The word mythology is a Greek compound, that signifies a discourse on fables; and comprehends, in a collective sense, all the fabulous and poetical history of pagan antiquity. It follows therefore, that this science teaches the history of the gods, demi-gods, and fabulous heroes of antiquity; the theology of the pagans, the principles of their religion, their mysteries, metamorphoses, oracles, &c. By this definition, it appears sufficiently what are the objects of which we are to treat in this article.

If we well consider the matter, we shall find, that there were, in pagan antiquity, three different religions. First, That of the philosophers, who treated metaphysically of the nature, the attributes, and of the works of the Supreme Being. They endeavoured to discover the true God, and the manner in which he ought to be worshipped. It is not wonderful, that these men of exalted genius should in some degree ridicule, in their works, the two other positive religions, and those gods on whom they were founded; at the same time that they outwardly professed the established religion, in order to preserve the peace of society, and to avoid the persecutions of the legislature, and the insults of the populace. For in fact, was it possible for them to believe the pagan fables? Must they not foresee, that their religion would one day give place to another, while their own works would pass with their names to the latest posterity? And could they suffer the thought, that their reputation would be tarnished in the eyes of that posterity, by having it imagined they believed such idle tales as were broached by the priests of their times? Could Plato, Socrates, Seneca, and Cicero, be unconcerned for their fame among future generations and future philosophers? And what should we at this day have said of those great men, had they been so political, or hypocritical, as to have entirely concealed their sentiments with regard to these matters?

The second religion was that of paganism, which was the established religion of all the ancient nations except the Jews. This was the doctrine that was taught by the priests, and protected by the sovereigns. Its dogmas were demonstratively false, but not always so absurd as may at first appear; especially if we annex to the divinities, and to the religious ceremonies of the pagans, a sense that is frequently mystic, and always allegoric; if we remember, that the first heathens deified those great men to whom the rest of mankind were indebted for any signal benefits, as Jupiter, Apollo, Ceres, Bacchus, Hercules, Æsculapius, &c. in order to induce others, as well of the present as future ages, to reverence and to imitate them. Would not an ancient pagan, if he were to return upon the earth, have specious arguments, at least, to support his religion, when he saw weak mortals beatify or canonize, merely by their own authority, other weak mortals (frequently mere pedants), and place them in heaven, without the permission or approbation of the Supreme Being? Happy is it for mankind, when at different times fagacious pontiffs purge the calendar, and the brains of the people, from a herd of pretended saints, and prevent them, at least after their death, from doing injury to society, by interrupting the industry of the laborious inhabitants with keeping their festivals.

The third religion was idolatry, or the religion of the populace. For the common people, born to be deceived in every thing, confounding in their imaginations the statues of the gods, the idols of their divinities, the emblems of their virtues and of religious worship, with the gods, divinities, virtues, and worship themselves, adored these images, and proceeded to extravagancies the most ridiculous, and frequently most criminal, in their ceremonies, feasts, libations, sacrifices, &c. It is to be feared, that, as long as there are upon the earth men of our limited capacities, this triple religion will constantly subsist under different forms; and we are much deceived, if it may not be found under the empire of Christianity itself, notwithstanding the purity of its doctrine. It will be easily conceived, that it is not of the religion of philosophers, nor that of the populace, of which we are to treat in this article of Mythology: but of that which subsisted Mythology subsisted under the authority of the magistracy and the priesthood, and consequently of paganism in general.

As far as we are able to judge by all the ancient authors we have read, the pagans adored the sovereign Lord of the universe under the name of Fate or Destiny, which we must not confound with Fortune, who was regarded as a subaltern divinity. Jupiter himself, all the gods, every animated being, the heavens, the earth, the whole frame of nature, was subservient to Destiny, and nothing could reverse its decrees. This divinity was so highly adorable, as to be above all rank; and was regarded as too supreme to be represented under any sensible image or statue, or to have any temple erected for its worship. We do not remember to have read, that ever any sacrifice was offered to this Destiny, or that any temple or city was ever dedicated to its name. We are almost inclined to think, that the pagans were sensible, that the temple and the worship of the God of gods ought to be in the heart of man. Mention is made, indeed, of a temple that was dedicated to the Unknown God; but we are ignorant whether or not Destiny were thereby meant. We must not confound this Destiny, moreover, with the goddess of chance, of which there are some antique statues that represent her in a recumbent posture, and playing with little bones; for this was nothing more than an invention of some statuary.

After this general and philosophical idea of the Supreme Being, comes the positive religion of the pagans. This was entirely founded on fable, which took its rise either from ancient traditions, or historical events, altered or augmented by the imaginations of the poets, by superstition, or by the credulity of the people; or else it consisted of allegoric or moral fictions. A crowd of writers, and among the rest Noel le Comte, (Natalis Comes), the abbots Banner and Pluche, &c. have made many researches into the origin of fable: and they think they have discovered its source, 1. In the vanity of mankind; 2. In the want of letters and characters; 3. In the delusive eloquence of orators; 4. In the relations of travellers; 5. In the fictions of poets, painters, statuaries, and dramatic writers; 6. In the diversity and uniformity of names; 7. In the ignorance of true philosophy; 8. In the foundation of colonies, and the invention of arts; 9. In the desire of having gods for our ancestors; 10. In the imperfect or false interpretation of the holy scriptures; 11. In the ignorance of ancient history; 12. In a like ignorance of chronology; 13. In that of foreign languages; 14. In the translation of the religion of the Egyptians and Phoenicians into Greece; 15. In the ignorance of geography; and, 16. In the belief which the first people had of the intercourse of gods with men. It is certain, that all these matters taken together are sufficient to produce many thousands of fables; are more than sufficient to enable us to deceive ourselves and others, and to give rise to infinite reveries. But we should take care how we draw from these sources demonstrations that might be used, by irreligious, as arguments to overthrow the history of the Jews; a people the most stupid, most credulous, and ostentatious of all others. In the mean time, the pagan philosophers themselves asserted, that it was a god who invented the fable: so much they were convinced of its ingenuity, and of its strong tendency to instruct mankind in their duty.

Mythology therefore, when properly treated, begins with making learned researches into the real origin of fable, of paganism, and of that idolatry which was its consequence. It recurs for this purpose even to the beginning of the world: and after finding that Laban, the father-in-law of the patriarch Jacob, was a maker of idols, and that he had his little images, or household gods, which he formed of baked earth, and which shews that idolatry existed in the greatest antiquity; it then explains cosmogony, and theogony, or the belief that the first inhabitants of the earth entertained of the creation of the universe, and what the pagan theology taught of the genealogy of their false gods. It begins with the tradition of the Chaldeans, a people so ancient, that Nimrod was their first king; but at the same time so credulous and superstitious, that we may regard them as the authors of all those fables, and the propagators of all those visions, that have since blinded human reason. According to this tradition, a monster named Oannes, or Oce, half fish and half man, sprung from the sea, before the chaos was completely dispersed, and gave laws to the Chaldeans. A woman called Omorpha, reigned over all the earth. Bel cut her in two, and made of one moiety the heavens, and of the other the earth. They likewise invented the two primitive beings; of which the good one, who was named Orphnaelos, had the direction of heaven; and the other, called Arimanus, that of hell.

The science of mythology then teaches the theogony of the Phoenicians; concerning whom it draws great lights from Sanchoniathon, a priest of Beryte, who lived before the Trojan wars, more than 400 years before Hesiod and Homer, and of whom Eusebius has preserved considerable fragments. From thence it passes to the theogony of the Egyptians; of whom Thot or Thaut, the founder of that nation, was likewise, they say, their first historian; that Sanchoniathon even copied from him; and of whom we find many relations in the Greek historians, especially in Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and in Eusebius of Cesarea. It then examines the theogony of the Atlantides, who dwelt on the western part of Africa, and of whom Diodorus alone has preserved any account. From thence it proceeds to the theogony of the Greeks, which is far better known to us, as we find accounts of it, more or less particular, in numberless Greek and Latin writers. This theogony had the same foundation as that of the Romans; the latter having only extended it, by adding to the Greek divinities certain gods or demi-gods, formed of their heroes, and certain symbolic and allegoric divinities, which mythology explains at the same time; and it is on this occasion that it enters into a particular explication of the cosmogony and theogony of Ovid; whose book of metamorphoses contains as copious descriptions as we could desire of the fables of the ancients; what was their belief concerning the habitations of the blessed after their death, or of the Elysian fields; as well as of their hell or Tartarus; of the dog Cerberus; of the ferryman Charon; of the furies; of the four rivers, Cocytus, Lethe, Phlegethon, and Styx, which water the Tartarian regions, &c.

Mythologists then continue their researches into the time, the epoch, and place, of the real origin of paganism and idolatry; and they prove that the pagans began mythology began by adoring the heavenly bodies, the stars and planets. They next examine into the progress of idolatry; what were the temples of the pagans, their altars, their inclosures, their sacred groves, their asylum, the idols and statues of their deities; in what manner they were represented; what were their sacrifices, the victims that were offered; what the days of penitence and supplication, the feasts or the gods of lecternia, their invocations or incantations and exorcisms, the religious ceremonies observed at laying the foundations of cities, &c.

Divination, or the prediction of future events, a weakness that has at all times possessed the human mind, forms also an important article of pagan theology. It is therefore in this place that mythology considers the nature of oracles, and in what manner these oracles gave their answers; the ceremonies that were observed in consulting them; the frantic emotions of the priestess Pythia on her tripod, and those of other priests. See Divination and Oracles. It then endeavours to investigate the history of the Sibyls, and of their prophecies. See Sibyls. It next passes to the examen of the nature of auguries, auspices, haruspices, prodigies, &c.; of expiations and ablutions; of the magic and astrology of the ancients, &c. See Augury, &c. It then proceeds to the examination of the nature of the pagan divinities themselves.

The celebrated treatise of Cicero De natura Deorum, will here furnish great lights; but modern authors who have treated on these matters, have not been contented with this alone: they have, so to say, extracted the essence of all antiquity, of which they have formed systems; but unluckily these scarce ever agree with each other. As philosophers, it is of very little importance for us to know what was the nature of these gods, seeing we know that they were merely fabulous; but as historians and antiquaries, it concerns us to know what was the nature that was attributed to them in general; and, in particular, what were the origin, genealogy, rank, functions, authority, and operations, that were attributed to each divinity; and it is on these matters that we have still some remarks to make.

The gods of the ancient Greeks and Romans were all either Dii majorum gentium, or Dii minorum gentium; that is, of the first or second order. The former were also called consentes, magni consultores, &c. According to Ennius, they were 12 in number, and are included in these verses:

Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.

To these were added eight others, under the title of Selecti, which were Sol, Luna, Tellus, Genius, Janus, Saturnus, Liber, and Pluto. The second order, or minorum gentium, were called Adscriptitii, Medioximi, Minucularii, Putatitii, Indigetii, Semones, &c. the principal of which were Aesculapius, Bacchus, Castor, Fauna, Hercules, the Lares or Penates, Pollux, Quirinus. See these under their several articles, &c.

According to the second division, all their divinities were clasped into, 1. Celestial gods; 2. Terrestrial gods; 3. Sea gods; and, 4. The infernal deities, or inferi. The celestial gods were Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Aurora, Cupid, Cybele, the Graces, Hebe, Iris, Luna, Mars, Mercury, Minerva, Nemesis, Saturn, Themis, Venus, &c. The terrestrial gods were Æolus, Mythology, Astræa, Ceres, Diana, the Fauni, Feronia, Flora, Janus, Momus, the Muses, Pales, Pan, Pomona, Priapus, the Satyrs, Silenus, the god Terminus, Vesta or Rhea, Vulcan, &c. The sea-gods were Neptune, Amphitrite, Thetis, Campus, Glaucus, Ino, the Nereids, Nereus, Oceanus, Palaimon, Triton, &c. The infernal gods were Pluto, Proserpine, Charon, Minos, Æacus, Rhadamantus, the Furies, Death, Night, the Fates, Plutus, &c. See these articles.

The third division ranged the divinities according as they presided, 1. Over the pregnancy of women, (Pregnantium;) 2. At parturition (Parturientium;) 3. At births, (Nascientium;) 4. At adulteries; 5. At marriages: to which they added, 7. Dii morales, or moral gods; and, 7. Funeral gods. The gods of pregnancy were Plutomus, Intercidona, and Deverra: the gods of parturition, Juno, Lucina, Diana, Egerio, Prosa, Poltverta, Menagenata, Latona, the gods that were called Nixi, or of labour, &c. The gods of birth were Janus, Opis, Naclion, Cunina, Carmenta, Vagianus, Levana, Rumia, Potina, Educa, Offlago, Carnea, Nundina, Statilinus, Fabulinus, Paentia, &c. The gods of adultery were Juventas, Agenoria, Strema, Stimula, Horta, Quies, Muicia, Adeona, Abeona, Voluptas, Orbona, Pellonia, Numeria, Camoena, Sentia, Angeronia, Heres, Martica, Laverna, the god Averruncus, Confus, Catius, Volumnus and Volumna, Honorius, Aius Locutius, &c. The nuptial gods were Diana, Domiduca, Domitius, Hymenaeus or Hymen, Jugatinus, Jupiter perfectus, Juno perfecta, Juno cinxia, Juno unxia, Lucina, Manturna, Mutinus, Dea Mater prima, Snada, Thalassius, Venus, &c. The moral gods were called Virtus, Honor, Fides, Spes, Justitia, Pietas, Misericordia, Clementia, Pudicitia, Veritas, Mens, Concordia, Pax, Salus, Felicitas, Libertas, Pecunia, Rifus, Invicta, Contumelia, Impudentia, Calumnia, Fraud, Discordia, Furor, Fama, Fortuna, with all their epithets good or bad, Febris, Pavor and Palor, Paupertas, Necesseitas, Tempestas, Silentium, &c. The funeral gods were Pluto, Libitina, Nenia, Death, the Fates, &c.

Hesiod indeed pretends, that all these gods derived their origin from chaos; but we have already pointed out more just sources. It is almost incredible to what a prodigious number the superstition and weakness of the Greeks and Romans multiplied these divinities; there have been 30,000 of them enumerated. It will not be expected that we should here attempt to describe them, nor will it be remarkable if we have forgotten to mention even some of the first rank: although, vast as this company of gods is, mythology does not omit to trace the history of the greatest part of them, as is taught by paganism; and they who are desirous of particular information in these matters may consult with advantage the theogony of Hesiod, the catalogue of Apollodorus, the metamorphoses of Ovid, the fables of Hyginus, Lylii Gregorii Gyraldi Syntagma de diis Gentilium, the mythology of Natalis Comes, the books of Gerard Voßius de idolatria Gentilium, Johannis Boccati Genealogia deorum, the Pantheon of Pompey, the history of heaven by Abbé Pluche, the historic explanation of fables by Abbé Banier, and Bryant's Mythology. There were still many other distinctions, of which the pagans made use to mark the rank, the functions, and nature of their several divinities. For example, the goddess Vesta, or the mother of all the gods, was adored by all people in general. Mars, Bellona, Victoria, Fortuna, &c. afflicting all parties. The topical gods, on the contrary, were adored in particular countries only; as Astarte in Syria, Derceto and Semiramis among the Assyrians, Isis and Osiris by the Egyptians, Quirinus at Rome, &c. The title Semiones, which was given to a certain class of divinities, was doubtless derived from Semi-hominis, that is, demi-men; and signified the same as semi-dii, or demi-gods. These were monarchs and illustrious heroes, or those great men who were the founders of cities and nations, that were deified by way of apotheosis. Pythagoras had taught the Chaldeans the doctrine of transmigration; and that, after their death, those who were virtuous would be elevated to the rank of divinities. This doctrine was adopted by all the pagan world. The apotheosis, after they had erected temples and altars to the new gods, was celebrated with much solemnity. In the last ceremony, an eagle was fixed on the catafalque, or funeral pile, on which was placed the image of the hero; and when the pile began to burn, the eagle was let loose, who, mounting into the air with the flames, seemed to carry the soul of the departed hero up to heaven.

Mythology informs us also who those persons were that antiquity regarded as the children of the gods, such as Thelcus, Hippolytus, Paris, &c., what the pagans believed with regard to the nature of their genii and demons, of their dryades, hamadryades, nymphs, tritons, sirens, fauns, sylvans, centaurs, and other subterranean divinities; and in this manner it explains all the systems of the polite religion of the Greeks and Romans. They who are desirous of extending their knowledge of paganism still further, of knowing the dogmas of each particular people, what were their gods, and the various manners in which they were worshipped, such as Apis, Isis, Osiris, &c., the adoration of crocodiles and onions, &c., among the Egyptians, must study the different theogonies of these people; and notwithstanding all the informations which ancient and modern authors afford, this study is yet boundless, and attended with many difficulties and uncertainties: though it appears demonstrative, that the origin of paganism, and of idolatry in general, was derived from the Chaldeans, from whom the Egyptians drew that doctrine which they afterwards transmitted to all other nations; and consequently that the primordial divinities were the same, under different denominations, among all the idolatrous nations of the earth.

The nature of this work will not permit us to descend to further particulars. But to give our readers an idea of the manner in which mythology treats its subjects, and of the method that should be observed in studying fable, or the history of the gods of antiquity, we shall here give, by way of example, a cursory description of Parnassus and its inhabitants.

Parnassus was a mountain of Phocis, that had two summits, one of which was called Titthoreus, and the other Hyampheus. Others say, that one of these hills was named Helicon, and the other Cytheron; and that it is an error to imagine, that Helicon was a mountain of Boeotia. However that be, this double hill was consecrated to Apollo and the muses, who there held their usual residence. According to fable, there had been a remarkable combat on this hill, between Helicon and Cytheron. Whoever slept on Parnassus, when he awoke, became a poet. Apollo had there a temple. There also was the fountain Caecalia, into which Apollo had metamorphosed a nymph that he loved, and had given to its waters the power of making all who drank of them poets. At the foot of Parnassus flowed the river Hippocrene, that had the same virtue; and the source of which was opened by a stroke of the foot of the horse Pegasus. This river nourished a great number of swans, that were regarded as sacred. Pegasus was a winged horse, that belonged to Apollo, and grazed on the summit of Parnassus. He sprang from the blood of Medusa, when Perseus cut off her head, which was placed among the stars. Such was the delicious abode of Apollo, the son of Jupiter and Latona, who was born, with his twin sister Diana, in the island Delos. He killed the Cyclops, who forged the thunderbolts with which Jupiter had overthrown his son Æsculapius; but for that presumption he was forced to leave heaven, and became an inhabitant of the earth. He guarded the oxen of Admetus; he aided Neptune to build the walls of Troy, and Alcides in forming the labyrinth. He killed the dragon or serpent Python. He invented music and physic; and was honoured as the god of poets and physicians. He was represented as a young man without a beard, his head surrounded with rays, and bearing in his hand a bow, or a lyre. As the ancients denoted the sun by the name of Apollo, they sometimes represented him also as seated in a chariot, drawn by two white horses, preceded by Aurora and the star Venus: Phaëton his son, being desirous of conducting these horses, was thrown into the sea. Apollo was also called Phaeus, Titan, and Sol. He is known to have had amours with Arinoe, Corycia, Meleone, Cyrene, Mantho, Sinope, Calliope, and others; by whom he had Delphes, Naxe, Nileus, Arabe, Garamas, Sirius, Linus, Orpheus, and other children. He had peculiar honours paid him in the Pythian games at Delphi, and in the secular games at Rome.

The muses were the companions of Apollo in his rural abode. They were likewise called the learned sisters; as also the Cumanian, Heliconian, Parnassian, Anonian, Pierian, Pegasian, Argippian, Thelopian, Libethrian, and Caecalian sisters. They were the daughters of Jupiter and Mnemosyne, and were regarded as the goddesses of sciences and arts in general. There were nine of these muses; to whom they attributed: 1. To Clio, history; 2. To Melpomene, tragedy; 3. To Thalia, comedy; 4. To Euterpe, flutes and other pneumatic instruments of music; 5. To Terpsichore, the harp and the dance; 6. To Erato, the lyre and the lute; 7. To Calliope, heroic verse; 8. To Urania, astronomy; and 9. To Polyhymnia, rhetoric and eloquence. The Graces also sometimes quitted Venus to pay their court to Apollo.

Such was the idea they entertained of Parnassus and its inhabitants. There is no doubt but that, under these fabulous representations, these sensible images, Mythology, were concealed allegoric and moral meanings; nor can it be denied but that their method of cultivating the arts and sciences, by this manner of expressing their ideas, was as ingenious and pleasing as it is possible to imagine. Every other subject that paganism embraced, it treated with the same genius, and in a manner equally pleasing; and though that religion was altogether fallacious, yet we must allow that it was extremely well calculated to promote the polite arts, by those refined, noble, graceful, brilliant images, by those charming subjects, which it constantly presented, and which it still offers to the poet, painter, sculptor, and every other artist.

But this was not a power sufficiently strong to secure paganism against that vicissitude, that decline and dissolution, which finally attends all the productions of this world. This religion, which had subsisted near 5000 years, and almost from the origin of the human race, gradually declined in proportion as the lights of Christianity and philosophy illumined the minds of mankind. For though the pagan religion, and the fables on which it is founded, were pleasing and favourable to the polite arts, they were not however calculated to satisfy the minds of philosophers, nor to promote the real good of mankind, by securing their temporal and eternal happiness. It is even surprising that so great a genius as the emperor Julian should attempt to revive the embers of paganism, which insensibly declined, and had received a mortal blow at the beginning of the fourth century by the emperor Constantine the great. Julian employed all the resources of his imagination, of his eloquence, of his power, and even of his own fatal example, to revive it; but in vain. The period of paganism was arrived, and nothing could save it from destruction. The furious Theodosius, to whom bigotted priests and historians have assigned the name of great, totally overthrew it toward the close of the same century, destroyed those temples and altars which yet subsisted, dispersed its colleges, and exterminated its priests. From that dire epoch, nothing of paganism has remained, except some ruins dispersed in the remote parts of the earth, and among people wretched and almost unknown; where this religion, once so flourishing and universal, is now degenerated into grogs and abjectful idolatry.