture that it is a cognate of the Hebrew word muthir, "excellentia, præstantia." That there was an analogy between the Hebrew and old Persian, is generally admitted by the learned. Be that as it may, Mithras was the sun (P) among the Persians; and in honour of that luminary this institution was established. Mithras, according to Plutarch (Q), was the middle god between Oramaz and Ariman, the two supreme divinities of Persia. But the fact is, the solar planet was the visible emblem of Oramaz, the good genius of the Persian tribes, and the same with the Osiris of the Egyptians. From these people, some have imagined that Zoroastres (R), or Zerdusht, borrowed his mysteries of Mithras. To this opinion we cannot give our assent, because the probationary trials to be undergone by the candidates among the former were much more savage and sanguinary than among the latter.—Both, however, were instituted in honour of the same deity; and probably the scenes exhibited, and the information communicated in both, were analogous; a circumstance which perhaps gave birth to the opinion above mentioned. The grand festival of Mithras was celebrated six days, in the middle of the month Mihr (S). Upon these days, it was lawful for the kings of Persia to get drunk and dance. On this festival, we imagine, the candidates for initiation, having duly proved their vocation, were solemnly admitted to the participation of the mysteries. Zoroastres (T) worshipped Mithras, or the Sun, in a certain natural cave, which he formed into a temple, and fitted up in a manner exactly mathematical. There Mithras was represented as presiding over the lower world with all the pomp of royal magnificence. In it too were seen the symbols of Mithras and of the world, philosophically and mathematically exhibited, to be contemplated and worshipped. This deity was sometimes represented as mounted on a bull, which he is breaking, and which he kills with a sword. On some bas reliefs still existing, he appears as a young man with his tiara turned upward, after the manner of the Persian kings. He is clothed with a short tunic and breeches, after the Persian fashion. Sometimes he wears a small cloak. By his sides are seen other human figures, with tiaras of the same fashion on their heads, but without cloaks. One of these figures commonly holds in his one hand a torch lifted up; in the other, one turned downward. Sometimes over the cave are seen the chariots of the sun and moon, and divers constellations, such as cancer, scorpio, &c. In one of these caves the ceremonies of initiation were performed; but before the candidate could be admitted, he was forced to undergo a course of probationary exercises, so numerous and so rigorous, that very few had courage and fortitude enough to go through them. He was obliged to live a life of virtue and abstinence for the space of seven years previous to the period of his initiation. Some months before it, he was obliged to submit to a long and austere fast, which continued fifty days. He was to retire several days to a deep and dark dungeon, where he was successively exposed to all the extremes of heat and cold. Mean-time he frequently underwent the bastinado, which the priests applied without mercy. Some say this fustigation continued two whole days, and was repeated no less than 15 times. In the course of these probationary exercises, the candidate was generally reduced to a skeleton: and we are told, that there have been several instances of persons who have perished in the attempt. Upon the eve of the initiation, the aspirant was obliged to brace on his armour, in order to encounter (O) Bacchus was the Osiris of the Egyptians, and Ceres was Isis of the same people. (P) Mosheim, in his note on Cudworth's Intellectual System, p. 330, has taken much pains to prove that Mithras was a deified mortal; but we cannot agree with that learned man in this point. (Q) Isis and Osiris, p. 369. l. 20. from the bottom. This philosopher makes Zoroaster, according to some, 5000 years prior to the Trojan war. This date is certainly extravagant. We cannot, however, agree, with some moderns, who make him contemporary with Darius Hystaspes, the immediate successor of Cambyses, because it contradicts all antiquity. (R) M. Silohwette, Dissert. v. p. 17, asserts that Zoroastes was initiated among the Egyptians. (S) The month Mihr began September 30. and ended October 30. (T) See Dr Hyde de Rel. vet. Pers. pages 16, 17. Mr Bryant's Anal. vol. i. p. 232. Porphyr. de Antro Nymph. p. 254. This philosopher often mentions the cave of Mithras, and always attributes the institution of his rites to Zoroaster. ter giants and savage monsters. In those spacious subterranean mansions a mock hunting was exhibited. The priests and all the subordinate officers of the temple, transformed into lions, tygers, leopards, boars, wolves, and other savage creatures, assailed him with loud howlings, roaring, and yelling, and every instance of ferine fury. In those mock combats, the hero was often in danger of being really worried, and always came off with bruises and wounds. Lampridius informs us, that when the emperor Commodus was initiated, he actually carried the joke too far, and butchered one of the priests who attacked him in the figure of a wild beast. The Persians worshipped Mithras or the Sun by a perpetual fire; hence the votary was obliged to undergo a fiery trial; that is, to pass seven times through the sacred fire, and each time to plunge himself into cold water. Some have made these probationary penances amount to 80: others have thought that they were in all only 8. As we find no good authority for either of these numbers, we think ourselves at liberty to hazard the following conjecture: The number seven was deemed sacred over all the east. The Mithriac penances we imagine were either seven, or if they exceeded it, were regulated by seven repetitions of that number. The candidate having undergone all these torturing trials with becoming patience and fortitude, was declared a proper subject for initiation. But before his admission he was obliged to bind himself by the most solemn oath, with horrible imprecations annexed, never to divulge any single article of all that should be communicated to him in the course of his initiation. What απόρρητα or ineffable secrets were imparted to the initiated, it is impossible at this distance of time to discover with any tolerable degree of certainty. We may, however, rest assured, that the most authentic tradition concerning the origin of the universe; the nature, attributes, perfections, and operations, of Oromas; the baleful influences of Ariman; and the benign effects of the government of Mithras, were unfolded and inculcated. The secret phenomena of nature, as far as they had been discovered by the Magi, were likewise exhibited; and the application of their effects, to astonish and delude the vulgar, were taught both in theory and practice. The exercise of public and private virtues was warmly recommended; and vice represented in the most odious and frightful colours. Both these injunctions were, we may suppose, enforced by a display of the pleasures of Elysium and the pains of Tartarus, as has been observed above in describing the mysteries of the Egyptians. These initiations are mentioned by Lampridius in the life of Commodus, and likewise by Justin† and Tertullian‡, who both flourished in the second century. ry. The last of these two speaks of a kind of baptism, which washed from the souls of the initiated all the stains which they had contracted during the course of their lives prior to their initiation. He at the same time mentions a particular mark which was imprinted upon them (v), of an offering of bread, and an emblem of the resurrection; which particulars, however, he does not describe in detail. In that offering, which was accompanied with a certain form of prayer, a vessel of water was offered up with the bread. The same father elsewhere informs us, that there was presented to the initiated a crown suspended on the point of a sword; but that they were taught to say, Mithras is my crown. By this answer was intimated, that they looked upon the service of that deity as their chief honour and ornament. After that the Teletæ (x) were finished, the pupil was brought out of the cave or temple, and with great solemnity proclaimed a lion of Mithras (y); a title which imported strength and intrepid courage in the service of the deity. They were now consecrated to the god, and were supposed to be under his immediate protection; an idea which of course animated them to the most daring and dangerous enterprises. The worship of Mithras was introduced into the Roman empire towards the end of the republic, where it made very rapid progress. When Christianity began to make a figure in the empire, the champions for Paganism thought of proposing to men the worship of this power of benevolence, in order to counterbalance or annihilate that worship which the Christians paid to Jesus Christ the true Sun of righteousness. But this mode was soon abolished, together with the other rites of Paganism. The Persian grandees often affected names compounded with Mithras; hence Mithridates, Mithrobarzanes, &c. Hence, too, the precious stone called Mithridat†, which by the reflection of the sun sparkled with a variety of colours. There is likewise a certain pearl of many different colours, which they call Mithras. It is found among the mountains near the Red sea; and when exposed to the sun, it sparkles with a variety of dyes. We find likewise a king of Egypt of that name, who reigned at Heliopolis; who being commanded in a dream to erect an obelisk to the solar deity, reared a most prodigious one in the neighbourhood of that city. The votaries of Mithras pretended that he was sprung from a rock, and that therefore the place where the mysterious ceremonies were communicated to the initiated was always a cave. Many different reasons have been assigned for the origin of this rock-born deity, most of which appear to us unsatisfactory. If our readers will be obliging enough to accept of a simple and obvious conjecture, they may take the following: (v) In allusion to this practice of imprinting a sacred mark, probably on the forehead of the initiated, we find the injunction to the angel, Ezek. chap. ix. ver. 4. and the Revelation passim. (x) The mysteries were called Teletæ, which imports, "the rites which confer perfection." (y) Tertull. adv. Marc. p. 55. The priests of Mithras were called the lions of Mithras, and his priestesses lionesses; some say hyænas. The other inferior ministers were called eagles, hawks, ravens, &c. and on their festivals they wore masks corresponding to their titles, after the Egyptian manner, where the priests appeared at the ceremonies with masks resembling the heads of lions, apes, dogs, &c. a circumstance which furnishes a presumption that the mysteries of Mithras were of Egyptian original. A rock is the symbol of strength and stability (z); the dominion of Mithras, in the opinion of his votaries, was firm as a rock, and stable as the everlasting hills. If our readers should not admit the probability of this conjecture, we would beg leave to remit them to the learned Mr Bryant's Analysis of Mythology, where they will find this point discussed with deep research and wonderful ingenuity. Whatever may have been the origin of this opinion with relation to the birth of Mithras, it is certain that some reverence to rocks and caves was kept up a long time even after the establishment of Christianity. Hence the prohibition given to some of the proselytes to that religion, that they should no more presume to offer up their prayers ad petras, at the rocks (A). We shall conclude our account of the mysteries of Mithras, with a passage from M. Anquetil, to whom we are so much indebted for what knowledge we have of the Persian theology, and in which the functions of that deity are briefly and comprehensively delineated. "The peculiar functions of Mithras are to fight continually against Ahriman and the impure army of evil genii, whose constant employment is to scatter terror and desolation over the universe; to protect the frame of nature from the demons and their productions. For this purpose he is furnished with a thousand ears and a thousand eyes, and traverses the space between heaven and earth: his hands armed with a club or mace. Mithras gives to the earth light and sun: he traces a course for the waters: he gives to men corn, pastures, and children; to the world virtuous kings and warriors; maintains harmony upon earth, watches over the law," &c. As the history of Mithras, and the nature of his mysteries, are not generally known, we imagined it would be agreeable to many of our readers to have the most important articles relating to that subject laid before them as it were in detail. We now proceed to the orgia or mysteries of Bacchus, which we shall introduce with a brief history of that deity. The original Dionysus or Bacchus was the Osiris of the Egyptians, which last was the Sun (B). Whether there was an Egyptian monarch of that name, as Diodorus Siculus affirms*, has no manner of connexion with the present disquisition. The Greek name of that deity is plainly oriental, being compounded of di, "bright," and nasta or nasa, in the Æolic dialect nusa, "a prince." This name was imported from the east by Orpheus, Cadmus, or by whoever else communicated the worship of Osiris to the Greeks. That the Dionysus of the Greeks was the same with the Osiris of the Egyptians, is universally allowed. Herodotus tells us expressly†, that Osiris is Dionysus in the Greek language: Martianus Capellus, quoted above, expresses the very same idea‡. The original Osiris was then the sun; but the Dionysus or Bacchus VOL. XIV. Part II. of the Greeks was the same with the Osiris of the Egyptians; therefore the Bacchus or Dionysus of the Greeks was likewise the same luminary. The name Osiris has much embarrassed critics and etymologists. The learned Jablonski§, instead of de-lineating the character, attributes, operations, adventures, exploits, and peculiar department assigned this deity by his votaries, has spent much of his pains on trying to investigate the etymology of his name. If it be granted, which is highly probable, that the Hebrew and Egyptian tongues are cognate dialects, we should imagine that it is actually the Chosher or Oshir of the former language, which imports, "to make rich, to become rich." Indeed the words Osiris and Isis were not the vulgar names of the sun and moon among the Egyptians, but only epithets importing their qualities. The name of the sun among that people was Phri or Phry, and that of the moon Ioh, whence the Greek Io. The term Osiris was applied both to the sun and to the river Nile; both which by their influence contributed respectively to enrich and fertilize the land of Egypt. It was a general custom among the orientals to denominate their princes and great men from their gods, demigods, heroes, &c. When the former were advanced to divine honours, they were in process of time confounded with their archetypes. The original divinities were forgotten, and these upstart deities usurped their place and prerogatives. In the earliest periods of the Egyptian monarchy, there appeared two illustrious personages, Osiris and Isis. These were the children of Cronus; and being brother and sister, they were joined in matrimony, according to the custom of the Egyptians. As the brother and husband had assumed the name of the Sun, so the sister and consort took that of Isis, that is, "the woman||," a name which the Egyptians applied both to the moon and to the earth, in consequence of the similarity of their nature, their mutual sympathy, and congenial fecundity. Osiris having left his consort Isis regent of the kingdom, with Hermes as her prime minister, and Hercules as general of her armies, quitted Egypt with a numerous body of troops, attended by companies of fauns (c), satyrs, singing women, musicians, &c. and traversed all Asia to the eastern ocean. He then returned homeward through the Upper Asia, Thrace, Pontus, Asia Minor, Syria, and Palestine. Wherever he marched he conferred numberless benefits on the savage inhabitants. He taught the art of cultivating the ground, preserving the fruits of the earth, and distinguishing the wholesome and nutritive from the unwholesome and poisonous. He instructed them in the culture of the vine; and where vines could not be produced, he communicated to them the method of producing a fermented liquor from barley, very little inferior to wine itself. He built many cities in different parts (z) Our Saviour probably alludes to this emblem, when he talks of building his church on a rock; and adds, that the gates of hell should not prevail against it. (A) The Caledonian druids seem to have regarded certain stones with a superstitious veneration, in which the Catholics imitated them. There are in several places of Scotland large stones, which the vulgar call leere stones, i. e. we imagine, lecture. (B) See Macrob. lib. i. cap. 21. p. 247. bottom. Diogenes Laert. in proemio, par. 10. Martian. Capel. lib. ii. Jablonski, vol. i. lib. ii. 415. par. 3. Plut. Isis et Osir. passim. (C) Men and women dressed in the habits of those rural deities. parts of the globe, planted numerous colonies (D), and wherever he directed his course instituted just and wholesome laws, and established the rites and ceremonies of religion, and left priests and catechists of his train to teach and inculcate the observance of them. In short, he left everywhere lasting monuments of his progress, and at the same time of his generosity and beneficence. Where he found the people docile and submissive, he treated them with kindness and humanity: if any showed themselves obstinate, he compelled them to submit to his institutions by force of arms. At the end of three years, he returned to Egypt, where his brother Typhon, a wicked unnatural monster, had been forming a conspiracy against his life. 30 His death. This traitorous design he soon after accomplished in the following manner: He invited Osiris, with some other persons whom he had gained over, to an entertainment. When the repast was finished, he produced a beautiful coffer, highly finished, and adorned with studs of gold; promising to bestow it on the person whom it should fit best. Osiris was tempted to make the experiment. The conspirators nailed down the cover upon him, and threw the coffer into the river. This coffer, which was now become the coffin of Osiris, was, they tell us, wafted by the winds and waves to the neighbourhood of Byblus, a city of Phoenicia, where it was cast on shore, and left by the waves at the foot of a tamarind tree. 31 Wanderings of Isis in search of his body. Isis in the mean time, disconsolate and forlorn, attended by Anubis, was ransacking every quarter in search of her beloved Osiris. At length being informed by her faithful attendant and guardian, that his body was lodged somewhere in the neighbourhood of Byblus, she repaired to that city. There, they say, she was introduced to the queen, and after (E) a variety of adventures she recovered the corpse of her husband, which, of course, she carried back with her to Egypt: but the mischievous Typhon, ever on the watch, found her on the banks of the Nile; and having robbed her of her charge, cut the body into 14 parts, and scattered them up and down. Now, once more, according to the fable, Isis set out in quest of those parts, all of which, only one excepted, she found, and interred in the place where she found them; and hence the many tombs of Osiris in that country. These tombs were denominated toposins by the natives. Many other fabulous adventures were ascribed to those two personages, which it is not our province to enumerate at present. If our readers should wish to be more minutely informed on this subject, they may have recourse to the authors mentioned in the last-quoted author, or to the learned Mr Bryant's Analysis of Ancient Mythology, and M. Cour de Gebelin, where they will find matter enough to gratify their curiosity. To commemorate those adventures, the mysteries of 32 The mysteries of Isis and Osiris were instituted; and from them both and Osiris those of Bacchus and Ceres, among the Greeks, were instituted derived. Of the Egyptian solemnity, we have an epitome in one of the fathers of the church, to the following purpose: "Here follows (says he) an epitome of the mysteries of Isis and Osiris. They deplore annually, with deep lamentations and shaved heads, the catastrophe of Osiris over a buried statue of that monarch. They beat their breasts, mangle their arms, tear open the scars of their former wounds; that by annual lamentations the catastrophe of his miserable and fatal death may be revived in their minds. When they have practised these things a certain number of days, then they pretend that they have found the remains of his mangled body; and having found them, their sorrows are lulled asleep, and they break out into moderate joy." What maxims of morality, secrets of physiology, or phenomena of astronomy, were couched under this allegorical process, is not our business to investigate in this place. We shall only observe, that, in all probability, Osiris and Isis were sovereigns of Egypt at a very early period; that they had conferred many signal benefits on their subjects, who, influenced by a sense of gratitude, paid them divine honours after their decease; that in process of time they were confounded with the sun and the moon; and that their adventures were at length magnified beyond all credibility, interlarded with fables and allegories, and employed in the mysteries as channels to convey a variety of instructions to the initiated. Be that as it may, it is certain that the very same mode of worship was established at Byblus, and in after ages transferred to Tyre. The Mizraim and Chanaan were nearly connected by blood, and their religious ceremonies were derived from the very same source. By what medium the worship of Osiris at Abydus and Tyre was connected, we shall leave to others to explain; we shall only observe, that among the Phoenicians this deity obtained the names Adonis and Bacchus. The former is rather an (F) epithet than a name: the latter is evidently an allusion to the weeping and lamentation (G) with which the rites were performed. We find another name of that divinity mentioned in Scripture (H); but that term is plainly of Egyptian original: we shall now proceed to the mysteries of Osiris as they were celebrated among the Greeks and Thracians, under the name of the Orgia of Dionysus or Bacchus. 33 Transferred to Byblus and Tyre, where Osiris was called Adonis and Bacchus. Orpheus, the celebrated Thracian philosopher, had travelled into Egypt in quest of knowledge; and from that (D) Many have thought this expedition fabulous; but the numberless monuments of Egyptian architecture, sculpture, and statuary, lately discovered in the east, confirm it. (E) For the conquests and adventures of Osiris and Isis, we must send our learned readers to Diod. Sic. Bibl. l. i. and Plut. Isis et Osiris, p. 256. et seq. which we have been obliged to abridge, in consequence of the narrow limits prescribed us. (F) Adonis is evidently the Hebrew Adoni, "my lord," and imports the sovereignty of the deity. (G) Bacchus is derived from the Phoenician word bahah, "to weep." This was the name embraced by the Romans. (H) Ezek. chap. viii. ver. 14. Tammuz is the name of one of the months of the Egyptian year. that country, according to the most authentic accounts, he imported the Bacchanalian rites and institutions. Some have affirmed that this same Orpheus being intimately acquainted with the family of Cadmus, communicated these rites to them, and endeavoured to transfer them to the grandson of that hero, which grandson became afterwards the Grecian Bacchus. It is, however, we think much more probable, that those rites were imported from Egypt or Phœnicia, by (1) Cadmus himself, who was a native of the former country, and is thought to have spent some time in the latter, before he emigrated in quest of a settlement in Bœotia. It is said that Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, and the mother of the Grecian Bacchus, was struck with lightning at the very instant of his birth. The child was, in all probability, denominated Bacchus (K), from the sorrow and lamentation this melancholy accident had occasioned in the family. Cadmus, in order to conceal the dishonour of his daughter, might, we imagine, convey away his infant grandson to some of his relations in Phœnicia or Egypt. There he was educated and instructed in all the mysteries of Isis and Osiris, and at the same time initiated in all the magical or juggling tricks of the Egyptian priests and hierophants. Thus accomplished, when he arrived at manhood, he returned to Thebes with the traditional retinue of the original deity of the same name; and claimed divine honours accordingly. This claim, however, was not admitted without much opposition; Pentheus, another grandson of Cadmus, was torn to pieces by the frantic Bacchanalians upon Mount Citheron, because he attempted to interrupt them in celebrating the orgia. Some have thought that Cadmus lost his kingdom for the same reason; but this we think is by no means probable; we should rather imagine that the old prince was privy to the whole process, and that it was originally planned by him, with a view to attract the veneration of his new subjects, by making them believe that there was a divinity in his family. Be that as it may, the vain-glorious Greeks attributed all the actions of the Egyptian hero to their new Bacchus; and according to their laudable practice, engaged him in numberless adventures in which his prototype had no share. Most of those are futile and unentertaining (L). The Greeks commonly adopted some oriental personage as the hero of their mythological rhapsodies. Him they naturalized and adopted into some Grecian family, and so he became their own. To him they ascribed all the adventures and exploits of the oriental archetype from whom he was copied. Consequently in the orgia (M), every thing was collected that had been imported from the east relating to Osiris; and to that farrago was joined all that the Grecian rhapsodists had thought fit to invent, in order to amuse the credulous multitude. This, however, was not the whole of the misfortune: The adventures of Osiris were described by the Egyptian hierophants, veiled with allegorical and hieroglyphical mysteries. These the persons who imported them into Greece did not thoroughly comprehend, or, if they did, they were not inclined to communicate them sound and unsophisticated. Besides, many oriental terms were retained, the import of which was in process of time lost or distorted. Hence the religious ceremonies of the Greeks became a medley of inconsistencies. The mysteries of Bacchus, in particular, were deeply tinctured with this meretricious colouring; the adventures of the Theban pretender were grafted upon those of the Egyptian archetype, and out of this combination was formed a tissue of adventures disgraceful to human nature, absurd, and inconsistent. Indeed the younger or Theban Bacchus seems to have been a monster of debauchery; whereas the Egyptian is represented as a person of an opposite character. Of course the mysteries of the former were attended with the most shocking abominations. These mysteries, as has been observed above, were first celebrated at Thebes the capital of Bœotia, under the auspices of the family of Cadmus. From this country they gradually found their way into Greece, and all the neighbouring parts of Europe. They were celebrated once every three years (N), because at the end of three years Osiris returned from his Indian expedition. As the Greeks had impudently transferred the actions of the Egyptian hero to their upstart divinity, the same period of time was observed for the celebration of those rites in Greece that had been ordained for the same purpose in Egypt. When the day appointed for the celebration of the orgia (O) approached, the priests issued a proclamation, enjoining all the initiated to equip themselves according to the ritual, and attend the procession on 4 C 2 the (1) Cadmus and Melampus, who were both Egyptians, introduced the Bacchanalia into Greece. The Egyptian or oriental name of Bacchus was Dimusi, that is, "the prince of light." Cadmus had learned the name Bacchus from the Phœnicians. (K) We have omitted the immense farrago of fable relating to the connexion between Jupiter and Semele as of little importance to our readers. (L) Nonnus, an Egyptian of Pentapolis, has collected all the fabulous adventures of Bacchus, and exhibited them in a beautiful but irregular poem: To this we must refer our learned readers. Of the Dionysiacs we have a most judicious sketch, Gebelin. Calend. p. 553. et seq. (M) The orgia belonged to all the Mydones, but to those of Bacchus in a peculiar manner. (N) Hence these orgia were called Triteria. (O) According to Clem. Alexand. Cohort. page 12. Pott. the word orgia is derived from orge, which signifies "anger," and originated from the resentment of Ceres against Jupiter, in consequence of a most outrageous insult he had offered her with success. We should rather imagine it derived from the Hebrew word argoz, signifying a "chest or coffer," alluding to the casket which contained the sacred symbols of the god.—The Egyptians or Phœnicians might write and pronounce, argoz, orgoz, or in some manner nearly resembling orgia. the day appointed. The votaries were to dress themselves in coats of deer-skins, to loose the fillets of their hair, to cover their legs with the same stuff with their coats, and to arm themselves with thyrsi, which were a kind of spears wholly of wood entwined with leaves and twigs of the vine or ivy. It is said that the Bacchanalians, especially the Thracians, used often to quarrel and commit murder in their drunken revels; and that in order to prevent those unlucky accidents, a law was enacted, that the votaries, instead of real spears, should arm themselves with those sham weapons which were comparatively inoffensive. The statue of the deity, which was always covered with vine or ivy leaves was now taken down from its pedestal, and elevated on the shoulders of the priests. The cavalcade then proceeded nearly in the following manner: First of all, hymns were chanted in honour of Bacchus, who was called the Power of dances, smiles, and jests; while at the same time he was deemed equally qualified for the exploits of war and heroism. Horace, in some of his dithyrambic odes, has concisely pointed out the subjects of those Bacchanalian songs. In the collection of hymns fabulously attributed to Orpheus, we find several addressed to this deity (r), each under a different title, derived from the different appellations of the god. All these names are of oriental original, and might easily be explained, did the bounds prescribed us admit of etymological disquisitions. The hymn being finished, the first division of the votaries proceeded, carrying a pitcher of wine, with a bunch of the vine. Then followed the he-goat; an animal odious to Bacchus, because he ravages the vines. The chanting the hymns, the sacrificing the he-goat, and the revels, games, and diversions, with which the celebration of those rites was attended, gave birth to the dramatic poetry of the Greeks; as the persons habited in the dress of Fauns, Sylvans, and Satyrs (q), furnished the name of another species of poetry of a coarser and more forbidding aspect. Then appeared the mysterious coffer or basket, containing the secret symbols of the deity. These were the phallus (r), some grains of sesama, heads of poppies, pomegranates, dry stems, cakes baked of the meal of different kinds of corn, salt, carded wool, rolls of honey, and cheese; a child, a serpent (s), and a van (t). Such was the furniture of the sacred coffer carried in the solemn Bacchanalian procession. The inventory given by some of the fathers of the church is somewhat different. They mention the dye, the ball, the top, the wheel, the apples, the looking-glass, and the fleece. The articles first mentioned seem to have been of Egyptian original; the last were certainly superinduced by the Greeks, in allusion to his being murdered and torn in pieces when he was a child by the machinations of Juno, who prevailed with the Titans to commit the horrid deed. These last seem to have been memorials of his boyish playthings; for, says Maternus, "the Cretans, in celebrating the rites of the child Bacchus, De Erre-acted every thing that the dying boy either said, or did, or suffered. They likewise (says he) tore a live bull in pieces with their teeth, in order to commemorate the dismembering of the boy." For our part, we think, that if such a beastly rite was practised, it was done in commemoration of the savage manner of life which had prevailed among men prior to the more humane diet invented and introduced by Isis and Osiris. Be that as it may, we learn from Porphyry, that in the island of Chios they used to sacrifice a man to Bacchus, and that they used to mangle and tear him limb from limb. This was no doubt practised in commemoration of the catastrophe mentioned above. The orgia of this Pagan god were originally simple enough; but this unsophisticated mode was of no long continuance, for riches soon introduced luxury, which quickly infected even the ceremonies of religion. On the day set apart for this solemnity, men and women crowned with ivy, their hair dishevelled, and their bodies almost naked, ran about the streets, roaring aloud Evohe (u) Bacche. In this rout were to be seen people intoxicated at once with wine and enthusiasm, dressed like Satyrs, Fauns, and Sileni, in such scandalous postures and attitudes, with so little regard to modesty and even common decency, that we are persuaded our readers will readily enough forgive our omitting to describe them. Next followed a company mounted upon asses, attended by Fauns, Bacchanals, Thyades, Miallonides, Naiads, Tityri, &c. who made the adjacent places echo to their frantic shrieks and howlings. Often this tumultuous herd were carried the statues of Victory (r) These stand between the 41 and 52; one to Lenæus, or the presser; one to Libnites, or the winnower; one to Bessareus, or the vintager; one to Sabazius the god of rest; to Myses, or the Mediator, &c. (q) Dacier, Casaubon, and other French critics, have puzzled and perplexed themselves to little purpose about the origin of this word, without considering that it was coeval to dramatic poetry. (r) The phallus was highly respected by the Egyptians, and was used as the emblem of the fecundity of the human race. (s) That reptile was in high veneration among the Egyptians. See Euseb. Præp. Evang. lib. i. page 26. Steph. where we have a minute detail of the symbolical properties of that creature, according to Tanutos the great legislator of that people. (t) Servius in Georg. I. Virg. ver. 166. Mystica vanus Iacchi. The van, says he, is an emblem of that purifying influence of the mysteries, by which the initiated were cleansed from all their former pollutions, and qualified for commencing a holy course of life. (u) Clem. Alexand. Cohort. page 11. Pott. derives this word from Cheveh, the mother of mankind, who, first opened the gate to that and every other error; but we are rather inclined to believe that it comes from the oriental word Heve, which signifies a "serpent;" which among the Egyptians was sacred to the sun, and was likewise the emblem of life and immortality. It then imported a prayer to Bacchus for life, vigour, health, and every other blessing. Victory and altars in form of vine-sets, crowned with ivy, smoking with incense and other aromatics. Then appeared several chariots loaded with thyrsi, arms, garlands, casks, pitchers, and other vases, tripods, and vans. The chariots were followed by young virgins of quality, who carried the baskets and little boxes, which in general contained the mysterious articles above enumerated. These, from their office, were called cistophore. The phallophori (x) followed them, with a chorus of itophallophori habited like Fauns, counterfeiting drunk persons, singing in honour of Bacchus songs and catches suited to the occasion. The procession was closed by a troop of Bacchanalians crowned with ivy, interwoven with branches of yew and with serpents*. Upon some occasions, at those scandalous festivals, naked women whipped themselves, and tore their skin in a most barbarous manner. The procession terminated on Mount Citheron, when it set out from Thebes; and in other places, in some distant unfrequented desert, where the votaries practised every species of debauchery with secrecy and impunity. Orpheus saw the degeneracy of those ceremonies; and in endeavouring to reform them he probably lost his life. Pentheus suffered in the like attempt, being torn in pieces by the Bacchanalians on Mount Citheron, among whom were his own mother and his aunts. The Greeks, who were an airy jovial people, seem to have paid little regard to the plaintive part of the orgia; or rather, we believe, they acted with howling and frantic exclamations, often enhanced by a combination of drunkenness, ecstasy, and enthusiastic fury. What secrets, religious, moral, political, or physical, were communicated to the votaries, it is impossible to determine with any degree of certainty.— One thing we may admit, namely, that the doctrines discovered and inculcated in the orgia, were originally the very same which the apostles of the sect had imbibed in Egypt and Phoenicia; and of which we have given a brief account near the beginning of this article. It is, however, probable, that the spurious or Theban Bacchus had superadded a great deal of his own invention, which, we may believe, was not altogether so sound and salubrious as the original doctrine. However that may be, the initiated were made to believe that they were to derive wonderful advantages from the participation of those rites, both in this life and that which is to come. Of this, however, we shall talk more at length by and bye, in our account of the Eleusinian mysteries. To detail the etymology of the names of this Pagan deity, the fables relating to his birth, his education, his transformations, his wars, peregrinations, adventures, the various and multiform rites with which he was worshipped, would swell this article to a most immoderate size. If any of our readers should wish to be more minutely and more accurately acquainted with this subject, we must beg leave to remit them to Diod. Sic. Apollod. Bibl. Euripid. Bacchae, Aristophanis Ranæ, Nonn. Dionys.; and among the moderns, to Ban- Mythol. Voss. de Orig. Idol. Mons. Fourmont, Reflexions sur l'origine des anciens peuples, Mr Bryant's Analys. and especially to Mons. Cour de Gebelin, Calendriers ou Almanach. That prince of etymologists, in his account of the festival of Bacchus, has given a most acute and ingenious explication of the names and epithets of that deity. For our part, we have endeavoured to collect and exhibit such as we judged most important, most entertaining, and most instructive, to the less enlightened classes of our readers. We now proceed to the Eleusinian mysteries, which, 42 Eleusinian mysteries instituted in honour of Ceres. among the ancient Greeks and Romans, were treated with a superior degree of awe and veneration. These were instituted in honour of Ceres, the goddess of corn; who, according to the most authentic accounts, was the Isis of the Egyptians. The mysteries of Osiris and Isis have been hinted at in the preceding part of this article. They were originally instituted in honour of the sun and moon, and afterwards consecrated to an Egyptian prince and princess; who, in consequence of their merits, had been deified by that people. We know of no more exact and brilliant description of the ceremonies of that goddess, in the most polished ages of the Egyptian superstition, than what we meet with in the witty and florid Apuleius t, to which we must take the liberty to refer our more curious readers. Our business at present shall be to try to investigate by what means, and upon what occasion, those mysteries were introduced into Attica, and established at Eleusis. A passage from Diodorus Siculus §, which we shall here translate, will, we think, throw no inconsiderable light on that abstruse part of the subject. "In like manner with him (Cecrops), says that judicious historian, they tell us, that Erechtheus, a prince of Egyptian extraction, once reigned at Athens. Of 43 On what occasion this fact they produce the following evidence: A scorching drought, during the reign of this prince, prevailed over almost all the habitable world, except Egypt; which, in consequence of the humidity of its soil, was not affected by that calamity. The fruits of the earth were burnt up; and at the same time multitudes of people perished by famine. Erechtheus, upon this occasion, as he was connected with Egypt, imported a vast quantity of grain from that country to Athens. The people, who had been relieved by his munificence, unanimously elected him king. Being invested with the government, he taught his subjects the mysteries of Ceres at Eleusis, and the mode of celebrating the sacred ceremonies, having transferred from Egypt the ritual for that purpose. In those times the goddess is said to have made her appearance at Athens three several times; because, according to tradition, the fruits of the earth which bear her name were then imported into Attica. On this account the seeds and fruits of the earth were said to be the invention of that deity. Now the Athenians themselves acknowledge, that, in the reign of Erechtheus, the fruits of the earth having perished for want of rain, the arrival of Ceres in their country did actually happen, and that along with her the blessing of corn. (x) The phallus was the symbol of the fructifying power of Nature. The itophallus was the type of that power in act. corn was restored to the earth. They tell us at the same time, that the teletæ and the mysteries of that goddess were then received and instituted at Eleusis." Here then we have the whole mystery of the arrival of Ceres in Attica, and the institution of her mysteries at Eleusis, unveiled. The whole is evidently an oriental allegory. The fruits of the earth had been destroyed by a long course of drought: Egypt, by its peculiar situation, had been preserved from that dreadful calamity. Erechtheus, in consequence of his relation to the Egyptians, imported from their country a quantity of grain, not only sufficient for the consumption of his own subjects, but also a great overplus to export to other parts of Greece, Sicily, Italy, Spain, &c. Triptolemus, another Egyptian, was appointed by Erechtheus to export this superfluous store. That hero, according to Pherecydes, was the son of Oceanus and Tellus, that is, of the sea and the earth; because his parents were not known, and because he came to Eleusis by sea. The ship in which he sailed, when he distributed his corn to the western parts of the world, was decorated with the figure of a winged dragon: therefore, in the allegorical style of his country, he was said to be wafted through the air in a chariot drawn by dragons. Those creatures, every body knows, were held sacred by the Egyptians. Wherever Triptolemus disposed of his corn, thither were extended the wanderings of Ceres. In order to elucidate this point, we must observe, that along with the grain imported from Egypt, Erechtheus, or Triptolemus, or both, transported into Attica a cargo of priests and priestesses from the temples of Busiris, a city which lay in the * centre of the Delta, where the goddess Isis had a number of chapels erected for her worship. The presidents of these ceremonies, like all other bigots, gladly laid hold on this opportunity of propagating their religious rites, and disseminating the worship of the deities of their country. That the Egyptian priests were zealous in propagating the dogmas of their superstition, is abundantly evident from the extensive spreading of their rites and ceremonies over almost all Asia and a considerable part of Europe. The Greek and Roman idolatry is known to have originated from them; and numberless monuments of their impious worship are still extant in Persia †, India, Japan, Tartary, &c. Our inference then is, that the worship of Isis was introduced into every country where Triptolemus sold or disposed of his commodities. Hence the wanderings of Ceres in search of her daughter Proserpine who is generally called Core. The famine occasioned by the drought destroying the fruits of the ground, imports the loss of Proserpine. The restoration of the corn in various parts of the earth, by fresh supplies from Egypt from time to time, imports the wanderings of Ceres in quest of Proserpine. The whole process is an oriental allegory. The disappearing of the fruits of the earth, of which Proserpine, or Persephone ‡, or Peresephone (Y), is the emblem, is the allegorical rape of that goddess. She was seized and carried off by Pluto, sovereign of the infernal regions. The seed committed to the earth in that dry season appeared no more, and was, consequently, said to dwell under ground with Pluto. It was then that Ceres, that is, corn imported from Egypt, set out in quest of her daughter. Again, when the earth recovered her pristine fertility, the Core, or maid, was found by her mother Ceres, that is, the earth; for Isis, among the Egyptians, frequently signified the earth. The wanderings of Isis in search of Osiris furnished the model for the peregrinations of Ceres. Ceres, the Roman name of the goddess of corn, was unknown to the modern Greeks. They always denominated her Damater (z), which is rather an epithet than a proper name. The Greeks, who always affected to pass for originals, we think, suppressed the Egyptian name on purpose, to conceal the country of that deity. As a proof of the probability of this conjecture, it may be observed, that they metamorphosed the wanderings of Isis in search of Osiris into the peregrinations of Ceres in quest of Proserpine. The Romans who were less ambitious of the character of originality, retained one of her oriental names (AA.) Ceres, says Diodorus, appeared thrice in Attica during the reign of Erechtheus; which seems to import, that fleets loaded with corn had thrice arrived in that country from Egypt during that period. Cecrops, the first king of Attica, had established the worship of the Saitic Athena or Minerva in that region, and consecrated his capital to that deity. Erechtheus, in his turn, introduced the worship of Isis, or Damater, who in all appearance was the tutelary deity of Busiris his native city. The subjects of Cecrops were a colony of Saites, and readily embraced the worship of Minerva; but the aborigines of that district being accustomed to a maritime, perhaps to a piratical course of Minerva life, were more inclined to consecrate their city to and Neptune the god of the sea, and to constitute him their guardian and protector. Cecrops by a stratagem secured the preference to Minerva his favourite divinity. Erechtheus, in order to give equal importance to his patroness, at Eleusis * Herod.lib. i. † Asiatic Researches,vol. i. andii. (Y) This word seems to be formed of two Hebrew terms, pheri "fruit," and tsaphon, or tsaphon, "abscondit, recondit." (z) Damater is compounded of the Chaldaic particle da, "the," and mater, "mother." As Isis often signified the earth, the Greeks naturally adopted that title; because, according to them, that element is the mother of all living. In the very same manner they discarded the word Juno, an original title of the moon, and substituted Hera, which intimates "mistress or lady." (AA) According to some of the Latin etymologists, Ceres, or rather Geres, is derived from gero, "to bear, to carry," because the earth bears all things; or because that element is the general fruit-bearer. But as this term came to Italy immediately from the east, and not by the medium of Greece, we would rather incline to adopt an oriental etymology. The Hebrew word cheres signifies arare, "to plough;" a name naturally applicable to the goddess of husbandry. ‡ PlutarchIsis et Osiris 44Differentnames ofCeres 45Centen-tions atAthenarespectingMinervato and Nep-tune, theimmediatecause offixing themysteriesat Eleusis patroness, had the address to institute the Eleusinian mysteries; and to accomplish his design laid hold on the opportunity above mentioned. This appears to us the most probable account of the origin and institution of the Eleusinian mysteries; for which the Sicilian historian has indeed furnished the clue. We shall now proceed to detail some other circumstances which attended the original institution of these far-famed ceremonies. The archpriestess who personated the newly imported deity was entertained by one Celeus*, who was either viceroy of that petty district of which Eleusis was the capital, or some considerable personage in that city or its neighbourhood. Upon her immediate arrival, according to the fabulous relations of the Greeks, a farce was acted not altogether suitable to the character of a goddess whose mysteries were one day to be deemed so sacred and austere. These coarse receptions and other indecencies attending the first appearance of the goddess, that is, the Egyptian dame who assumed her character, were copied from the like unhallowed modes of behaviour practised on occasion of the solemn processions of her native country. These scommata, or coarse jokes, had an allegorical signification in Egypt; and among the most ancient Greeks the very same spirit was universally diffused by the oriental colonists who from time to time arrived and settled among them. In process of time they abandoned the figurative and allegorical style, in consequence of their acquaintance with philosophy and abstract reasoning. In the ceremonies of religion, however, the same allegorical and typical representations which had been imported from the east were retained; but the Grecian hierophants in a short time lost every idea of their latent import, and religious, moral, or physical interpretation. Accordingly, this shameful encounter between Ceres and Banbo (BB), or Jambe, was retained in the mysteries, though we think it was copied from Egypt, as was said above, where even that obscene action was probably an allegorical representation of something very different from what appeared to the Greeks. At the same time that Ceres arrived in Attica, Bacchus likewise made his appearance in that country. He was entertained by one Icarus; whom, as a reward for his hospitality, he instructed in the art of cultivating the vine, and the method of manufacturing wine. Thus it appears that both agriculture and the art of managing the vintage were introduced into Athens much about the same time. Ceres was no other than a priestess of Isis; Bacchus was no doubt a priest of Osiris. The arrival of those two personages from Egypt, with a number of inferior priests in their train, produced a memorable revolution in Athens, both with respect to life, manners, and religion. The sacred rites of Isis, afterwards so famous under the name of the Eleusinian mysteries, date their institution from this period. When this company of propagandists arrived at Eleusis, they were entertained by some of the most respectable persons who then inhabited that district. Their names, according to Clem. Alexand. were Banbo, Dysaulis, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Eubulus. From Eumolpus were descended a race of priests called Eumolpidae, who figured at Athens many ages after. Triptolemus was an ox herd, Eumolpus a shepherd, and Eubulus a swine herd. These were the first apostles of the Eleusinian mysteries. They were instructed by the Egyptian missionaries; and they, in their turn, instructed their successors. Erechtheus, or, as some say, Pandion, countenanced the seminary, and built a small temple for its accommodation in Eleusis, a city of Attica, a few miles west from Athens, and originally one of the twelve districts into which that territory was divided. Here then we have arrived at the scene of those renowned mysteries, which for the space of near 2000 years were the pride of Athens and the wonder of the world. The mysteries were divided into the greater and lesser. The latter were celebrated at Agrae, a small town on the river Ilyssus: the former were celebrated in the month which the Athenians called Boedromion (CC); the latter in the month Anthesterion (DD). The lesser mysteries, according to the fabulous legends of the Greeks, were instituted in favour of the celebrated Hercules. That hero being commanded by Eurystheus to bring up Cerberus from the infernal regions, was desirous of being initiated in the Eleusinian mysteries before he engaged in that perilous undertaking. He addressed himself to Eumolpus the hierophant for that purpose. There was a law among the Eleusinians prohibiting the initiation of foreigners. The priest not daring to refuse the benefit to Hercules, who was both a friend and benefactor to the Athenians, advised the hero to get himself adopted by a native of the place, and so to elude the force of the law. He was accordingly adopted by one Pyolius, and so was initiated in the lesser mysteries, which were instituted for the first time upon that occasion. This account has all the air of a fable. The lesser mysteries were instituted by way of preparation for the greater. The person who was to be initiated in the lesser mysteries, as well as in the greater, was obliged to practise the virtue of chastity a considerable time before his admission. Besides, he was to bind himself by the most solemn vows not to divulge any part of the mysteries. At the same time, he was, according to the original institution, to be a person of unblemished moral character. These were preliminaries indispensably necessary in order to his admission. A bull was sacrificed to Jupiter, and the hide of that animal, called by a peculiar name (Διός Κωδισ) was carefully preserved and carried to Eleusis, where it was spread under the feet of the initiated. The candidate was then purified by bathing in the river Ilyssus, by aspersions with salt water or salt, with laurel, barley, and passing through (BB) Apollod. Bib. ubi supra. Clem. Alexand. Cohort. page 17. where the story is told with very little reserve. (CC) The third month of the Athenian year, answering to our September. (DD) The eighth month, answering to our February; but Meursius makes it November. through the fire; all which rites were attended with incantations and other usages equally insignificant and ridiculous. Last of all, a young sow was sacrificed to Ceres; and this animal, according to the ritual, beloved to be with pigs; and before it was killed it was to be washed in Caitharus, one of the three harbours which formed the Piræus. All these ceremonies duly performed, the candidate was carried into the hall appointed for the purpose of initiation. There he was taught the first elements of those arcana which were afterwards to be more fully and more clearly revealed in the more august mysteries of Eleusis. The pupils at Agræ were called Mystæ, which may intimate probationers; whereas those of Eleusis were denominated Epoptæ, importing that they saw as they were seen. The lesser mysteries were divided into several stages, and candidates were admitted to them according to their quality and capacity respectively. Those who were initiated in the lowest were obliged to wait five years before they were admitted to the greater. Those who had partaken of the second kind underwent a noviciate of three years; those who had been admitted to the third, one of two years; and these who had gone through the fourth were admitted to the greater at the end of one year; which was the shortest period of probation a candidate for that honour could legally undergo. Such was the process generally observed in administering the lesser mysteries. With respect to the greater mysteries, it is probable that originally none but the natives of Attica were admitted to partake of them. In process of time, however, the pale was extended so far and wide as to comprehend all who spoke the Greek language. All foreigners were debarred from those sacred rites. They tell us, however, that Hercules, Bacchus, Castor and Pollux, Æsculapius, and Hippocrates, were initiated in an extraordinary manner, from a regard to their high character and heroic exploits. All barbarians, too, were excluded; yet Anacharsis the Scythian was indulged that privilege, in consequence of his reputation for science and philosophy. All persons guilty of manslaughter, though even accidentally or involuntarily, all magicians, enchanters; in a word, all impious and profane persons, were expressly prohibited the benefit of this Pagan sacrament. At last, however, the gate became wider, and crowds of people, of all nations, kindreds, and languages, provided their character was fair and irreproachable, rushed in by it. In process of time the Athenians initiated even their infants; but this, we imagine, must have been a kind of lustration or purification, from which it was supposed that they derived a kind of moral ablution from vice, and were thought to be under the peculiar protection of the goddess. The celebration of the mysteries began on the 15th day of the month Boedromion; and, according to most ancient authors, lasted nine days. Meursius has enumerated the transactions of each day, which are much too numerous to fall within the compass of this article; we must therefore refer our curious reader to the author just mentioned. Some days before the commencement of the festival, the præcones, or public criers, invited all the initiated, and all the pretenders to that honour, to attend the festival, with clean hands and a pure heart, and the knowledge of the Greek language. On the evening of the 15th day of the month called Boedromion the initiations commenced. Our readers will observe, that all the most sacred and solemn rites of the Pagan superstition were performed during the night: they were indeed generally works of darkness. On this day there was a solemn cavalcade of Athenian matrons from Athens to Eleusis, in carriages drawn by oxen. In this procession the ladies used to rally one another in pretty loose terms, in imitation, we suppose, of the Isaac procession described by Herodotus, which has been mentioned above. The most remarkable object in this procession was the Mundus Ceres, contained in a small coffer or basket. This was carried by a select company of Athenian matrons, who, from their office, were styled Camphoræ. In this coffer were lodged the comb of Ceres, her mirror, a serpentine figure, some wheat and barley, the pudenda of the two sexes, and perhaps some other articles which we have not been able to discover. The procession ended at the temple, where this sacred charge was deposited with the greatest solemnity. We have no description of the temple of Eleusis upon record. Pausanias intended to have described it; but says he was diverted from his design by a dream*. Strabo informs us that the mystic sanctuary was as large as a theatre, and that it was built by Ictinus†. In the porch, or outer part of this temple, the candidates were crowned with garlands of flowers, which they called himera, or "the desirable." They were at the same time dressed in new garments, which they continued to wear till they were quite worn out. They then washed their hands in a laver filled with holy water; a ceremony which intimated the purity of their hearts and hands. Before the doors were locked, one of the officers of the temple proclaimed with a loud voice a stern mandate, enjoining all the uninitiated to keep at a distance from the temple, and denouncing the most terrible menaces if any should dare to disturb or pry into the holy mysteries. Nor were these menaces without effect: for if any person was found to have crowded into the sanctuary even through ignorance, he was put to death without mercy. Every precaution having been taken to secure secrecy, the initiatory ceremonies now began. But before we describe these, we must lay before our readers a brief account of the ministers and retainers of these secrets of paganism. The chief minister of these far-famed mysteries was the hierophant. He was styled King, and enjoyed that dignity during life, and was always by birth an Athenian. He presided in the solemnity, as is evident from his title. This personage, as we learn from Eusibius, represented the Demiurgus, or Creator of the world. "Now in the mysteries of Eleusis (says that father) the hierophant is dressed out in the figure of the demiurgus." What this demiurgus was, we learn from the same writer. As this whole institution was copied from the Egyptians, we may rest assured that the figure of the Eleusinian Demiurgus was borrowed from the same quarter. "As for the symbols of the Egyptians (says he, quoting from Porphyry‡), they are of the following complexion. The Demiurgus, whom the Egyptians call Cneph, is figured 50into the lesser mysteries; of which 51there were several stages, with long intervals between them. 52None but natives of Athens originally admitted to the greater mysteries. 53Celebration lasted nine days; but 54was performed only during the night. 55The most remarkable object in this procession was the Mundus Ceres 56See Elius. 57Care to keep the uninitiated at a distance. 58The hierophant 59The Propædæum. as a man of an azure colour, shaded with black, holding in his right hand a sceptre and in his left a girdle, and having on his head a royal wing or feather wreathed round.58 Such, we imagine, was the equipment of the Eleusinian hierophant. This person was likewise styled Prophet. He was to be of the family of the Eumolpidæ; was obliged to make a vow of perpetual chastity; and even his voice, hair, and attitude, were adjusted to the ritual. The next minister was the daduchus, or torch-bearer; who, according to the father above quoted, was attired like the sun. This minister resembled the sun, because that luminary was deemed the visible type of the supreme Demiurgus, and his vicegerent in governing and arranging the affairs of this lower world. The third was the person who officiated at the altar. He was habited like the moon. His office was to improve the favour of the gods for all the initiated. We should rather imagine, that the person at the altar, as he resembled the moon, was intended to represent the goddess herself: for the Egyptian Isis, who was the archetype of Ceres, was sometimes the moon and sometimes the earth. The sacred herald was another principal actor in this solemn exhibition. His province was to recite every thing, that, according to the ritual, was to be communicated to the novices; and he probably represented Thyoth or Thoth, that is Hermes or Mercury, the interpreter of the gods. Besides these, there were five epimeletæ or curators, of whom the king was one, who jointly directed the whole ceremonial. Lastly, There were ten priests to offer the sacrifices. There were no doubt many officers of inferior note employed upon these occasions; but these were only insignificant appendages, whose departments have not been transmitted to posterity. After this detail of the ministers of this solemn service, we return to the mystæ, or candidates for initiation. Some of the fathers of the church mention a hymn composed by the celebrated Orpheus, which was sung by the mystagogue or king upon that occasion. This hymn appears to us one of those spurious compositions which abounded in the first ages of Christianity, and which the pious apologists often adopted without sufficient examination. That some sacred hymn was chanted upon that occasion, we think highly probable; but that the one in question was either composed by Orpheus, or used at the opening of these ceremonies, to us appears somewhat problematical. Before the ceremony opened, a book was produced, which contained every thing relating to the teletæ. This was read over in the ears of the mystæ; who were ordered to write out a copy of it for themselves. This was book kept at Eleusis in a sacred repository, formed by two stones exactly fitted to each other, and of a very large size. This repository was called petroma. At the annual celebration of the greater mysteries, these stones were taken asunder, and the book taken out; which, after being read to the mystæ, was replaced in the same casement. The initiations began with a representation of the wanderings of Ceres, and her bitter and loud lamentations for the loss of her beloved daughter. Upon this occasion, no doubt, a figure of that deity was displayed to the mystæ, while loud lamentations echoed from every corner of the sanctuary. One of the company having kindled a firebrand at the altar, and sprung to a certain place in the temple, waving the torch with the utmost fury, a second snatched it from him, roaring and waving it in the same frantic manner; and a third, fourth, &c. in the most rapid succession. This was done to imitate Ceres, who was said to have perustrated the globe of the earth with a flaming pine in her hand, which she had lighted at Mount Etna. When the pageant of the goddess was supposed to arrive at Eleusis, a solemn pause ensued, and a few put to the trifling questions were put to the mystæ: What these questions were, is evident from the answers. "I have fasted; I have drunk the liquor; I have taken the contents out of the coffer; and having performed the ceremony, have put them into the hamper: I have taken them out of the hamper, and put them again in the coffer." The meaning of these answers, we conjecture, was this: "I have fasted, as Ceres fasted while in search of her daughter; I have drunk off the wort as she drank when given her by Banbo; I have performed what Ceres taught her first disciples to perform, when she committed to them the sacred hamper and coffer." After these interrogatories, and the suitable responses, the mundus Cereris was displayed before the eyes of the mystæ, and the mystagogue or hierophant, or perhaps the sacred herald by his command, read a lecture on the allegorical import of those sacred symbols. This was heard with the most profound attention; and a solemn silence prevailed throughout the fane. Such was the first act of this religious farce, which perhaps consisted originally of nothing more. After the exposition of the mundus Cereris, and the import of her wanderings, many traditions were communicated to the mystæ concerning the origin of the universe and the nature of things. The doctrines delivered in the greater mysteries, says Clem. Alex. "relate to the nature of the universe. Here all instruction ends. Things are seen as they are; and nature, and the things of nature, are given to be comprehended." To the same purpose Cicero: "Which points being explained and reduced to the standard of reason, the nature of things, rather than that of the gods, is discovered." The father of the universe, or the supreme demiurgus, was represented as forming the chaotic mass into the four elements, and producing animals, vegetables, and all kinds of organized beings, out of those materials. They say that they were informed of the secrets of the anomalies of the moon, and the eclipses of the sun and moon; and, according to Virgil, Unde hominum genus, et pecudes, unde imber et ignes. What system of cosmogony those hierophants adopted, is evident from the passage above quoted from Eusebius; and from the account immediately preceding, it was that of the most ancient Egyptians, and of the orientals in general. This cosmogony is beautifully and energetically exhibited in Plato's Timæus, and in the genuine spirit of poetry by Ovid in the beginning of his Metamorphoses. The next scene exhibited upon the stage, on this solemn occasion, consisted of the exploits and adventures of the gods, demigods, and heroes, who had from time and to time, being advanced to divine honours. These were displayed as passing before the mystic in pageants fabricated for that important purpose. This was the original mode among the Egyptians, and was no doubt followed by their Eleusinian pupils. These adventures were probably demonstrated to have been allegorical, symbolical, hieroglyphical, &c. at least they were exhibited in such a favourable point of view as to dispel those absurdities and inconsistencies with which they were sophisticated by the poets and the vulgar. With respect to the origin of those fictitious deities, it was discovered that they had been originally men who had been exalted to the rank of divinity, in consequence of their heroic exploits, their useful inventions, their beneficent actions, &c. This is so clear from the two passages quoted from Cicero, by Bishop Warburton, that the fact cannot be contradicted. But that prelate has not informed us so precisely, whether the mystagogues represented them as nothing more than dead men, in their present state, or as beings who were actually existing in a deified state, and executing the functions assigned them in the rubric of Paganism. Another query naturally occurs; that is, to what purpose did the mystagogues apply this communication? That the hierophants did actually represent those deified mortals in the latter predicament, is obvious from another passage quoted from Cicero by the same prelate, which we shall transcribe as translated by him: "What think you of those who assert that valiant, or famous, or powerful men, have obtained divine honours after death; and that these are the very gods now become the objects of our worship, our prayers, and adoration? Euhemerus tells us, when these gods died, and where they lie buried. I forbear to speak of the sacred and august rites of Eleusis. I pass by Samothrace and the mysteries of Lemnos, whose hidden rites are celebrated in darkness, and amidst the thick shades of groves and forests." If, then, those deified mortals were become the objects of worship and prayers, there can be no doubt of the belief of their deified existence. The allusion to the Eleusinian and other Pagan mysteries towards the close of the quotation, places the question beyond the reach of controversy. But though, according to this account, "there were gods many and lords many;" yet it is evident from the passage quoted from Eusebius in the preceding part of this article, that the unity of the Supreme Being was maintained, exhibited, and inculcated. This was the original doctrine of the hierophants of Egypt: It was maintained by Thales and all the retainers of the Ionian school. It was the doctrine of Pythagoras, who probably gleaned it up in the country just mentioned, in connexion with many other dogmas which he had the assurance to claim as his own. But however the unity, and perhaps some of the most obvious attributes, of the Supreme Author of nature, might be illustrated and inculcated, the tribute of homage and veneration due to the subordinate divinities was by no means neglected. The initiated were taught to look to the dei majorum gentium with a superior degree of awe and veneration, as beings endowed with an ineffable measure of power, wisdom, purity, goodness, &c. These were, if we may use the expression, the prime favourites of the Monarch of the universe, who were admitted into his immediate presence, and who received his behests from his own mouth, and communicated them to his subordinate officers, prefects, lieutenants, &c. These they were exhorted to adore; to them they were to offer sacrifices, prayers, and every other act of devotion, both on account of the excellency of their nature and the high rank they bore at the court of heaven. They were instructed to look up to hero gods and demigods, as being exalted to the high rank of governors of different parts of nature, as the immediate guardians and protectors of the human race; in short, as gods near at hand, as prompters to a virtuous course, and assistants in it; as ready upon all occasions to confer blessings upon the virtuous and deserving. Such were the doctrines taught in the teletæ with respect to the nature of the Pagan divinities, and the worship and devotion enjoined to be offered them by the mysteries. As the two principal ends proposed by these initiations were the exercise of heroic virtues in men, and the practice of sincere and uniform piety by the candidates for immortal happiness, the hierophants had adopted a plan of operations excellently accommodated to both these purposes. The virtuous conduct and heroic exploits of the great men and demigods of early antiquity, were magnified by the most pompous eulogiums, enforced with suitable exhortations to animate the votaries to imitate so noble and alluring an example. But this was not all: the heroes and demigods themselves were displayed in pageants, or vehicles of celestial light. Their honours, offices, habitations, attendants, and other appendages, in the capacity of demons, were exhibited with all the pomp and splendour that the sacerdotal college were able to advise. The sudden glare of mimic light, the melting music stealing upon the ear, the artificial thunders reverberated from the roof and walls of the temple, the appearance of fire and ethereal radiance, the vehicles of flame, the effigies of heroes and demons adorned with crowns of laurel emitting rays from every sprig, the fragrant odours and aromatic gales which breathed from every quarter, all dexterously counterfeited by sacerdotal mechanism, must have filled the imagination of the astonished votaries with pictures at once tremendous and transporting: Add to this, that every thing was transacted in the dead of night amidst a dismal gloom; whence the most bright effulgence instantaneously burst upon the sight. By this arrangement the aspirants to initiation were wonderfully animated to the practice of virtue while they lived, and inspired with the hope of a blessed immortality when they died. At the same time, their awe and veneration for the gods of their country were wonderfully enhanced by reflecting on the appearances above described. Accordingly Strabo very judiciously observes, "that the mystical secrecy of the sacred rites preserves the majesty of the Deity, imitating its nature, which escapes our apprehension. For these reasons, in celebrating the teletæ, the demons were introduced in their deified or glorified state. But as all the candidates for initiation might not aspire to the rank of heroes and demigods, a more easy and a more attainable mode of conduct, in order to arrive at the palace of happiness, behoved to be opened. Private virtues were inculcated, and these too were to meet a condign reward. But alas! this present life is too often a chequered scene, where virtue is depressed and trodden under foot, and vice lifts up its head and rides triumphant. It is a dictate of common sense, that virtue should sooner or later emerge, and vice sink into contempt and misery. Here then the conductors of the mysteries, properly and naturally, adopted the doctrine of a future state of rewards and punishments. The dogma of the immortality of the human soul was elucidated, and carefully and pathetically inculcated. This doctrine was likewise imported from Egypt; for Herodotus* informs us, "that the Egyptians were the first people who maintained the immortality of the human soul." The Egyptian immortality, however, according to him, was only the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. This was not the system of the ancient Egyptians, nor indeed of the teletæ. In these, a metempsychosis was admitted; but that was carried forward to a very distant period, to wit, to the grand Egyptian period of 36,000 years. As the mystagogues well knew that the human mind is more powerfully affected by objects presented to the eyes than by the most engaging instructions conveyed by the ear, they made the emblems of Elysium and Tartarus pass in review before the eyes of their novices. There the Elysian scenes, so nobly described by the Roman poet, appeared in mimic splendour; and, on the other hand, the gloom of Tartarus, Charon's boat, the dog of hell, the Furies with tresses of snakes, the tribunal of Minos and Rhadamanthus, &c. were displayed in all their terrific state. Tantalus, Ixion, Sisyphus, the daughters of Danaus, &c. were represented in pageants before their eyes. These exhibitions were accompanied with most horrible cries and howlings, thunders, lightning, and other objects of terror which we shall mention in their proper place. No contrivance could be better accommodated to animate the pupils to the practice of virtue on the one hand, or to deter them from indulging vicious passions on the other. It resembled opening heaven and hell to a hardened sinner. The practices inculcated in celebrating the mysteries are too numerous to be detailed in this imperfect sketch. The worship of the gods was strictly enjoined, as has been shown above. The three laws generally ascribed to Triptolemus were inculcated, 1. To honour their parents; 2. To honour the gods with the first fruits of the earth; 3. Not to treat brute animals with cruelty. These laws were imported from Egypt, and were communicated to the Eleusinians by the original missionaries. Cicero makes the civilization of mankind one of the most beneficial effects of the Eleusinian institutions: "Nullum mihi, cum multo eximia divinaque videntur Athenæ tõe peperisse; tum nihil melius illis mysteriis, quibus ex agresti immanique vita, exculti ad humanitatem, et mitigati sumus; initiaque, ut appellantur, ita revera principia vite cognovimus; neque solum cum lectitia vivendi rationem accepimus, sed etiam cum spe meliore moriendi." Hence it is evident that the precepts of humanity and morality were warmly recommended in these institutions. The virtue of humanity was extended, one may say, even to the brute creation, as appears from the last of Triptolemus's laws above quoted. Some articles were enjoined in the teletæ which may appear to us of less importance, which, however, in the symbolical style of the Egyptians, were abundantly significant. The initiated were "commanded to abstain from the flesh of certain birds and fishes; from beans, from pomegranates and apples, which were deemed equally polluting. It was taught, that to touch the plant of asparagus was as dangerous as the most deadly poison. Now, says Porphyry, whoever is versed in the history of the visions, knows for what reason they were commanded to abstain from the flesh of birds." The initiated then bound themselves by dreadful oaths to observe most conscientiously and to practise every precept tendered to them in the course of the teletæ; and at the same time never to divulge one article of all that had been heard or seen by them upon that occasion. In this they were so exceedingly jealous, that the mystæschylus the tragedian was in danger of capital punishment, for having only alluded to one of the Eleusinian arcana in a tragedy of his; and one of the articles of indictment against Diagoras the Melian was, his having spoken disrespectfully of the mysteries, and dissuaded people from partaking of them. It must then be allowed, that the institution of the mysteries was of infinite advantage to the Pagan world. They were indeed a kind of sacraments, by which the initiated bound themselves by a solemn vow to practise piety towards the gods, justice and humanity towards their fellow men, and gentleness and tenderness towards the inoffensive part of the brute creation. The Pagans themselves were so thoroughly convinced of this fact, that in their disputes with the apologists for Christianity, they often appealed to the teletæ, and contrasted their maxims with the most sublime doctrines of that heavenly institution. In order to impress these maxims the more deeply upon the minds of the novices, and to fix their attention more steadfastly upon the lectures which were delivered them by the mystagogue or the sacred herald, a mechanical operation was played off at proper intervals during the course of the celebration. "Towards the end of the celebration (says Stobæus), the whole scene is terrible; all is trembling, shuddering, sweat, and astonishment. Many horrible spectres are seen, and strange cries and howlings uttered. Light succeeds darkness; and again the blackest darkness the most glaring light. Now appear open plains, flowery meadows, and waving groves; where are seen dances and various holy phantasies enchant the sight. Melodious notes are heard from far, with all the sublime symphony of the sacred hymns. The pupil now is completely perfect, is initiated, becomes free, released, and walks about with a crown on his head, and is admitted to bear a part in the sacred rites." Aristides de Myst. Eleus. calls Eleusis "a kind of temple of the whole earth, and of all that man beholds done in the most dreadful and the most exhilarating manner. In what other place have the records of fable sung of things more marvellous? or in what region upon earth have the objects presented to the eye borne a more exact resemblance to the sounds which strike the ear? What object of sight have the numberless generations of men and women beheld comparable to these exhibited in the ineffable mysteries?" To the same purpose, Pietho, in the oracles of Zoroastres, informs us, "that frightful and shocking apparitions, in a variety of forms, used to be displayed to the mystæ in the course of their initiation." And a little after, he adds, "that thunder and lightning and fire, and every thing terrible which might be held symbolical of the divine presence, were introduced." Claudian, in his poem De Raptâ Proserpina, gives an elegant, though brief, description of this phenomenon, which throws some light on the passages above quoted. Jam mihi cernuntur trepidis delubra moveriSedibus et clarum dis pergere culmina lucem,Adventum testata Dea, jam magnus ab imisAuditur fremitus terris, templumque remugitCecropidum. The sight of those appearances was called the Antopsia, or "the real presence;" hence those rites were sometimes called Epoptica. The Epoptæ were actually initiated, and were admitted into the Sanctum Sanctorum, and bore a part in the ceremonial: whereas the mystæ, who had only been initiated in the lesser mysteries at Agræ, were obliged to take their station in the porch of the temple. The candidates for initiation bathed themselves in holy water, and put on new clothes, all of linen, which they continued to wear till they were quite torn, and then they were consecrated to Ceres and Proserpine. From the ceremony of bathing they were denominated Hydrani; and this again was a kind of baptismal ablution. Whether the phrases of washing away sin, putting on the Lord Jesus Christ, putting off the old man with his deeds, putting on a robe of righteousness, being buried in baptism, the words mystery, perfect, perfection, which occur so frequently in the New Testament, especially in the writings of the apostle St Paul, are borrowed from the Pagan mysteries, or from usages current among the Jews, we leave to our more learned readers to determine. The Epoptæ having sustained all those fiery trials, heard and seen every thing requisite, taken upon them the vows and engagements above narrated, and, in a word, having shown themselves good soldiers of Ceres and Proserpine, were now declared perfect men. They might, like Cebes's virtuous man, travel wherever they chose; those wild beasts (the human passions) which tyrannise over the rest of mankind, and often destroy them, had no longer dominion over them. They were now not only perfect but regenerated men. They were now crowned with laurel, as was said above, and dismissed with two barbarous words, Κεῖς ἱεράς, Κοντὸν ὄντα, of which perhaps the hierophants themselves did not comprehend the import. They had been introduced by the first Egyptian missionaries, and retained in the sacra after their signification was lost. This was a common practice among the Greeks. In the administration of their religious ceremonies, they retained many names of persons, places, things, customs, &c. which had been introduced by the Phœnicians and Egyptians, from whom they borrowed their system of idolatry. These terms constituted the language of the gods, so often mentioned by the prince of poets. To us the words in question appear to be Syriac, and to signify, Be vigilant, be innocent. Numerous and important were the advantages supposed to redound to the initiated, from their being admitted to partake of the mysteries, both in this life and that which is to come. First, They were highly honoured, and even revered by their contemporaries. Indeed, they were looked up to as a kind of sacred persons: they were, in reality, consecrated to Ceres and Proserpine. Secondly, They were obliged by their oath to practise every virtue, religious, moral, political, public, and private. Thirdly, They imagined, that sound advice and happy measures of conduct were suggested to the initiated by the Eleusinian goddesses. Accordingly, says Pericles the celebrated Athenian statesman, "I am convinced, that the deities of Eleusis inspired me with this sentiment, and that this stratagem was suggested by the principle of the mystic rites." There is a beautiful passage in Aristophanes's comedy of the Act. I. Rant to the very same purpose, of which we shall subjoin the following periphrasis. It is sung by the chorus of the initiated. Let us to flow'ry meads repair,With deathless roses blooming,Whose balmy sweets impregn the air,Both hills and dales perfuming.Since fate benign our choir has join'd,We'll trip in mystic measure;In sweetest harmony combin'dWe'll quaff full draughts of pleasure.For us alone the pow'r of dayA milder light dispenses;And sheds benign a mellow'd rayTo cheer our ravish'd senses:For we behold the mystic show,And brav'd Eleusis' dangers.We do and know the deeds we oweTo neighbours, friends, and strangers. Euripides, in his Bacchæ (x), introduces the chorus extolling the happiness of those who had been acquainted with God, by participating in the holy mysteries, and whose minds had been enlightened by the mystical rites. They boast, "that they had led a holy and unblemished life, from the time that they had been initiated in the sacred rites of Jupiter Idæus, and from the time that they had relinquished celebrating the nocturnal rites of Bacchus, and the banquets of raw flesh torn off living animals." To this sanctity of life they had no doubt engaged themselves, when they were initiated in the mysteries of that god. The Eleusinian Epoptæ derived the same advantages from their sacramental engagements. Fourthly, The initiated were imagined to be the peculiar wards of the Eleusinian goddesses. These deities were supposed to watch over them, and often to avert impending danger, and to rescue them when beset with troubles.—Our readers will not imagine that the initiated reaped much benefit from the protection of his Eleusinian tutelary deities; but it was sufficient that they believed 77A kind of baptismal ablution in the mysteries. 78The initiated declared perfect men. ed the fact, and actually depended upon their interposition. Fifthly, The happy influences of the telete, were supposed to administer consolation to the Eopte in the hour of dissolution; for, says Isocrates, "Ceres bestowed upon the Athenians two gifts of the greatest importance; the fruits of the earth, which were the cause of our no longer leading a savage course of life; and the telete, for they who partake of these entertain more pleasant hopes both at the end of life, and eternity afterwards." Another author* tells us, "that the initiated were not only often rescued from many hardships in their lifetime, but at death entertained hopes that they should be raised to a more happy condition." Sixthly, After death, in the Elysian fields, they were to enjoy superior degrees of felicity, and were to bask in eternal sunshine, to quaff nectar, and feast upon ambrosia, &c. The priests were not altogether disinterested in this salutary process. They made their disciples believe, that the souls of the uninitiated, when they arrived in the infernal regions, should roll in mire and dirt, and with very great difficulty arrive at their destined mansion. Hence Plato introduces Socrates† observing, "that the sages who introduced the telete had positively affirmed, that whatever soul should arrive in the infernal mansions unhousell'd and unanneat'd, should lie there immersed in mire and filth." And as to a future state (says Aristides), "the initiated shall not roll in mire and grope in darkness; a fate which awaits the unholy and uninitiated." It is not hard to conceive with what a commanding influence such doctrines as these must have operated on the generality of mankind. When the Athenians advised Diogenes to get himself initiated, and enforced their arguments with the above considerations, "It will be pretty enough (replied the philosopher) to see Agesilaus and Epaminondas wallowing in the mire, while the most contemptible rascals who have been initiated are strutting in the islands of bliss." When Antisthenes was to be initiated in the Orphic mysteries, and the priest was boasting of the many astonishing benefits which the initiated should enjoy in a future state‡, "Why, forsooth, (says Antisthenes), 'tis wonder your reverence don't e'en hang yourself in order to come at them the sooner." When such benefits were expected to be derived from the mysteries, no wonder if all the world crowded to the Eleusinian standard. After the Macedonian conquests, the hierophants abated much of their original strictness. By the age of Cicero, Eleusis was a temple whither all nations resorted to partake of the benefits of that institution. We find that almost all the great men of Rome were initiated. The hierophants, however, would not admit Nero on account of the profligacy of his character. Few others were refused that honour; even the children of the Athenians were admitted. But this, we think, was rather a lustration or consecration, than an initiation. Perhaps it paved the way for the more august ceremony, as the Christian baptism does among us for the other sacrament. That this institution gradually degenerated, can hardly be questioned; but how much, and in what points, we have not been able to investigate. The fathers of the church, from whom that charge is chiefly to be collected, are not always to be trusted, especially when they set themselves to arraign the institutions of Paganism. There were indeed several ancient authors, such as Melanthius, Menander, Sotades, &c. who wrote purposely on the subject in question; but their works are long since irrecoverably lost. For this reason, modern writers, who have professedly handled it, have not always been successful in their researches. The two who have laboured most indefatigably, and perhaps most successfully, in this field, are Meursius and Warburton. The former, in his Liber Singularis, has collected every thing that can be gleaned from antiquity relating to the ceremonial of these institutions, without, however, pointing out their original, or elucidating the end and import of their establishment. The latter has drawn them into the vortex of a system which has in many instances led him to ascribe to them a higher degree of merit than we think they deserve. These instances we would willingly have noticed in our progress, had the limits prescribed us admitted such a discussion. If we may believe Diodorus the Sicilian, these mysteries, which were celebrated with such wonderful secrecy at Eleusis, were communicated to all mankind among the Cretans. This, however, we think, is rather problematical. We imagine that excellent historian has confounded the mysteries of Cybele with those of the Eleusinian Ceres. These two deities were undoubtedly one and the same, that is, the moon or the earth. Hence it is probable, that there was a striking resemblance between the sacred mysteries of the Cretans and Eleusinians. This institution continued in high reputation to the age of St Jerome, as appears from the following passage: "Hierophantæ quoque Atheniensium legant usque hodie cæcitate sorbitione castrari." The emperor Valentinianus intended to have suppressed them; but Zozimus* informs us, that he was diverted from his design by the proconsul of Greece. At length Theodosius the elder, by an imperial edict, prohibited the celebration of these as well as of all the other sacred rites of Paganism. These mysteries, instituted in the reign of Erechtheus, maintained their ground to the period just mentioned, that is, near 2000 years; during which space, the celebration of them never had been interrupted but once. When Alexander the Great massacred the Thebans and razed their city, the Athenians were so much affected with this melancholy event, that they neglected the celebration of that festival. There were almost numberless other mysterious institutions among the ancient Pagans, of which these sketches above were the most celebrated. The Sabian, the motherian mysteries, instituted in honour of the Cabiri, were likewise of considerable celebrity, and were supposed to confer much of the same blessings with the Eleusinian, but were not of equal celebrity. The Cabiri were Phœnician and likewise Egyptian† deities. The learned Bochart has explained their origin, number, names, and some part of their worship. The Orphic mysteries were likewise famous among the Thracians. Orpheus learned them in Egypt, and they were nearly the same with the sacred Bacchanalia of the Greeks. There were likewise the mysteries of of Jupiter Idæus in great request among the Cretans, those of the Magna Mater or Cybele, celebrated in Phrygia. To enumerate and detail all these would require a complete volume. We hope our readers will be fully satisfied with the specimen exhibited above. We are convinced many things have been omitted which might have been inserted, but we have collected the most curious and the most important.—Every one of the positions might have been authenticated by quotations from authors of the most undoubted credibility, but that process would have swelled the article beyond all proportion. M Y S MYSTICAL, something mysterious or allegorical. Some of the commentators on the sacred writings, besides a literal find also a mystical meaning. The sense of Scripture, say they, is either that immediately signified by the words and expressions in the common use of language; or it is mediate, sublime, typical, and mystical. The literal sense they again divide into proper literal, which is contained in the words taken simply and properly; and metaphorical literal, where the words are to be taken in a figurative and metaphorical sense. The mystical sense of scripture they divide into three kinds: the first corresponding to faith, and called allegorical; the second to hope, called anagogical; and the third to charity, called the tropological sense. And sometimes they take the same word in Scripture in all the four senses; thus the word Jerusalem literally signifies the capital of Judea: allegorically, the church militant: tropologically, a believer: and anagogically, heaven. So, that passage in Genesis, let there be light, and there was light, literally signifies corporeal light; by an allegory, the Messiah; in the tropological sense, grace; and anagogically, beatitude, or the light of glory. MYSTICS, mystici, a kind of religious sect, distinguished by their professing pure, sublime, and perfect devotion, with an entire disinterested love of God, free from all selfish considerations. The mystics, to excuse their fanatic ecstasies and amorous extravagancies, allege that passage of St Paul, The Spirit prays in us by sighs and groans that are unutterable. Now, if the spirit, say they, pray in us, we must resign ourselves to its motions, and be swayed and guided by its impulse, by remaining in a state of mere inaction. Passive contemplation is that state of perfection to which the mystics all aspire. The authors of this mystic science which, sprung up towards the close of the third century, are not known; but the principles from which it was formed are manifest. Its first promoters proceeded from the known doctrine of the Platonic school, which was also adopted by Origen and his disciples, that the divine nature was infused through all human souls, or that the faculty of reason, from which proceed the health and vigour of the mind, was an emanation from God into the human soul, and comprehended in it the principles and elements of all truth, human and divine. They denied that men could by labour or study excite this celestial flame in their breasts; and therefore they disapproved highly of the attempts of those, who by definitions, abstract theorems, and profound speculations, endeavoured to form distinct notions of truth, and to discover its hidden nature. On the contrary, they maintained that silence, tranquillity, repose, and solitude, accompanied with such acts as might tend to M Y T extenuate and exhaust the body, were the means by which the hidden and internal word was excited to produce its latent virtues, and to instruct men in the knowledge of divine things. For thus they reasoned; those who behold with a noble contempt all human affairs, who turn away their eyes from terrestrial vanities, and shut all the avenues of the outward senses against the contagious influences of a material world, must necessarily return to God, when the spirit is thus disengaged from the impediments that prevented that happy union. And in this blessed frame they not only enjoy inexpressible raptures from their communion with the Supreme Being, but also are invested with the inestimable privilege of contemplating truth undisguised and uncorrupted in its native purity, while others behold it in a vitiated and delusive form. The number of the mystics increased in the fourth century, under the influence of the Grecian fanatic, who gave himself out for Dionysius the Areopagite, disciple of St Paul, and probably lived about this period; and by pretending to higher degrees of perfection than other Christians, and practising greater austerity, their cause gained ground, especially in the eastern provinces, in the fifth century. A copy of the pretended works of Dionysius was sent by Balbus to Lewis the Meek, in the year 824, which kindled the holy flame of mysticism in the western provinces, and filled the Latins with the most enthusiastic admiration of this new religion. In the twelfth century, these mystics took the lead in their method of expounding Scripture; and by searching for mysteries and hidden meaning in the plainest expressions, forced the word of God into a conformity with their visionary doctrines, their enthusiastic feelings, and the system of discipline which they had drawn from the excursions of their irregular fanatics. In the thirteenth century, they were the most formidable antagonists of the schoolmen; and towards the close of the fourteenth, many of them resided and propagated their tenets almost in every part of Europe. They had, in the fifteenth century, many persons of distinguished merit in their number: and in the sixteenth century, previous to the Reformation, if any sparks of real piety subsisted under the despotic empire of superstition, they were only to be found among the mystics. The principles of this sect were adopted by those called Quietists in the seventeenth century, and, under different modifications, by the Quakers and Methodists. MYSTRUM, a liquid measure among the ancients, containing the fourth part of the cyathus, and weighing two drachms and a half of oil, or two drachms two scruples of water or wine. It nearly answers to our spoonful. MYTELENE. See METYLENE. MYTHOLOGY. MYTHOLOGY Definition. IS a term compounded of two Greek words, and in its original import it signifies any kind of fabulous doctrine: In its more appropriated sense, it means those fabulous details concerning the objects of worship which were invented and propagated by men who lived in the early ages of the world, and by them transmitted to succeeding generations, either by written records or by oral tradition. As the theology and mythology of the ancients are almost inseparably connected, it will be impossible for us to develop the latter, without often introducing some observations relating to the former. We must therefore entreat the indulgence of our readers, if upon many occasions we would hazard a few strictures on the names, characters, adventures, and functions of such Pagan divinities as may have furnished materials for those fabulous narrations which the nature of the subject may lead us to discuss. With respect to fable, it may be observed in general, that it is a creature of the human imagination, and derives its birth from that love of the marvellous which is in a manner congenial to the soul of man.—The appearances of nature which every day occur, objects, actions, and events, which succeed each other by a kind of routine, are too familiar, too obvious, and uninteresting, either to gratify curiosity or to excite admiration. On the other hand, when the most common phenomena in nature or life are new-modelled by the plastic power of a warm imagination; when they are diversified, compounded, embellished; or even arranged and moulded into forms which seldom or perhaps never occur in the ordinary course of things;—novelty generates admiration, a passion always attended with delightful sensations. Here then we imagine we have discovered the very source of fiction and fable.—They originated from that powerful propensity in our nature towards the new and surprising, animated by the delight with which the contemplation of them is generally attended. Many circumstances contributed to extend and establish the empire of fable. The legislator laid hold on this bias of human nature, and of course employed fable and fiction as the most effectual means to civilize a rude, unpolished world. The philosopher, the theologian, the poet, the musician, each in his turn, made use of this vehicle to convey his maxims and instructions to the savage tribes. They knew that truth, simple and unadorned, is not possessed of charms powerful enough to captivate the heart of man in his present corrupt and degenerate state. This consideration, which did indeed result from the character of their audience, naturally led them to employ fiction and allegory. From this was derived the allegorical taste of the ancients, and especially of the primary sages of the east. Though almost every nation on the face of the globe, however remote from the centre of population, how- 3. Emblem of ever savage and averse from cultivation, has fabricated 4. oriental and adopted its own system of mythology; the Oriental, however, have distinguished themselves in a peculiar manner, by the boldness, the inconsistency, and the extravagance of their mythology. The genial warmth of those happy climes, the fertility of the soil, which afforded every necessary, every convenience, and often every luxury of life, without depressing their spirits by laborious exertions; the face of nature perpetually blooming around them, the skies smiling with uninterrupted serenity; all contributed to inspire the Orientals with a glow of fancy and a vigour of imagination rarely to be met with in less happy regions. Hence every object was swelled beyond its natural dimensions. Nothing was great or little in moderation, but every sentiment was heightened with incredible hyperbole. The magnificent, the sublime, the vast, the enormous, the marvellous, first sprung up, and were brought to maturity, in those native regions of fable and fairy land. As nature, in the ordinary course of her operations, exhibited neither objects nor effects adequate to the extent of their romantic imaginations, they naturally deviated into the fields of fiction and fable. Of consequence, the custom of detailing fabulous adventures originated in the east, and was from thence transplanted into the western countries. As the allegorical taste of the eastern nations had sprung from their propensity to fable, and as that propensity had in its turn originated from the love of the marvellous; so did allegory in process of time contribute its influence towards multiplying fables and fiction almost in infinitum. The latent import of the allegorical doctrines being in a few ages lost and obliterated, what was originally a moral or theological tenet, assumed the air and habit of a personal adventure. The propensity towards personification, almost universal among the orientals, was another fruitful source to personification of fable and allegory. That the people of the east were strongly inclined to personify inanimate objects and abstract ideas, we imagine will be readily granted, when it is considered, that in the formation of language they have generally annexed the affection of sex to those objects. Hence the distinction of grammatical genders, which is known to have originated in the eastern parts of the world. The practice of personifying virtues, vices, religious and moral affections, was necessary to support that allegorical style which universally prevailed in those countries. This mode of writing was in high reputation even in Europe some centuries ago; and to it we are indebted for some of the most noble poetical compositions now extant in our own language. Those productions, however, are but faint imitations of the original mode of writing still current among the eastern nations. The Europeans derived this species of composition from the Moorish inhabitants of Spain, who imported it from Arabia, their original country. The general use of hieroglyphics in the east, must have contributed largely towards extending the empire of mythology. As the import of the figures employed in this method of delineating the signs of ideas was in a great measure arbitrary, mistakes must 5. The effects of hieroglyphic writing on mythology. have been frequently committed in ascertaining the notions which they were at the first intended to represent. When the development of these arbitrary signs happened to be attended with uncommon difficulty, the expounders were obliged to have recourse to conjecture. Those conjectural expositions were for the most part tinctured with that bias towards the marvellous which universally prevailed among the primitive men. This we find is the case even at this day, when moderns attempt to develop the purport of emblematical figures, preserved on ancient medals, entagions, &c. The wise men of the east delighted in obscure enigmatical sentences. They seem to have disdained every sentiment obvious to vulgar apprehension. The words of the wise, and their dark sayings, often occur in the most ancient records both sacred and profane. The sages of antiquity used to vie with each other for the prize of superior wisdom, by propounding riddles, and dark and mysterious questions, as subjects of investigation. The contest between Solomon and Hiram, and that between Amasis king of Egypt and Polycrates tyrant of Samos, are universally known.—As the import of those enigmatical propositions was often absolutely lost, in ages when the art of writing was little known, and still less practised, nothing remained but fancy and conjecture, which always verged towards the regions of fable. This then, we think, was another source of mythology. 6 Mythology reduced to a kind of system in Egypt. The Pagan priests, especially in Egypt, were probably the first who reduced mythology to a kind of system. The sacerdotal tribe, among that people, were the grand depositories of learning as well as of religion. That order of men monopolized all the arts and sciences. They seem to have formed a conspiracy among themselves, to preclude the laity from all the avenues of intellectual improvement. This plan was adopted with a view to keep the laity in subjection, and to enhance their own importance. To accomplish this end, they contrived to perform all the ministrations of their religion in an unknown tongue, and to cover them with a thick veil of fable and allegory. The language of Ethiopia became their sacred dialect, and hieroglyphics their sacred character.—Egypt, of course, became a kind of fairy land, where all was jugglery, magic, and enchantment. The initiated alone were admitted to the knowledge of the occult mystical exhibitions, which, in their hands, constituted the essence of their religion. From these the vulgar and profane were prohibited by the most rigorous penalties (see MYSTERIES). The Egyptians, and indeed all the ancients without exception, deemed the mysteries of religion too sacred and solemn to be communicated to the herd of mankind, naked and unreserved; a mode by which they imagined those sacred and sublime oracles would have been defiled and degraded. "Procul, ô procul este profani—Odi profanum vulgus et arceo." Egypt was the land of graven images; allegory and mythology were the veil which concealed religion from the eyes of the vulgar; fable was the groundwork of that impenetrable covering. 7 In the earliest ages of the world mythology had no existence. In the earliest and most unpolished stage of society we cannot suppose fable to have existed among men. Fables are always tales of other times, but at this period other times did not reach far enough backward to afford those fruits of the imagination sufficient time to arrive at maturity. Fable requires a considerable space of time to acquire credibility, and to rise into reputation. Accordingly, we find that both the Chinese and Egyptians, the two most ancient nations whose annals have reached our times, were altogether unacquainted with fabulous details in the most early and least improved periods of their respective monarchies. It has been shown almost to a demonstration, by a variety of learned men, that both the one and the other people, during some centuries after the general deluge, retained and practised the primitive Noachic religion, in which fable and fancy could find no place; all was genuine unsophisticated truth. As soon as the authentic tradition concerning the origin of the universe was either in a good measure lost, or at least adulterated by the invention of men, fable and fiction began to prevail. The Egyptian Thoth or Thyoth, or Mercury Trismegistus, and Mos-8 Fabulous cosmogony, the first mytho-logical de-chus the Phœnician, undertook to account for the formation and arrangement of the universe, upon principles purely mechanical. Here fable began to usurp the place of genuine historical truth. Accordingly, we find that all the historians of antiquity, who have undertaken to give a general detail of the affairs of the world, have ushered in their narration with a fabulous cosmogony. Here imagination ranged unconfined over the boundless extent of the primary chaos. To be convinced of the truth of this assertion, we need only look into Sanchoniathon's Cosmogony, Euseb. Præp. Evang. l. i. sub init. and Diodorus Sic. l. i. From this we suppose it will follow, that the first race of fables owed their birth to the erroneous opinions of the formation of the universe. Having now endeavoured to point out the origin of mythology, or fabulous traditions, we shall proceed to lay before our readers a brief detail of the mythology of the most respectable nations of antiquity, following the natural order of their situation. The Chinese, if any credit be due to their own an-2 Chinese mythology.nals, or to the missionaries of the church of Rome, who pretend to have copied from them, were the first of the nations. Their fabulous records reach upwards many myriads of years before the Mosaic era of the creation. The events during that period of time, if any had been recorded, must have been fabulous as the period itself. These, however, are buried in eternal oblivion. The missionaries, who are the only sources of our information with relation to the earliest periods of the Chinese history, represent those people as having retained the religion of Noah many centuries after the foundation of their empire. Upon this supposition, their cosmogony must have been sound and genuine, without the least tincture of those fabulous ingredients which have both disguised and disgraced the cosmogonies of most other nations. According to the most authentic accounts, Foke10 birth and or Fohi laid the foundation of that empire about inventions 4000 years ago. This emperor, according to the Chinese, was conceived in a miraculous manner. His mother, say they, one day as she was walking in a desert place, was surrounded by a rainbow; and, being impregnated by this meteor, was in due time delivered of that celebrated legislator. This personage, like the Athenian Cecrops, was half a man and half a serpent. His intellectual powers were truly hyperbolical. In one day he discovered 50 different species of poisonous herbs. He taught his countrymen the whole art of agriculture in the space of a very few years. He instructed them how to sow five different sorts of grain. He invented boats, and nets for fishing, the art of fabricating porcelain, the management of silk worms, the manufacturing of silk, &c. In a word, that wonderful personage was inspired by Heaven with knowledge, which qualified him for composing that incomparable body of laws which are even at this day the wonder of the world. Our readers will admit, that this whole detail is fabulous and chimerical. The most learned part of them will readily observe, that the Chinese in ascribing the invention of all the useful arts to their Fohi, are perfectly agreed with almost all the other nations of antiquity. The Indians ascribe every invention to Budha, or Vishnou, or Foe; the Persians to Zerdusht, or Zoroaster; the Chaldeans to their man of the sea, whom they call Oannes; the Egyptians to Thoth or Thyoth; the Phœnicians to Melicerta; the Greeks to the family of the Titans; and the Scandinavians to Odin, &c. About 551 years before the Christian era, appeared the famous Chinese philosopher Con-fu-tse or Confucius. Concerning the birth of this prince of philosophers, the Chinese have propagated the following legendary tale. His mother, walking in a solitary place, was impregnated by the vivifying influence of the heavens. The babe, thus produced, spake and reasoned as soon as it was born. Confucius, however, wrought no miracles, performed no romantic exploits, but lived an austere ascetic life, taught and inculcated the doctrines of pure morality, and died, remarkable only for superior wisdom, religious, moral, and political. About the year of Christ 601, flourished the secretary Lao-kiun. His mother carried him 30 years in her womb, and was at last delivered of him under a plum-tree. This philosopher was the Epicurus of the Chinese. His disciples, who were denominated Fao-sse, i. e. heavenly doctors, were the first who corrupted the religion of the Chinese. They were addicted to magic, and introduced the worship of good and bad demons. Their doctrine was embraced by a long succession of emperors. One of these princes, called You-ti, had been deprived by death of a favourite mistress, whom he loved with the most extravagant passion. The emperor, by the magical skill of one of these doctors, obtained an interview with his deceased mistress, a circumstance which rivetted the whole order in the affection and esteem of the deluded prince. Here our readers will observe the exact counterpart of the fable of Eurydice, so famous in the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. That such a system of religious principles must have abounded with mythological adventures is highly probable; but as the missionaries, to whom we are chiefly indebted for our information relating to the religion of the Chinese, have not taken the pains to record them, we find it impossible to gratify the curiosity of our readers on that head. The worship of the idol Fo, or Foe, was transplanted from India into China about the 56th year of the Christian era, upon the following occasion. One of the doctors of the Fao-sse had promised a prince of the family of Tchou, and brother of the emperor Ming-ti, to make him enter into communion with the spirits. At his solicitation an ambassador was despatched into India, in order to inquire where the true religion was to be found. There had been a tradition, say the missionaries, ever since the age of Confucius, that the true religion was to be found in the west.—The ambassador stopt short in India; and finding that the god Foe was in high reputation in that country, he collected several images of that deity painted on chintz, and with it 42 chapters of the canonical books of the Hindoos, which, together with the images, he laid on a white elephant, and transported into his native country. At the same time he imported from the same quarter the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, which is firmly believed in China to this day. The doctrine and worship of Foe, thus introduced, made a most rapid progress all over China, Japan, Siam, &c. The priests of Foe are called among the Siamese Talapains; by the Tartars, Lamas; by the Chinese, Ha-chang; and by the people of Japan, Bonzes. By this last appellation they are generally known in Europe. An infinitude of fables was invented and propagated by the disciples of Foe, concerning the life and adventures of their master. If the earlier ages of the Chinese history are barren of mythological incidents, the later periods, after the introduction of the worship of Foe, furnish an inexhaustible store of miracles, monsters, fables, intrigue, exploits, and adventures, of the most villainous complexion. Indeed, most of them are so absurd, so ridiculous, and at the same time so impious and profane, that we are convinced our readers will easily dispense with a detail from which they could reap neither entertainment nor instruction. Such as may find themselves disposed to rake into this abominable puddle, we must refer to the reverend fathers Du Halde, Couplet, Amiot, Kircher, and other members of the propaganda, in whose writings they will find wherewithal to satisfy, and even to surfeit, their appetite. The Hindoos, like the other nations of the east, for a long time retained the worship of the true God. At length, however, idolatry broke in, and, like an impetuous torrent, overwhelmed the country. First of all, the genuine history of the origin of the universe was either utterly lost, or disguised under a variety of fictions and allegories. We are told that Brimha, the supreme divinity of the Hindoos, after three several efforts, at last succeeded in creating four persons, whom he appointed to rule over all the inferior creatures.—Afterwards Brimha joined his efficient power with Bishon and Rulder; and by their united exertions they produced ten men, whose general appellation is Munies, that is, the inspired. The same being, according to another mythology, produced four other persons, as imaginary as the former; one from his breast, one from his back, one from his lip, and one from his heart. These children were denominated Bangs; the import of which word we cannot pretend to determine. According to another tradition, Brimha produced the Bramins from his mouth, to pray, to read, to instruct; the Chiltern from his arms, to draw the bow, to fight, to govern; the Bice from his belly or thighs, to nourish, to provide the necessaries of life by agriculture and commerce; the Soder from his feet, for subjection, to serve, to labour, to travel. The reader will see at once, in these allegorical persons, the four casts or septs into which the Hindoo nations have, time immemorial, been divided. These are some of their most celebrated mythological traditions with relation to the origin of the universe. The Hindoos have likewise some mythological opinions which seem to relate to the general deluge. They tell us, that desiring the preservation of herds and of brahmans, of genii and of virtuous men, of vedas of law, and of precious things, the Lord of the universe assumes many bodily shapes; but though he pervades, like the air, a variety of beings, yet he is himself unvaried, since he has no quality in him subject to change. At the close of the last calpa, there was a general destruction, occasioned by the sleep of Brahma, whence his creatures in different worlds were drowned in a vast ocean. Brahma being inclined to slumber after a lapse of so many ages, the strong demon Hyagri-va, came near him, and stole the vedas which had flowed from his lips. When Heri, the preserver of the universe, discovered this deed of the prince of Dainavas, he took the shape of a minute fish called Sap-hari. After various transformations, and an enormous increase of size in each of them, the Lord of the universe loving the righteous man (A), who had still adhered to him under all these various shapes, and intending to preserve him from the sea of destruction caused by the depravity of the age, thus told him how he was to act: "In seven days from the present time, O thou tamer of enemies! the three worlds will be plunged in an ocean of death; but in the midst of the destroying waves a large vessel sent by me for thy use shall stand before thee." The remaining part of the mythology so nearly resembles the Mosaic history of Noah and the general deluge, that the former may be a strong confirmation of the truth of the latter. To dry up the waters of the deluge, the power of the Deity descends in the form of a boar, the symbol of strength, to draw up and support on his tusks the whole earth, which had been sunk beneath the ocean. Again, The same power is represented as a tortoise sustaining the globe, which had been convulsed by the violent assaults of demons, while the gods charmed the sea with the mountain Mandar, and forced it to disgorge the sacred things and animals, together with the water of life which it had swallowed. All these stories, we think, relate to the same event, shadowed by a moral, a metaphysical, and an astronomical allegory; and all three seem connected with the hieroglyphical sculptures of the old Egyptians. The Hindoos divide the duration of the world into four yugs or jugs, or jogues, each consisting of a prodigious number of years. In each of those periods, the age and stature of the human race have been gradually diminished; and in each of them mankind has gradually declined in virtue and piety, as well as in age and stature. The present period they call the Colla, i. e. the corrupt jogue, which they say is to last 400,000 years, of which near 5000 years are already past. In the last part of the preceding jogue, which they call the deva paar, the age of man was contracted into 1000 years, as in the present it is confined to 100. From this proportional diminution of the length of the human life, our readers will probably infer, that the two last jogues bear a pretty near resemblance to the Mosaic history of the age of the antediluvian and postdiluvian patriarchs; and that the two first are imaginary periods prior to the creation of the world, like those of the Chinese, Chaldeans, and Egyptians. According to the mythology of the Hindoos, the world system of the world is subject to various dissolutions and resuscitations. At the conclusion of the Colla jogue, say they, a grand revolution will take place, when the solar system will be consumed by fire, and all the elements reduced to their original constituent atoms. Upon the back of these revolutions, Brimha, the supreme deity of the Hindoos, is sometimes represented as a new born infant, with his toe in his mouth, floating on a camala or water flower, sometimes only on a leaf of that plant, on the surface of the vast abyss. At other times he is figured as coming forth of a winding shell: and again as blowing up the mundane foam with a pipe at his mouth. Some of these emblematical figures and attitudes, our learned readers will probably observe, nearly resemble those of the ancient Egyptians. But the vulgar religion of the ancient Hindoos was of a very different complexion, and opens a large field of mythological adventures. We have observed above, that the Fo or Foc of the Chinese was imported from India; and now we shall give a brief detail of the mythological origin of that divinity. We have no certain account of the birth-place of this imaginary deity. His followers relate, that he was born in one of the kingdoms of India near the line, and that his father was one of that country. His mother brought him into the world by the left side, and expired soon after her delivery. At the time of her conception, she dreamed that she had swallowed a white elephant; a circumstance which is supposed to have given birth to the veneration which the kings of India have always shown for a white animal of that species. As soon as he was born, he had strength enough to stand erect without assistance. He walked abroad at seven, and, pointing with one hand to the heavens, and with the other to the earth, he cried out, "In the heavens, and on the earth, there is no one but me who deserves to be honoured." At the age of 30, he felt himself all on a sudden filled with the divinity; and now he was metamorphosed into Fo or Pagod, according to the expression of the Hindoos. He had no sooner declared himself a divinity, than he thought of propagating his doctrine, and proving his divine mission by miracles. The number of his disciples was immense; and they soon spread his dogmas over all India, and even to the higher extremities of Asia. One of the principal doctrines which Fo and his disciples propagated, was the metempsychosis or transmigration of souls. This doctrine, some imagine, has been given (A) He was Sovereign of the world. His name was Mana, or Statgavrata; his patronymic name was Vais-cata, or Child of the Sun. given rise to the multitude of idols reverenced in every country where the worship of Fo is established. Quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, and the vilest animals, had temples erected for them; because, say they, the soul of the god, in his numerous transmigrations, may have at one time or other inhabited their bodies. Both the doctrine of transmigration and of the worship of animals seems, however, to have been imported from Egypt into India. If the intercourse between these two countries was begun at so early a period as some very late writers have endeavoured to prove, such a supposition is by no means improbable. The doctrine of the transmigration of souls was early established among the Egyptians. It was, indeed, the only idea they formed of the soul's immortality. The worship of animals among them seems to have been still more ancient. If such an intercourse did actually exist, we may naturally suppose that colonies of Egyptian priests found their way into India, as they did afterwards into Asia Minor, Italy, and Greece. That colonies of Egyptians did actually penetrate into that country, and settle there, many centuries before the Nativity, is a fact that cannot be called in question, for reasons which the bounds prescribed us in this article will not allow us to enumerate. We shall only observe, that from the hieroglyphical representations of the Egyptian deities seem to have originated those monstrous idols which from time immemorial have been worshipped in India, China, Japan, Siam, and even in the remotest parts of Asiatic Tartary. 20 Fo is often called Budha or Budda, and sometimes Vishnou; perhaps, indeed, he may be distinguished by many other names, according to the variety of dialects of the different nations among which his worship was established. An infinitude of fables was propagated by his disciples concerning him after his death. They pretended that their master was still alive; that he had been already born 8000 times, and that he had successively appeared under the figure of an ape, a lion, a dragon, an elephant, a boar, &c. These were called the incarnations of Vishnou. At length he was confounded with the supreme God; and all the titles, attributes, operations, perfections, and ensigns of the Most High were ascribed to him. Sometimes he is called Amida, and represented with the head of a dog, and worshipped as the guardian of mankind. He sometimes appears as a princely personage, issuing from the mouth of a fish. At other times, he wears a lunette on his head, in which are seen cities, mountains, towers, trees, in short, all that the world contains. These transformations are evidently the children of allegorical or hieroglyphical emblems, and form an exact counterpart to the symbolical worship of the Egyptians. The enormous mass of mythological traditions which have in a manner deluged the vast continent of India, would fill many volumes: We have selected the preceding articles as a specimen only, by which our readers may be qualified to judge of the rest. If they find themselves disposed to indulge their curiosity at greater length, we must remit them to Thevenot's and Hamilton's Travels, to Mons. Anquetil in his Zond Avesta, Halhed's Introduction to his Translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, Col. Dow's History of Hindostan, Grose's Voyage to the East Indies, Asiatic Researches, vol. i. and ii. The mythology of the Persians is, if possible, still 21 more extravagant than that of the Hindoos. It sup-poses the world to have been repeatedly destroyed, and re-peopled by creatures of different formation, whowere successively annihilated or banished for their dis-obedience to the supreme Being. The monstrousgriffin Sinerg tells the hero Caherman that she hadalready lived to see the earth seven times filled withcreatures, and seven times a perfect void: that be-fore the creation of Adam, this globe was inhabitedby a race of beings called Peri and Dives, whose cha-acters formed a perfect contrast. The Peri are de-scribed as beautiful and benevolent; the Dives as de-formed, malevolent, and mischievous, differing frominfernal demons only in this, that they are not as yetconfined to the pit of hell. They are for ever rangingover the world, to scatter discord and misery amongthe sons of men. The Peri nearly resemble the fairiesof Europe: and perhaps the Dives gave birth to thegiants and magicians of the middle ages. The Periand Dives wage incessant wars; and when the Divesmake any of the Peri prisoners, they shut them up iniron cages, and hang them on the highest trees, toexpose them to public view, and to the fury of everychilling blast. When the Peri are in danger of being overpoweredby their foes, they solicit the assistance of some mor-tal hero; which produces a series of mythological ad-ventures highly ornamental to the strains of the Per-sian bards, and which, at the same time, furnishes aninexhaustible fund of the most diversified machinery. One of the most celebrated adventurers in the my-thology of Persia is Tahmuras, one of their most an-cient monarchs. This prince performs a variety of ex-ploits, while he endeavours to recover the fairy Mer-jan. He attacks the Dive Demrush in his own cave;where having vanquished the giant or demon, he findsvast piles of hoarded wealth; these he carries off withthe fair captive. The battles, labours, and adventuresof Rostan, another Persian worthy, who lived manyages after the former, are celebrated by the Persianbards with the same extravagance of hyperbole withwhich the labours of Hercules have been sung by thepoets of Greece and Rome. The adventures of the Persian heroes breathe all 23 the wildness of achievement recorded of the knightsof Gothic romance. The doctrine of enchantments, and ro-transformations, &c. exhibited in both, is a charac-teristic symptom of one common original. Persia is thegenuine classic ground of eastern mythology, and thesource of the ideas of chivalry and romance; from whichthey were propagated to the regions of Scandinavia,and indeed to the remotest corners of Europe towardsthe west. Perhaps our readers may be of our opinion, when weoffer it as a conjecture, that the tales of the war of thePeri and Dives originated from a vague tradition con-cerning good and bad angels: nor is it, in our opinion,improbable, that the fable of the wars between the godsand giants, so famous in the mythology of Greece andItaly, was imported into the former of these countriesfrom the same quarter. For a more particular accountof the Persian mythology, our readers may consult Dr Hyde Relig. vet. Pers. Medor. &c. D'Herbelot's Bibl. Orient. and Mr Richardson's introduction to his Persian and Arabic Dictionary. The mythology of the Chaldeans, like that of the other nations of the east, commences at a period myriads of years prior to the era of the Mosaic creation. Their cosmogony, exhibited by Berossus, who was a priest of Belus, and deeply versed in the antiquities of his country, is a piece of mythology of the most extravagant nature. It has been copied by Eusebius (Chron. lib. i. p. 5.); it is likewise to be found in Syncellus, copied from Alexander Polyhistor. According to this historian, there were at Babylon written records preserved with the greatest care, comprehending a period of fifteen myriads of years. Those writings likewise contained a history of the heavens and the sea, of the earth, and of the origin of mankind. "In the beginning (says Berossus, copying from Oannes, of whom we shall give a brief account below) there was nothing but darkness and an abyss of water, wherein resided most hideous beings produced from a twofold principle. Men appeared with two wings; some with two and some with four faces. They had one body, but two heads; the one of a man, the other of a woman. Other human figures were to be seen, furnished with the legs and horns of goats. Some had the feet of horses behind, but before were fashioned like men, resembling hippocentauri." The remaining part of this mythology is much of the same complexion; indeed so extravagant, that we imagine our readers will readily enough dispense with our translating the sequel. "Of all these (says the author) were preserved delineations in the temple of Belus at Babylon. The person who was supposed to preside over them was called Omorea. This word, in the Chaldean language, is Thalath, which the Greeks call Θαλασσα, but it more properly imports the moon. Matters being in this situation, their god (says Eusebius), the god (says Syncellus) came and cut the woman asunder; and out of one half of her he formed the earth, and out of the other he made the heavens; and, at the same time, he destroyed the monsters of the abyss." This whole mythology is an allegorical history copied from hieroglyphical representations, the real purport of which could not be deciphered by the author. Such, in general, were the consequences of the hieroglyphical style of writing. Oannes, the great civilizer and legislator of the Chaldeans, according to Apollodorus, who copied from Berossus, was an amphibious animal of a heterogeneous appearance. He was endowed with reason and a very uncommon acuteness of parts. His whole body resembled a fish. Under the head of a fish he had also another head, and feet below similar to those of a man, which were subjoined to the tail of the fish. His voice and language were articulate and perfectly intelligible, and there was a figure of him still extant in the days of Berossus. He made his appearance in the Erythrean or Red sea, where it borders upon Babylonia. This monstrous being conversed with men by day; but at night he plunged into the sea, and remained concealed in the water till next morning. He taught the Babylonians the use of letters, and the knowledge of all the arts and sciences. He instructed them in the method of building houses, constructing temples, and all other edifices. He taught them to compile laws and religious ceremonies, and explained to them the principles of mathematics, geometry, and astronomy. In a word he communicated to them every thing necessary, useful, and ornamental: and so universal were his instructions, that not one single article had ever been added to them since the time they were first communicated. Helladius is of opinion that this strange personage, whoever he was, came to be represented under the figure of a fish, not because he was actually believed to be such, but because he was clothed with the skin of a seal. By this account our readers will see that the Babylonian Oannes is the exact counterpart of the Fohi of the Chinese, and the Thyoth or the Mercury Trismegistus of the Egyptians. It is likewise apparent that the idea of the monster compounded of the man and the fish has originated from some hieroglyphic of that form grafted upon the appearance of man. Some modern mythologists have been of opinion, that Oannes was actually Noah the great preacher of righteousness; who, as some think, settled in Shinar or Chaldea after the deluge, and who, in consequence of his connexion with that event, might be properly represented under the emblem of the Man of the Sea. The nativity of Venus, the goddess of beauty and love, is another piece of mythology famous among the Babylonians and Assyrians. An egg, say they, of a prodigious size, dropped from heaven into the river Euphrates. Some doves settled upon this egg, after that the fishes had rolled it to the bank. In a short time this egg produced Venus, who was afterwards called Dea Syria, the Syrian goddess. In consequence of this tradition (says Hyginus), pigeons and fishes became sacred to this goddess among the Syrians, who always abstained from eating the one or the other. Of this imaginary being we have a very exact and entertaining history in the treatise De Dea Syria, generally ascribed to Lucian. In this mythological tradition our readers will probably discover an allusion to the celebrated Mundane egg; and at the same time the story of the fishes will lead them to anticipate the connexion between the sea and the moon. This same deity was the Atargatis of Ascalon, described by Diodorus the Sicilian; the one half of her body a woman and the other a fish. This was no doubt a hieroglyphic figure of the moon, importing the influence of that planet upon the sea and the sex. The oriental name of this deity evidently points to the moon; for it is compounded of two Hebrew words (B), which import "the queen of the host of heaven." The fable of Semiramis is nearly connected with the preceding one. Diodorus Siculus has preserved the mythological history of this deity, which he and all the writers of antiquity have confounded with the Babylonian princess of the same name. That historian informs us, that the word Semiramis, in the Syrian dialect, signifies "a wild pigeon;" but we apprehend that this term was a name or epithet of the moon, moon, as it is compounded of two words (c) of an import naturally applicable to the lunar planet. It was a general practice among the Orientals to denominate their sacred animals from that deity to which they were consecrated. Hence the moon being called Semiramis, and the pigeon being sacred to her divinity, the latter was called by the name of the former. As the bounds prescribed this article render it impossible for us to do justice to this interesting piece of mythology, we must beg leave to refer our readers for farther information to Diod. Sic. lib. ii. Hyginus Poet. Astron. Fab. 197. Pharnutus de Nat. Deor. Ovid. Metam. lib. iv. Athen. in Apol. Izetzes, Chil. ix. cap. 275. Seld. de Diis Syr. Syrit. ii. p. 183. We should now proceed to the mythology of the Arabians, the far greatest part of which is, however, buried in the abyss of ages; though, when we reflect on the genius and character of that people, we must be convinced that they too, as well as the other nations of the east abounded in fabulous relations and romantic compositions. The natives of that country have always been enthusiastically addicted to poetry, of which fable is the essence. Wherever the Muses have erected their throne, fables and miracles have always appeared in their train. In the Koran we meet with frequent allusions to well-known traditional fables. These had been transmitted from generation to generation by the bards and rhapsodists for the entertainment of the vulgar. In Arabia, from the earliest ages, it has always been one of the favourite entertainments of the common people, to assemble in the serene evenings around their tents, or on the platforms with which their houses are generally covered, or in large halls erected for the purpose, in order to amuse themselves with traditional narrations of the most distinguished actions of their most remote ancestors. Oriental imagery always embellished their romantic details. The glow of fancy, the love of the marvellous, the propensity towards the hyperbolical and the vast, which constitute the essence of oriental description, must ever have drawn the relation aside into the devious regions of fiction and fairy land. The religion of Mahomet beat down the original fabric of idolatry and mythology together. The Arabian fables current in modern times are borrowed or imitated from Persian compositions; Persia being still the grand nursery of romance in the east. In Egypt we find idolatry, theology, and mythology, almost inseparably blended together. The inhabitants of this region, to, as well as of others in the vicinity of the centre of population, adhered for several centuries to the worship of the true God. At last, however, conscious of their own ignorance, impurity, imperfection, and total unfitness to approach an infinitely perfect Being, distant, as they imagined, and invisible, they began to cast about for some beings more exalted, and more perfect than themselves, by whose mediation they might prefer their prayers to the supreme Majesty of heaven. The luminaries of heaven, which they imagined were animated bodies, naturally presented themselves. These were splendid and glorious beings. They were thought to partake of the divine nature: they were revered as the satraps, prefects, and representatives of the supreme Lord of the universe. They were visible, they were beneficent; they dwelt nearer to the gods, they were near at hand and always accessible. These were, of course, employed as mediators and intercessors between the supreme Divinity and his humble subjects of this lower world. Thus employed, they might claim a subordinate share of worship, which was accordingly assigned them. In process of time, however, that worship, which was originally addressed to the supreme Creator by the mediation of the heavenly bodies, was in a great measure forgotten, and the adoration of mankind ultimately terminated on those illustrious creatures. To this circumstance, we think, we may ascribe the origin of that species of idolatry called Zabiism, or the worship of the host of heaven, which overspread the world early and almost universally. In Egypt this mode of worship was adopted in all its most absurd and most enthusiastic forms: and at the same time the most heterogeneous mythology appeared in its train. The mythology of the ancient Egyptians was so various and multiform, so complicated and so mysterious, that it would require many volumes even to give a superficial account of its origin and progress, not only in its mother country, but even in many other parts of the eastern and western world. Besides, the idolatry and mythology of that wonderful country are so closely connected and so inseparably blended together, that it is impossible to describe the latter without at the same time developing the former. We hope, therefore, our readers will not be disappointed, if, in a work of this nature, we touch only upon some of the leading or most interesting articles of this complicated subject. The Egyptians confounded the revolutions of the heavenly bodies with the reigns of their most early gods and monarchs. Hence the incredible number of years included in the reign of their eight superior gods, who, according to them, filled the Egyptian throne successively in the most early periods of time. To these, according to their system, succeeded twelve demigods, who likewise reigned an amazing number of years. These imaginary reigns were no other than the periodical revolutions of the heavenly bodies preserved in their almanacks, which might be carried back, and actually were carried back, at pleasure. Hence the fabulous antiquity of that kingdom. The imaginary exploits and adventures of these gods and demigods furnished an inexhaustible fund of mythological romances. To the demigods succeeded the kings of the cynic cycle, personages equally chimerical with the former. The import of this epithet has greatly perplexed critics and etymologists. We apprehend it is an oriental word importing royal dignity, elevation of rank. This appellation intimated, that the monarchs of that cycle, admitting that they actually existed, were more powerful and more highly revered than their successors. After the princes of the cynic cycle comes another race, denominated Nekyes, a title likewise implying royal, splendid, glorious. These cycles cycles figure high in the mythological annals of the Egyptians, and have furnished materials for a variety of learned and ingenious disquisitions. The wars and adventures of Osiris, Oris, Typhon, and other allegorical personages who figure in the Egyptian rubric; the wanderings of Isis, the sister and wife of Osiris; the transformation of the gods into divers kinds of animals; their birth, education, peregrinations, and exploits;—compose a body of mythological fictions so various, so complicated, so ridiculous, and often so apparently absurd, that all attempts to develop and explain them have hitherto proved unsuccessful. All, or the greatest part, of those extravagant fables, are the offspring of hieroglyphical or allegorical emblems devised by the priests and sages of that nation, with a view to conceal the mysteries of their religion from that class of men whom they stigmatized with the name of the uninitiated rabble. The worship of brute animals and of certain vegetables, universal among the Egyptians, was another exuberant source of mythological adventures. The Egyptian priests, many of whom were likewise profound philosophers, observed, or pretended to observe, a kind of analogy between the qualities of certain animals and vegetables, and those of some of their subordinate divinities. Such animals and vegetables they adopted, and consecrated to the deities to whom they were supposed to bear this analogical resemblance; and in process of time they considered them as the visible emblems of those divinities to which they were consecrated. By these the vulgar addressed their archetypes: in the same manner, as in other countries, pictures and statues were employed for the very same purpose. The mob, in process of time, forgetting the emblematical character of those brutes and vegetables, addressed their devotion immediately to them; and of course these became the ultimate objects of vulgar adoration. After that these objects, animate or inanimate, were consecrated as the visible symbols of the deities, it soon became fashionable to make use of their figures to represent those deities to which they were consecrated. This practice was the natural consequence of the hieroglyphical style which universally prevailed among the ancient Egyptians. Hence Jupiter Ammon was represented under the figure of a ram, Apis, under that of a cow, Osiris of a bull, Pan of a goat, Thoth or Mercury of an ibis, Bubastis or Diana of a cat, &c. It was likewise a common practice among those deluded people to dignify these objects, by giving them the names of those deities which they represented. By this mode of dignifying these sacred emblems, the veneration of the rabble was considerably enhanced, and the ardour of their devotion inflamed in proportion. From these two sources, we think, are derived the fabulous transformation of the gods, so generally celebrated in the Egyptian mythology, and from it imported into Greece and Italy. In consequence of this practice, their mythological system was rendered at once enormous and unintelligible. Their Thoth, or Mercury Trismegistus, was, in our opinion, the inventor of this unhappy system. This personage, according to the Egyptians, was the original author of letters, geometry, astronomy, music, architecture; in a word, of all the elegant and useful arts, and of all the branches of science and philosophy. He it was who first discovered the analogy between the divine affections, influences, appearances, operations, and the corresponding properties, qualities, and instincts of certain animals, and the propriety of dedicating particular kinds of vegetables to the service of particular deities. The priests, whose province it was to expound the mysteries of that allegorical hieroglyphical religion, (see MYSTERIES), gradually lost all knowledge of the primary import of the symbolical characters. To supply this defect, and at the same time to veil their own ignorance, the sacerdotal instructors had recourse to fable and fiction. They heaped fable upon fable, till their religion became an accumulated chaos of mythological absurdities. Two of the most learned and most acute of the ancient philosophers have attempted a rational explication of the latent import of the Egyptian mythology; but both have failed in the attempt; nor have the moderns, who have laboured in the same department, performed their part with much better success. Instead, therefore, of prosecuting this inexplicable subject, which would swell this article beyond all proportion, we must beg leave to refer those who are desirous of further information to the following authors, where they will find enough to gratify their curiosity, if not to inform their judgment: Herodotus, lib. ii. Diodorus Siculus, lib. i. Plut. Isis et Osiris; Jamblichus de Myst. Egypt. Horapollo Hieroglyph. Egypt. Macrob. Sat. cap. 23. among the ancients; and among the moderns, Kircher's Oedip. Voss. de Orig. et Prog. Idol. Mr Bryant's Analysis of Anc. Mythol. Mons. Gebelin Monde Prim.; and above all, to the learned Jablonski's Panth. Egyptiorum. The elements of Phœnician mythology have been preserved by Eusebius, Præp. Evang. sub. init. In the large extract which that learned father had copied from Philo Biblius's translation of Sanchoniathon's History of Phœnicia, we are furnished with several articles of mythology. Some of these throw considerable light on several passages of the sacred history; and all of them are strictly connected with the mythology of the Greeks and Romans. There we have preserved a brief but entertaining detail of the fabulous adventures of Uranus, Cronus, Dagon, Thoth or Mercury, probably the same with the Egyptian hero of that name. Here we find Muth or Pluto, Æphœstus or Vulcan, Æsculapius, Nereus, Poseidon or Neptune, &c. Astarte, or Venus Urania, makes a conspicuous figure in the catalogue of Phœnician worthies; Pallas or Minerva is planted on the territory of Attica; in a word, all the branches of the family of the Titans, who in after ages figured in the rubric of the Greeks, are brought upon the stage, and their exploits and adventures briefly detailed. By comparing this fragment with the mythology of Greece and the Atlantide and that of the Cretans preserved by Diodorus the Sicilian, lib. v. we think there is good reason to conclude, that the family of the Titans, the several branches of which seem to have been both the authors and objects of a great part of the Grecian idolatry, originally emigrated from Phœnicia. This conjecture will receive additional strength, when it is considered, that almost all their names recorded in the fabulous records of Greece, may be easily traced up to a Phœnician Phoenician original. We agree with Herodotus, that a considerable part of the idolatry of Greece may have been borrowed from the Egyptians; at the same time, we imagine it highly probable, that the idolatry of the Egyptians and Phoenicians was, in its original constitution, nearly the same. Both systems were Sabiism, or the worship of the host of heaven. The Pelasgi, according to Herodotus, learned the names of the gods from the Egyptians; but in this conjecture he is certainly warped by his partiality for that people. Had those names been imported from Egypt, they would no doubt have betrayed their Egyptian original; whereas, every etymologist will be convinced that every one is of Phoenician extraction. The adventures of Jupiter, Juno, Mercury, Apollo, Diana, Mars, Minerva or Pallas, Venus, Bacchus, Ceres, Proserpine, Pluto, Neptune, and the other descendants and coadjutors of the ambitious family of the Titans, furnish by far the greatest part of the mythology of Greece. They left Phoenicia, we think, about the age of Moses; they settled in Crete, a large and fertile island; from this region they made their way into Greece, which, according to the most authentic accounts, was at that time inhabited by a race of savages. The arts and inventions which they communicated to the natives; the mysteries of religion which they inculcated; the laws, customs, polity, and good order, which they established; in short, the blessings of humanity and civilization, which they everywhere disseminated, in process of time inspired the unpolished inhabitants with a kind of divine admiration. Those ambitious mortals improved this admiration into divine homage and adoration. The greater part of that worship, which had been formerly addressed to the luminaries of heaven, was now transferred to those illustrious personages. They claimed and obtained divine honours from the deluded rabble of enthusiastic Greeks. Hence sprung an inexhaustible fund of the most inconsistent and irreconcilable fictions. The foibles and frailties of the deified mortals were transmitted to posterity, incorporated as it were with the pompous attributes of supreme divinity. Hence the heterogeneous mixture of the mighty and the mean which chequers the characters of the heroes of the Iliad and Odyssey. The Greeks adopted the oriental fables, the import of which they did not understand. These they accommodated to heroes and illustrious personages, who had figured in their own country in the earliest periods. The labours of Hercules originated in Egypt, and evidently relate to the annual progress of the sun in the zodiac, though the vain-glorious Greeks accommodated them to a hero of their own, the reputed son of Jupiter and Alcmene. The expedition of Osiris they borrowed from the Egyptians, and transferred to their Bacchus, the son of Jupiter and Semele the daughter of Cadmus. The transformation and wanderings of Io are evidently transcribed from the Egyptian romance of the travels of Isis in quest of the body of Osiris, or of the Phoenician Astarte, drawn from Sanchionian. Io or Ioh is in reality the Egyptian name of the moon, and Astarte was the name of the same planet among the Phoenicians. Both these fables are allegorical representations of the anomalies of the lunar planet, or perhaps of the progress of the worship of that planet in different parts of the world. The fable of the conflagration occasioned by Phaeton is clearly of oriental extraction, and alludes to an excessive drought which in the early periods of time scorched Ethiopia and the adjacent countries. The fabulous adventures of Perseus are said to have happened in the same regions, and are allegorical representations of the influence of the solar luminary; for the original Perseus was the sun. The rape of Proserpine and the wanderings of Ceres; the Eleusinian mysteries; the orgia or sacred rites of Bacchus; the rites and worship of the Cabiri—were imported from Egypt and Phoenicia; but strangely garbled and disguised by the hierophants of Greece. The gigantomania, or war between the gods and the giants, and all the fabulous events and varieties of that war, form an exact counterpart to the battles of the Peri and Dives, celebrated in the romantic annals of Persia. A considerable part of the mythology of the Greeks sprang from their ignorance of the oriental languages. They disdained to apply themselves to the study of languages spoken by people whom, in the pride of their heart, they stigmatized with the epithet of barbarians. This aversion to every foreign dialect was highly detrimental to their progress in the sciences. The same neglect or aversion has, we imagine, proved an irreparable injury to the republic of letters in all succeeding ages. The aoids, or strolling bards, laid hold on those oriental legends, which they sophisticated with their own additions and improvements, in order to accommodate them to the popular taste. These wonderful tales figured in their rhapsodical compositions, and were greedily swallowed down by the credulous vulgar. Those fictions, as they rolled down, were constantly augmented with fresh materials, till in process of time their original import was either forgotten or buried in impenetrable darkness. A multitude of these Hesiod has collected in his Theogonia, or Generation of the Gods, which unhappily became the religious creed of the illiterate part of the Greeks. Indeed fable was so closely interwoven with the religion of that airy volatile people, that it seems to have contaminated not only their religious and moral, but even their political tenets. The far-famed oracle of Dodona was copied from that of Ammon at Thebes in Egypt: The oracle of Dodona. Apollo at Delphos was an emanation from the same source: The celebrated Apollo Pythius of the Greeks was no other than Ob or Aub of the Egyptians, who denominated the basilisk or royal snake Os Cai, because it was held sacred to the sun. Ob or Aub is still retained in the Coptic dialect, and is one of the many names or epithets of that luminary. In short, the ground-work of the Grecian mythology is to be traced in the east. Only small part of it was fabricated in the country; and what was imported pure and genuine was miserably sophisticated by the hands through which it passed, in order to give it a Grecian air, and to accommodate its style to the Grecian taste. To enlarge upon this topic would be altogether superfluous, as our learned readers must be well acquainted with it already, and the unlearned may without much trouble or expence furnish themselves with books upon that subject. The Roman mythology was borrowed from the Greeks. Greeks. That people had addicted themselves for many centuries to the arts of war and civil polity. Science and philosophy were either neglected or unknown. At last they conquered Greece, the native land of science, and then "Grecia capta ferum victorem cepit arte et intulit agresti Latio." This being the case, their mythology was, upon the whole, a transcript from that of Greece. They had indeed gleaned a few fables from the Pelasgi and Hetruscans, which, however, are of so little consequence, that they are scarce worth the trouble of transcribing. The mythology of the Celtic nations is in a good measure lost. There may possibly still remain some vestiges of the Druidical superstition in the remotest parts of the highlands and islands of Scotland; and perhaps in the uncivilized places of Ireland. These, we presume, would afford our readers but little entertainment, and still less instruction. Instead therefore of giving a detail of those uninteresting articles, we shall beg leave to refer our readers to Ossian's Poems, and Col. Valency's Collections of Irish Antiquities, for satisfaction on that subject. 41 Mythology of the northern nations. The mythology of the northern nations, i. e. of the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Icelanders, &c. is uncommonly curious and entertaining. The Edda and Voluspa contain a complete collection of fables which have not the smallest affinity with those of the Greeks and Romans. They are wholly of an oriental complexion, and seem almost congenial with the tales of the Persians above described. The Edda was compiled in Iceland in the 13th century. It is a kind of system of the Scandinavian mythology: and has been reckoned, and we believe justly, a commentary on the Voluspa, which was the Bible of the northern nations. Odin or Othin, or Woden or Waden, was the supreme divinity of those people. His exploits and adventures furnish the far greater part of their mythological creed. That hero is supposed to have emigrated from the east; but from what country or at what period is not certainly known. His achievements are magnified beyond all credibility. He is represented as the god of battles, and as slaughtering thousands at a blow. His palace is called Vallhal: it is situated in the city of Midgard, where, according to the fable, the souls of heroes who had bravely fallen in battle enjoy supreme felicity. They spend the day in mimic hunting matches, or imaginary combats. At night they assemble in the palace of Vallhalla, where they feast on the most delicious viands, dressed and served up by the Valkyries, virgins adorned with celestial charms, and flushed with the bloom of everlasting youth. They solace themselves with drinking mead out of the skulls of enemies whom they killed in their days of nature. Mead, it seems, was the nectar of the Scandinavian heroes. Sleepner, the horse of Odin, is celebrated along with his master. Hela, the hell of the Scandinavians, affords a variety of fables equally shocking and heterogeneous. Loke, the evil genius or devil of the northern people, nearly resembles the Typhon of the Egyptians. Signa or Sinna is the consort of Loke; from this name the English word sin is derived. The giants Weymur, Ferbanter, Belupher, and Hellunda, perform a variety of exploits, and are exhibited in the most frightful attitudes. One would be tempted to imagine, that they perform the exact counterpart of the giants of the Greek and Roman mythologists. Instead of glancing at these ridiculous and uninteresting fables, which is all that the limits prescribed us would permit, we shall take the liberty to lay before our readers a brief account of the contents of the Voluspa, which is indeed the text of the Scandinavian mythology. The word Voluspa imports, "the prophecy of Vola44 or Fola." This was, perhaps, a general name for the prophetic ladies of the north, as Sibyl was appropriated to women endowed with the like faculty in the south. Certain it is, that the ancients generally connected madness with the prophetic faculty. Of this we have two celebrated examples: the one in Lycophon's Alexandra, and the other in the Sibyl of the Roman poet. The word vola signifies "mad or foolish;" whence the English words fool, foolish, folly. Spa, the latter part of the composition, signifies "to prophecy," and is still current among the common people in Scotland, in the word Spae, which has nearly the same signification. The Voluspa consists of between 200 and 300 lines. The prophetess having imposed silence on all intelligent beings, declares that she is about to reveal the works of the Father of nature, the actions and operations of the gods, which no mortal ever knew before herself. She then begins with a description of the chaos; and then proceeds to the formation of the world, the creation of the different species of its inhabitants, giants, men, and dwarfs. She then explains the employments of the fairies or destinies, whom the northern people call nornies; the functions of the deities, their most memorable adventures, their disputes with Loke, and the vengeance that ensued. She at last concludes with a long and indeed animated description of the final state of the universe, and its dissolution by a general conflagration. In this catastrophe, Odin and all the rabble of the Pagan divinities, are to be confounded in the general ruin, no more to appear on the stage of the universe. Out of the ruins of the former world, according to the Voluspa, a new one shall spring up, arrayed in all the bloom of celestial beauty. Such is the doctrine exhibited in the fabulous Voluspa. So congenial are some of the details therein delivered, especially those relating to the final dissolution of the present system, and the succession of a new heaven and a new earth, that we find ourselves strongly inclined to suspect, that the original fabricator of the work was a semipagan writer, much of the same complexion with the authors of the Sibylline oracles, and of some other apocryphal pieces which appeared in the world during the first ages of Christianity. In America, the only mythological countries must be Mexico and Peru. The other parts of that large continent were originally inhabited by savages, most of them as remote from religion as from civilization. The two vast empires of Mexico and Peru had existed about 400 years only before the Spanish invasion. In neither of them was the use of letters understood; and of course the ancient opinions of the natives relating to the origin of the universe, the changes which succeeded, and every other monument of antiquity, were obliterated and lost. Clavigero has indeed enumerated a vast canaille of sanguinary gods worshipped by the Mexicans; Mexicans; but produces nothing either entertaining or interesting with respect to their mythology. The information to be derived from any other quarter is little to be depended upon. It passes through the hands of bigotted missionaries or other ecclesiastics, who were so deeply tinctured with fanaticism, that they viewed every action, every sentiment, every custom, every religious opinion and ceremony of those half-civilized people, through a false medium. They often imagined they discovered resemblances and analogies between the rites of those savages and the dogmas of Christianity, which nowhere existed but in their own heated imagination. The only remarkable piece of mythology in the annals of the Peruvians, is the pretended extraction of Manco Cauce the first Inca of Peru, and of Mama Ocolla his consort. These two illustrious personages appeared first on the banks of the lake Titicaca. They were persons of a majestic stature, and clothed in decent garments. They declared themselves to be the children of the Sun, sent by their beneficent parent, who beheld with pity the miseries of the human race, to instruct and to reclaim them. Thus we find these two legislators availed themselves of a pretence which had often been employed in more civilized regions to the very same purposes. The idolatry of Peru was gentle and beneficent, that of Mexico gloomy and sanguinary. Hence we may see, that every mode of superstition, where a divine revelation is not concerned, borrows its complexion from the characters of its professors. In the course of this article, our readers will observe, that we have not much enlarged upon the mythology of the Greeks and Romans; that subject we imagine to be so universally known by the learned, and so little valued by the vulgar, that a minute discussion of it would be altogether superfluous. Besides, we hope it will be remembered, that the narrowness of the limits prescribed us would scarce admit of a more copious detail. We would flatter ourselves, that in the course of our disquisition, we have thrown out a few reflections and observations, which may perhaps prove more acceptable to both descriptions of readers. M Y U M Y X MytilusMyus.MYTILUS, the MUSSEL, a genus of animals, belonging to the order of vermes testacea. See CONCHOLGY Index. MYTTOTON, a coarse kind of food, used by the labouring people among the Greeks, and sometimes among the Romans. It was made of garlic, onions, eggs, cheese, oil, and vinegar, and reckoned very wholesome.