400,000 years, of which near 5000 years are already past. In the last part of the preceding Jogue, which they call the Dava pair, 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 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 complection, and opens a large field of mythological adventures. We have observed above, that the Fo or Foe 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 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 on 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.
Foe is often called Budha, Budda, and sometimes the incarnate Vishnou; perhaps, indeed, he may be distinguished by nations of many other names, according to the variety of dialects Vishnou, 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. Aquetel in his Zond, Avesla, Halhed's Introduction to his translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, Col. Dow's History of Hindoostan, Grose's Voyage to the East Indies, Asiatic Researches, vol. i. and 2. The mythology of the Persians is, if possible, still more extravagant than that of the Hindoos. It supposes the world to have been repeatedly destroyed, and repeopled by creatures of different formation, who were successively annihilated or banished for their disobedience to the supreme Being. The monstrous griffin Sinergb tells the hero Cakerman that he had already lived to see the earth seven times filled with creatures and seven times a perfect void; that, before the creation of Adam, this globe was inhabited by a race of beings called Peri and Dives, whose character formed a perfect contrast. The Peri are described as beautiful and benevolent; the Dives as deformed, malevolent, and mischievous, differing from infernal demons only in this, that they are not as yet confined to the pit of hell. They are ever ranging over the world, to scatter discord and misery among the sons of men. The Peri nearly resemble the fairies of Europe; and perhaps the Dives gave birth to the giants and magicians of the middle ages. The Peri and Dives wage incessant wars; and when the Dives make any of the Peri prisoners, they shut them up in iron cages, and hang them on the highest trees, to expose them to public view, and to the fury of every chilling blast.
When the Peri are in danger of being overpowered by their foes, they solicit the assistance of some mortal hero; which produces a series of mythological adventures, highly ornamental to the strains of the Persian bards, and which, at the same time, furnishes an inexhaustible fund of the most diversified machinery.
One of the most celebrated adventurers in the mythology of Persia is Tabmuras, one of their most ancient monarchs. This prince performs a variety of exploits, while he endeavours to recover the fairy Merjan. He attacks the Dive Demrush in his own cave; where, having vanquished the giant or demon, he finds vast piles of hoarded wealth; these he carries off with the fair captive. The battles, labours, and adventures of Roitan, another Persian worthy, who lived many ages after the former, are celebrated by the Persian bards with the same extravagance of hyperbole with which the labours of Hercules have been sung by the poets of Greece and Rome.
The adventures of the Persian heroes breathe all the wildness of achievement recorded of the knights of Gothic romance. The doctrine of enchantments, transformations, &c., exhibited in both, is a characteristic symptom of one common original. Persia is the genuine classic ground of eastern mythology, and the source of the ideas of chivalry and romance; from which they were propagated to the regions of Scandinavia, and indeed to the remotest corners of Europe towards the west.
Perhaps our readers may be of our opinion, when we offer it as a conjecture, that the tales of the war of the Peri and Dives originated from a vague tradition concerning good and bad angels: nor is it, in our opinion, improbable, that the fable of the wars between the gods and giants, so famous in the mythology of Greece and Italy, was imported into the former of these countries from the same quarter. For a more particular account of the Persian mythology, our readers may consult Dr Hyde de Relig. vet. Perf. Medor, &c. D. Herbelot's Bibl. Orient, and Mr Richard-son's introduction to his Persian and Arabic Dictionary.
The mythology of the Chaldeans, like that of the Chaldean other nations of the east, commences at a period myriads of years prior to the era of the Mosaic creation. Their cosmogony, exhibited by Berothus, 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. l. 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. These writings likewise contained a history of the heavens and the sea, of the earth, and of the origin of mankind.
"In the beginning (says Berothus, 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 hippocentaurs." The remaining part of this mythology is much of the same complexity; 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 θαλάττης, 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 inunder; 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 Berothus, 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 Berothus. 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. laws and religious ceremonies, and explained to them the principles of mathematics, geometry, and astronomy. In a word, he communicated to them everything 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 Pho-hi of the Chinese, and the Thoth or Mercury Trismegistus of the Egyptians. It is likewise apparent, that the idea of the monster compound 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 connection 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, dropt 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 the 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 connection between the sea and the moon. This same deity was the Atargatis of Alcalon, 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 (a), which import "the queen of the host of heaven."
The fable of Semiramis is nearly connected with the preceding one. Diodorus Siculus has preferred 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, 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 renders 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. I. ii. Hyginus Poet. Astron. tab. 197. Pharnutus de Nat. Deor. Ovid. Metam. I. iv. Athen. in Apol. Izetzes Chil. ix. cap. 275. Seld. de Diis Syr. Syrii. ii. p. 183.
We should now proceed to the mythology of the Little Arabians, the far greatest part of which is, however, known of buried in the abyss of ages; though, when we reflect on Arabian 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 thrones, 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 hyperbolic, 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, too, 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 immortals 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,
(a) Adar or Hadar, "magnificus;" and Gad, "exercitus turmi." (c) Shem or Sem, "a sign;" and ramah, "high." prefects, and representatives of the supreme Lord of the universe. They were visible, they were benevolent; 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 Zabism, or the worship of the host of heaven, which overpread 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 multifrom, 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 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 Nekyos, a title likewise implying royal, splendid, glorious. These 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, Orus, 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 greater 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 uninformed 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 transformations 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 Trismegistus, according to the Egyptians, was the original author of letters, geometry, astronomy, music, architecture; in a word, of all the elegant and useful Egyptian 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. 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 and Osiris; Jamblichus de Myth. Egypt. Horapollo Hieroglyph. Egypt. Macrobi. 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. Egyptianum.
The elements of Phoenician mythology have been preserved by Eusebius, Prep. Evang. sub init. In the large extract which that learned father hath copied from Philo Bithyni's translation of Sanchoniathon's History of Phoenicia, 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, Æpheceus or Vulcan, Æsculapius, Nereus, Poseidon or Neptune, &c. Astarte, or Venus Urania, makes a conspicuous figure in the catalogue of Phoenician 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 the Atlantidae 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 Phoenicia. 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 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 were, in their original constitution, nearly the same. Both systems were Sabellian, or the worship of the host of heaven. The Pelagri, 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 bewrayed 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, Procerpine, 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 hence 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 Otris 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 Sanchoniathon. Io or Lib 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 Phaethon is clearly of oriental extraction, and alludes to an excessive drought which in the early period... 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 orgies or sacred rites of Bacchus; the rites and worship of the Cabiri—were imported from Egypt and Phoenicia; but strangely garbled and disfigured by the Hierophants of Greece. The gigan- tomachia, 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 Divs, celebrated in the romantic annals of Per- fia.
The Greeks signifant of oriental languages.
A considerable part of the mythology of the Greeks sprung 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 stigmatised 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 soi-disant or strolling bands laid hold on those oriental legends, which they sophificated 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 fables had 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 of Thebes in Egypt: The oracle of Apollo at Delphi 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 Ov Gai, 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 groundwork of the Grecian mythology is to be traced in the east. Only a small part of it was fabricated in the country; and what was imported pure and genuine was miserably sophificated 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 expense furnish themselves with books upon that subject.
The Roman mythology was borrowed from the Greeks. That people had addicted themselves for many centuries to the arts of war and civil polity. Science and philosophy were either neglected or un-
N° 236.
known. At last they conquered Greece, the native land of science, and then "Graecia 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.
The mythology of the northern nations, i.e., of the Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Icelanders, &c., are not commonly curious and entertaining. The Edda and northern Voluppa 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 1st century. It is a kind of system of the Scandinavian mythology; and has been reckoned, and we believe justly, a commentary on the Voluppa, 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 greatest 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 Valhalla; 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 Valhalla, where they feast on the most delicious viands, drested 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 of the and heterogeneous. Loke, the evil genius or devil of the northern people, nearly resembles the Typhon of the Egyptians. Sigma or Sinna is the comfort of Loke; from this name the English word sin is derived. The giants Weynur, Ferbanter, Belophor, and Hel-lunda, 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 mythologies. Instead of glancing at these ridiculous and uninteresting fables, 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 Voluppa, which is indeed the text of the Scandinavian mythology.
The word *Voluppa* imports, "the prophecy of Vola or Fola." This was perhaps a general name for the prophetic ladies of the north, as Sybil 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 Lycophron's Alexandra, and the other in the Sybil 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 prophesy," and is still current among the common people in Scotland, in the word *Spa*, which has nearly the same fig-
The Voluppa 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 *nornir*; the functions of the deities, their most memorable adventures, their disputes with Loki, 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 Voluppa, a new one shall spring up, arrayed in all the bloom of celestial beauty.
Such is the doctrine exhibited in the fabulous Voluppa. So congenial are some of the details therein delivered, especially their 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 fabrication of the work was a semi-pagan 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, was obliterated and lost. Clavigero has indeed enumerated a vast canaille of sanguinary gods worshipped by the 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 bigoted 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 Capac the first Inca of Peru, and of Mama Oculla 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 benevolent, 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.