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order, every kingdom was fond of deriving their genealogy from this family, until all the Greeks were reputed to be Hellenes; and thus the name became universally applied to all the several nations of the country. The Marble hints, that Hellen, the father of this family, first instituted the Panathenæan games, not meaning, I suppose, that Hellen called them by that name; but that he instituted games of the same sort with the Panathenaan. Erichthonius was the first in Greece who taught to draw chariots with horses, and he instituted the chariot-race,' about A. M. 2499," in order to encourage his people to learn to manage horses this way with the greater dex. terity. And we are told that in his days, there was found in some mountains of Phrygia the image of the mother of the gods; and that Hyagnis made great improvements in the art of music, inventing new instruments and introducing them into the worship of Cybele, Dionysius, Pan, and the other deities and hero-gods of his country." Chariots may very probably be supposed to have been introduced into Greece by Erichthonius; for he was an Egyptian; and chariots were used in Egypt in the days of Joseph."

n Id. ibid.

1 Virgil. Geor. 3. Euseb. Chron. Num. 543. Chron. Marmor. Ep. 10. Gen. 1. 9. In the Latin version of Eusebius' Chronicon, Trochilus is said to have invented the chariot, Num. ccccxlvii: but it must appear, by what we have in the same version, Num. Dxliii, where Erichthonius is mentioned, that either Trochilus was aforeigner, and did not live in Greece, or what is said of him is a mistake.

But as to Cybele's image, we cannot reasonably suppose it was thus early, nor can the heathen music be thought to have been much improved until after these times. If Hyagnis invented the pipe or Tibia; wo must say of his pipe in the words of Horace,

Tibia non ut nunc Orichalco vincta, tubæque
Emula; sed tenuis simplexque foramine pauco,
Aspirare, et adesse Choris erat utilis, atque
Nondum spissa nimis complere sedilia flatu.

De Arte Poetică.

His pipe was a mean and simple instrument, of less compass even than the trumpet; and music was not advanced to any remarkable perfection in his days.

It is generally said, that the religion of Greece was anciently, what these Egyptians, Cecrops, Danaus, Cadmus, and Erichthonius introduced. It may not be amiss, therefore, before we go further, to examine what the ancient Egyptian religion was in their times; how far it might be corrupted, when they left Egypt; and this will show us what religion these Egyptians carried into the countries where they removed. I have already considered that the, most ancient deities of the Egyptians, and of all other nations, when they first deviated from the worship of the true God, were the luminaries of heaven." Now if we carry on the enquiry, and examine what further steps they took in the progress of their idolatry; we shall find

See book v. vol i.

that the Egyptians in a little time consecrated particular living creatures in honour of their sidereal deities; and some ages after, they took up an opinion, that their ancient heroes' were become gods. This opinion arose from a belief that the souls of such heroes were translated into some star; and so had a very powerful influence over them and their affairs.

1. The first step they took, after they worshipped the luminaries of heaven, was to dedicate to each particular deity some living creature, and to pay their religious worship of the deity before such creature, or the image of it. This was practised in Egypt very early, evidently before the Israelites left that country; 'for the Israelites had learned from the Egyptians to make the figure of a calf for the direction of their worship. The most learned, who were able to give the most plausible accounts of their superstition, did not allow, that they really worshipped their sacred animals; but only that they used them as the most powerful mediums, to raise in their heart a religious sense of the deity to which they were consecrated. It may be asked how they could fall into this practice, which to us seems odd and hu moursome; for of what use can the figure of a beast.

Exod. xxxii.

• Αγαπητών εν ε ταύτα τιμωνίας, αλλά δια τότων το θείον, ως εναργέτέρων εσοπόρων και φύσει γεγονότων. Plutarch. de Iside et Osiride. p. 382. In which words the learned heathen gives a more refined and philosophical reason for the Egpytian image-worship, than the papists can possibly give of theirs.

be, to raise in men's minds ideas, of even the sidereal deities. To this I answer, their speculation and philosophy led them into this practice. When men had deviated from that revelation, which was to have been their only guide in points of religion, they quickly fell from one fancy to another; and after they came to think that the lights of heaven were the gods that governed the world; they, in a little time, apprehended that these gods had made the living creatures of the earth more or less partakers of their divinity and perfections, that they might be the instruments of conveying a knowledge of them to men;" and men of the nicest enquiry and speculation made many curious observations upon them, which seemed highly to favour their religious philosophy. After the worship of the moon was established, and the increase and decrease of it superstitiously considered, by men who had no true philosophy; the dilatation and contraction of the pupilla of a cat's eye seemed very extraordinary. Plutarch gives several reasons why the Egyptians reputed a cat to be a sacred animal; but that formed from the contraction and dilatation of the pupil of its eye, seems to have

• Η δε ζώσα και βλέπεσα και κινήσεως αρχην εξ αυτής έχεσα και γνωσιν οικείων και αλλοτριών φυσις, εσπάκεν απορξουν και μοιραν εκ τα φρονάνα όπως κυβερνάται το, τε σύμπαν, όθεν κα χώρον εν τέτοις εικάζεται το θείον η χαλκείοις και λίθινοις δημιουργή μασιν -περί μεν ων των τιμωμένων ζώων ταυτα δοκιμάζω μάλιςα Tv Ayousvwv. Plut. de Iside et Osiride p. 382.

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been the first and most remarkable. This property of that creature was thought strongly to intimate, that it had a more than ordinary participation of the influence of the lunar deity; and was by nature made capable of exhibiting lively representations of its divinity unto men; and was therefore consecrated and set apart for that purpose. The asp and the beetle became sacred upon the same account; they thought they saw in them some faint images of the divine perfections, and therefore consecrated them to the particular deities, whose qualities they were thought to exhibit." Now this practice of reputing some animals sacred to particular gods was the first addition made to their idoidolatry; aud the reason I have given, seems to have been the first inducement which led them into it. In later ages, more animals became sacred than were at first thought so; and they paid a more religious regard to them, and gave more in number, and more frivolous reasons for it; but this was the rise and beginning of this error.

II. Some ages after, they descended to worship heroes or dead men, whom they cononized. That they acknowledged many of their gods to be of this

* Αι δε εν τοις ομμασιν αυτέ κοραι πληρέσθαι μεν και πλατυνεσθαι δοκεσιν εν πανσεληνως λεπτυνεσθαι δε και μαρανγειν εν ταις μειώσεσι το ases των δε ανθρωπομορφω τα αιλερς το νοερον και λογικον εμφαίνεται των ωερι την Σελήνην μεταβολων. Id. ibid. p. 376.

- Ασπίδα δε και γαλην και κανθαρον, εικονας TIVAS EXUTOIS άμαυρας ωσπερ εν ςαγοσιν ηλια της των θεών δυνάμεως κατιδονίες. Plut. de Iside et Osiride.

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