judged guilty of impiety for saying so; and that further in the East, it was converted into Mithras, which was his acknowledged title. But perhaps

a better etymology, if that which has been already suggested be not satisfactory, may be found for that title in the Chaldee Midrash', which signifies an allegory; for certainly much that the ancients have handed down to us concerning him, contains a hidden and mysterious meaning: for, 1. He was said to be born from a rock2; a statement which is utterly absurd, if it be referred to the sun, but is sufficiently intelligible, if the Mithratic cave be taken for a representative of the Ark. 2. He triplicated himself"; which may possibly be one of those fragments of an early revelation relating to the Trinity, which sometimes sparkle in the mire of mythology. Otherwise, since it is plain that it has nothing to do with the sun, it must be interpreted in the same way as the triplicity of DionuFaber thinks, that he is said to have triplicated himself, because the patriarch was the father of three sons: and perhaps this is the best explanation; for 3rdly, the same triplicity being ascribed to Oromazes, and the same substance too (for both consisted of pure light), the actions of the one must be the actions of the other; and Plutarch must be mistaken, when, contrary to all

sus.

5 Plutarch. de Isid. et Osir. c. 47. Der dem guten Ormuzd so nahe verwandte Mithras. - Baur. Manichaische, Religions-system, p. 91.

the principles of the Oriental philosophy, he supposes Mithras to be a third and intermediate being, between Arimanias and Oromazes. Both therefore represent the good genius, who shut up the gods in an egg, or, to speak more plainly, who inclosed the deified men in the Ark; and in the Zendavesta, Ahriman is acknowledged to be the serpent, or evil genius, who was the cause of the deluge.' The production of a similar enormous egg is ascribed by Orpheus to a certain deity called both Hercules and Chronus (Saturn), who made his appearance out of the aboriginal waters, surrounded by a lion-headed serpent. Now the image of Mithras in Persia had the head of a lion; and the initiated were not only called lions, but amongst the Sebazii, who were a Mithratic sect, a serpent was passed over their persons, as I have already shown. It was Mithras therefore, who fabricated the huge egg, the asylum of the gods, which floated upon the primæval waters: for his alliance with Hercules has been already shown, and from other sources we know that he was considered to

3

1 Faber's Pagan Idolatry, ii. 60.

2

2 Ην δὲ ὕδωρ ἀρχὴ κατ' αὐτὸν τοῖς ὅλοις, ἀπὸ δὲ τοῦ ὕδατος Ἰλὺς και τέστη, ἐκ δὲ ἑκατέρων ἐγεννήθη ζῶον δράκων, προσπεφυκυίων ἔχων κεφαλὴν λέοντος, διὰ μέσου δὲ αὐτῶν θεοῦ πρόσωπον, ὄνομα Ἡρακλῆς καὶ Χρόνος· OUTÒS ÉYÉVVηCEY STEPμÉYEDES WOY.-Athenagor. Legatio pro Christ. οὑτὸς ἐγέννησεν ὑπερμέγεθες c. 18.

3 Lactantius in Statii Thebaid. apud fin. In a subterranean temple on the north side of the Capitol at Rome, the triplicated Mithras is exhibited; for on each side of the principal figure stand two others with a star over their heads to signify their divinity. The bull has inscribed upon his neck, Nama Sebesio. Gruter's Inscriptions, i. 34.

3

be Cronus as well as Muthros.' 4thly, Mithras, like Siva, had a bull for his vehicle; and the reason assigned by Porphyry is, that he was the lord of production 2: and hence he is very naturally identified with Apis, the father of mankind, and other Arkite personages, such as Serapis and Osiris. But his position with respect to the Sacred Bull has subjected him to some awkward imputations: he has been called a cattle-stealer, like Hercules 4; and much the same view of him seems to have been taken by Statius, when he describes him twisting the horns of a bull, indignant at being forced to follow under the rocks of the Persean cave." Persean and Mithratic are here used as synonymous, and not without reason; for Perseus, too, was inclosed in an ark, and exposed upon the waters in his infancy. He was the son of the Arkite Danae 7; but his conquest of the sea monster marks the

1 Εἴ κρόνος, εἴ Φαέθων πολυώνυμος, εἴ τε σὺ μυθρὸς. Nonnus in Dionys. Kircher de Instit. Hierog. lib. ii.

2 Επωχεῖτο ταύρῳ ἀφροδίτης· ὡς καὶ ὁ ταῦρος, δημιουργὸς ὢν ὁ Μίθρας καὶ γενέσεως δεσπότης. De Antro Nymph. c. 24.

3 By Nonnus and Statius.

4 Boum fur. — Martin, Explications de Divers Monumens Singuliers, p. 220. Virum abactorem boum colentes sacra ejus ad ignis transferunt potestatem: hunc Mithram dicunt. Julius Firmicus, de Errore Profanarum Religionum, c. 5.

5

Persei sub rupibus antri

Indignata sequi torquentem cornua Mithram.

Theb. lib. i. 718.

6 The Scholiast on Lycophron, v. 838. says, v λápvak: the Chronicon Paschale, p. 38. v KIT. This is the term used by the Seventy for the ark of Noah.

7 It is remarkable, that the reason which Euripides puts into the mouth of Acrisius for giving his daughter the name of Danae is, that he had waited so long a time for offspring; this looks as if the man of the ship, Danaus, had long been considered synonymous with Chronus, or Time. — Eur. Dan. 20.

period when he apostatised: and a similar defection is intimated in the ordinary representation of Mithras slaying a bull; but in what sense the same animal was originally his vehicle, may be learned from a very curious Roman marble, the drawing of which was published by Gronovius in his Latin edition of Agostini. There Mithras appears in the front of his cave, with one foot on the body, and the other between the horns of a bull, that is to say, in his Bari. In the distance on the right, the sun appears rising by the side of a conical mountain, and on the left, the moon is disappearing; for the long, long night was over, when he issued from the Ark. Two cypresses on the horizon betoken the past period of gloom and death; below there is a lion's head, and a cock the harbinger of day; and lower still, two palm trees, beginning to throw out their leaves, the emblems of a resurrection from the state of death, in which the earth was involved, which have occasioned the fable of the Phoenix rising from its own ashes. Nearer in front, the raven of the ark makes its appearance, and the Scorpion, which, as I have shown, was one of its symbols. In advance of the cavern on the right, a man holds up a lighted torch; for light returned, when the Ark was opened: and the suspension of that blessing is signified by another figure behind, sitting in a pensive posture, with his torch reversed, and touching the ground. A serpent forms a waving line under the bull, just as it was used by the Egyptians to represent water. The only other figures are a dog, that is, a priest, and an eagle on

a palm tree, holding the thunder, which Montfauçon unaccountably mistakes for a crow. It is certain, that the eagle was supposed to have some close connection with the deluge; for the Nile was called an eagle 2; and on an ancient altar at Etlingen, but since removed to Wittenburg, Neptune is represented holding a dolphin with an eagle's head, and a tail ending in leaves, to show that at the conclusion of the deluge vegetation returned.

The eagle employed to torment Prometheus 4, who first brought fire from heaven, or, in other words, introduced the worship of it, was the offspring, not of any bird, but of two diluvian serpents, Typhon and Echidna. He was afterwards shot by Hercules. Most authors agree in referring Prometheus to the first age after the deluge. Vossius even takes him to be Noah, because he is said to have formed men out of mud": but the principal facts recorded of him suit better with a son or grandson of the patriarch; and accordingly Hesiod makes him the son of Japetus, or Japheth; and Cassian affirms, that, according to ancient traditions, he was Ham: at least, to him he attributes the first erection of fire-towers, that is, the first introduction of fire-worship. And that being the case, it matters not whether it be under the

1 Montfauçon, vol. xi. pl. 82. p. 227.

2 Διὰ τὸ γενόμενον ἔκρηγμα φασὶν ἀετὸν ὀνομασθῆναι.

lib. i. p. 11.

3 Gruter. Inscript. i. 62.

5 Pherecydes, lib. ii.

Diodor. Sic.

4 Hesiod. Theog. 523.

6 Patriarcha Noe non in solo nobis adumbratur Saturno, sed etiam Prometheo, cujus festum Athenis IIpounea dictum. Voss. de Idololat. p. 141.