FIRE AND WATER SUN AND MOON WERE SO CALLED. Ir now only remains to show, that the same explanation, which serves to account for the names of Pan and Bacchus being applied to Apollo, will be of equal use in elucidating the origin of his other title, the Grynian Titan. Virgil calls him Grynæan too'; and therefore in that obscure passage of Lycophron, where it is a question whether he wrote Grenos or Grynos, the latter is most probable: the poet alludes to an ancient strife and victory of the fireworshippers.2 Now certainly the first of these terms will admit of a very consistent interpretation for Geranos was the name of a circular dance already noticed, similar to that which for a long time continued to be used in the Celtic islands of the West. A recent authoress has described 1 Eclog. vi. 72. 3 2 Γρηνός, οι γρυνὸς ἀρχαίαν ἔριν. — Lyc. Cassand. 1362. ἀρχαίαν may also mean Arkite; for Arca is certainly derived from dpx; and so is Αρκας. 3 Miss Beaufort's Essay on the Round Towers of Ireland, p. 8. the ceremony, which she herself witnessed. When the cattle were driven through the blazing fire, the young people followed, and each seizing a lighted brand, they formed a sort of irregular winding dance, waving the flaming torches over their heads, and shouting in a sort of rude chorus. In the same way, no doubt, the young women of Delos danced round the altar of their god after the annual sacrifice for every year, a ship was sent for that purpose to the sacred island; and on her return she was greeted with loud acclamations, and during her voyage no one was allowed to be put to death; for it was a rite commemorative of preservation and deliverance.' Several circumstances mentioned by Virgil lead to the same conclusion. The first sacrifice offered by Eneas there was a bull to Neptune. It was his favourite sanctuary; and an oracle issued from a subterranean cell, which must have been constructed in the bosom of the mountain, for Cynthus trembled all around.3 island had been once in motion, which is another instance of the confusion which arises from blending together in one object the symbols of the Ark and the mountain, on which it rested. The sanctuary, which gave its whole value to the island, The 1 So much is acknowledged by the idle tale about the Minotaur, which only proves, that the cause was not historical, but purely mystic; and the real import of the fable has been already shown. Sacra mari colitur medio gratissima tellus 2 3 Nereidum matri et Neptuno Ægeo. Eneid, iii. 73. Totusque moveri Mons circum et mugire adytis cortina reclusis. Ibid. 91. 4 So also the ship was called Theoris, which is εo pos, the mountain of God. was the symbol of the floating ark, which became fixed, when the person, afterwards worshipped as Apollo, was born by issuing from its womb. But the moon was born there first; which indicates the state of transition from Arkite to Solar rites; and Apollo's first exploit was the conquest of the diluvian Python, which was undoubtedly a struggle for divine honours, notwithstanding the pains which Plutarch takes to contradict the injurious report.' Hoffman observes that it appears to be double, or, in other words, to have two horns, one of which was called the island Rhenia, and by the natives Fermene: now Mene is obviously the Moon, and Fer may be derived from Baris, like the islands Pharos and Pharis. Lastly, Delos was in the centre of the Cyclades, or circular islands, and consequently an exact image of Meru in the Ilavratta of the Hindoos. But although these considerations show that the Geranos, or circular dance, may have had some share in the ancient strife, to which the poet alludes, yet the passage in Plutarch points out the true reading; for it appears that the theologians of Delphi made no scruple of declaring, that the strife was in fact about the oracle, which, being a source of profit to the priests, was the bone of contention between the rival sects. In Greek Gruon, or Geruon, signifies something which 1 Περὶ τοῦ χρηστηρίου μάχην γενέσθαι.-Plut. de Defect. Οrac. c.15. 2 Rhŷn in Celtic is a hill. · Lluyd's Archæol. Brittan.; and so the Rhenus, or Rhine, is spelt in the Dutch language. 5 Γρύνος from Γρυων, like κυνος from κυων. 6 Γηρύειν, φωνεῖν, λέγειν, Hesych. : the Dorians use Γαρύειν. pronounces, or speaks, and consequently it might very well be applied to an oracle; hence Grynium was celebrated for its oracle.' It is obviously derived from the Hebrew Garon, the throat or mouth2: and this is the true key to the fable of Geryon. That he had no historical existence has been already shown, and may well be inferred from the contradictory statements of those who have handed down to us the traditions concerning him. We have seen that, according to Hecatæus, he was king of Ambracia in Epirus, where the cattle were famous for their magnitude, and consequently were worth driving away. But Palæphatus is quite sure that ' he lived at Tricarenia in the Euxine Sea, and that the notion of his having three heads arose from the name of the place. But the most common tradition fixed him at Erytheia, near the straits of Gibraltar; and thither Hercules went on purpose to fetch away the cattle: but as Bochart very per tinently observes, if this were true, and if it was really famous for its breed of cattle, that circumstance would not have been omitted by Strabo, who dwells much upon its merits as a sheep pasture. The truth is, that, as the name of a man, it was altogether fictitious: it was the name of an oracle, which might have one establishment at the tridentshaped sanctuary in the Euxine, another on the Ambraciot mountains, and a third at Erytheia, which was therefore called Gerontis Arx; whence, 1 Strabo, lib. xiii. 2 Thus in Psalm cxlix. 6. Let the praises of God be in their mouth. בִגְרוֹתָ The word is 3 Arrian. Anabas. lib. ii. 2 3 says Festus Avienus, we have heard that Geryon derived his name.' It was in the neighbourhood of a Mons Cassius which reminds us of that in Egypt and in Syria, and of Gaddir, where the author saw nothing wonderful, except the rites of Hercules. And what rites these were, may be guessed from the tradition, that he was the author of a deluge by opening a passage for the waters of the Atlantic through the straits of Gibraltar. The rocks on either side of these straits, formerly called Calpe and Abila, both of which signify a high mountain, in a secondary sense probably, derived from the position of the first great ship, are usually considered his pillars; and so they were: for they were sacred to him, and so were the Stelæ, if they ever existed, whether of brass, or of more precious metal, which he is said to have raised somewhere in that neighbourhood as monuments of his voyage." It is highly probable that some such monuments may have been erected, and dedicated to his worship, in memory of those two peaks, which were the first token to the man of the Ark, that the work 1 Ora Maritima, p. 264. 2 Herculaneam solennitatem. Ibid. p. 274. He supposes Gaddir to be distinct from Erytheia; Apollodorus declares, that they were the same, lib. ii., which confirms the view which I have taken of them before. 3 Pomponius Mela, de Situ Orbis, 1. i. c. 5. 4 Maurusiorum est Abila; and Abilam vocant Gens Punicorum, mons quod altus barbaro est, id est, Latino. Festus Avienus. Ora Maritima, p. 346. Alp signifies in High Dutch a grassy place in the middle of a high mountain. Allgemeines Deutsches Conversations Lexicon. Apollodorus, lib. ii. σnueĩa ts Topeías. Has columnas ex auro et argento conflatas describit Philostratus, at Strabo solum æreas, — Bochart, Geog. Sac. p. 610. |