A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology Volume I Part 15

??a????te? ??ta??? e??p???? ????sa?t?, ?a? sa?ea ??feess?? ?pe?t?p??.

??ta??? Betarmus, was a name given to the dance, from the temple of the Deity where it was probably first practised. It is a compound of Bet Armes, or Armon, called, more properly, Hermes, and Hermon. Bet, and Beth, among the Amonians, denoted a temple. There is reason to think that the circular dances of the Dervises, all over the east, are remains of these antient customs. In the first ages this exercise was esteemed a religious rite, and performed by people of the temple where it was exhibited: but, in aftertimes, the same feats were imitated by rope-dancers and vagrants, called Petauristae, and Petauristarii; who made use of a kind of pole, styled petaurum.--Of these the Roman writers make frequent mention; and their feats are alluded to by Juvenal:

[860]An magis oblectant animum jactata petauro Corpora, quique solent r.e.c.t.u.m descendere funem?

Manilius likewise gives an account of this people, and their activity; wherein may be observed some remains of the original inst.i.tution:

[861]Ad numeros etiam ille ciet cognata per artem Corpora, quae valido saliunt excussa petauro: Membraque _per flammas...o...b..sque_ emissa flagrantes, Delphinumque suo per inane imitantia motu, Et viduata volant pennis, et in aere ludunt.

I have shewn, that the Paterae, or Priests, were so denominated from the Deity styled Pator; whose shrines were named Patera, and Petora. They were oracular temples of the Sun; which in aftertimes were called Petra, and ascribed to other G.o.ds. Many of them for the sake of mariners were erected upon rocks, and eminences near the sea: hence the term pet?a, petra, came at length to signify any rock or stone, and to be in a manner confined to that meaning. But in the first ages it was ever taken in a religious sense; and related to the shrines of Osiris, or the Sun, and to the oracles, which were supposed to be there exhibited. Thus Olympus near Pisa, though no rock, but a huge mound, or hill ([862]?e?? ?a? t?? ??????? ??F?? a?eta? ta ???p?a) was of old termed Petra, as relating to oracular influence. Hence Pindar, speaking of Iamus, who was supposed to have been conducted by Apollo to Olympia, says, _that they both came to the Petra Elibatos upon the lofty Cronian mount: there Apollo bestowed upon Iamus a double portion of prophetic knowledge_.

[863]????t? d' ??????? ?et?a?

???at?? ???????, ???' ?? ?pase ??sa????

??d??? ?????SY??S.

The word ???at??, Elibatos, was a favourite term with Homer, and other poets; and is uniformly joined with Petra. They do not seem to have known the purport of it; yet they adhere to it religiously, and introduce it wherever they have an opportunity. ???at?? is an Amonian compound of Eli-Bat, and signifies solis domus, vel [864]templum. It was the name of the temple, and specified the Deity there worshipped. In like manner the word Petra had in great measure lost its meaning; yet it is wonderful to observe how industriously it is introduced by writers, when they speak of sacred and oracular places. Lycophron calls the temple at Elis [865]?e??a?

???p?d?? pet?a?: and the Pytho at Delphi is by Pindar styled Petraessa: [866]?pe? ?et?aessa? e?a???? ??et' e? ???????. Orchomenos was a place of great antiquity; and the natives are said to have worshipped Petra, which were supposed to have fallen from [867]heaven. At Athens in the Acropolis was a sacred cavern, which was called Petrae Macrae, Petrae Cecropiae.

[868]????e t?????, ??s?a ?e???p?a? pet?a?, ???s????? a?t???, a? ?a??a? ?????s??e?.

I have shewn that people of old made use of caverns for places of worship: hence this at Athens had the name of Petra, or temple. [869]It is said of Ceres, that after she had wandered over the whole earth, she at last reposed herself upon a stone at Eleusis. They in like manner at Delphi shewed the petra, upon which the Sibyl Herophile at her first arrival sat [870]down. In short, there is in history of every oracular temple some legend about a stone; some reference to the word Petra. To clear this up, it is necessary to observe, that when the worship of the Sun was almost universal, this was one name of that Deity even among the Greeks. They called him Petor, and Petros; and his temple was styled Petra. This they oftentimes changed to ?????; so little did they understand their own mythology. There were however some writers, who mentioned it as the name of the Sun, and were not totally ignorant of its meaning. This we may learn from the Scholiast upon Pindar. [871]?e?? de t?? ????? ?? f?s???? fas??, ??

????? ?a?e?ta? ? ?????. ?a? ??a?a????? ?e??e??? ????p?d?? a??t??, ?et???

e????e?a? t?? ????? d?a t?? p???e?e???.

? ?a? ?a?a????, ?' ??? ??e?d??? t??a?, ???? pef????, ?? ?e???s?, ?a?ta???, ????f?? ?pe?te????ta de?a???? ??????, ?e?? p?t?ta?, ?a? t??e? ta?t?? d????.

The same Scholiast quotes a similar pa.s.sage from the same writer, where the Sun is called Petra.

[872]?????? ta? ???a??? esa?

?????? te tetae?a? a????as? pet?a?, ???ses? ???sea?? fe??e?a?.

If then the name of the Sun, and of his temples, was among the antient Grecians Petros, and Petra; we may easily account for that word so often occurring in the accounts of his worship. The Scholia above will moreover lead us to discover whence the strange notion arose about the famous Anaxagoras of Clazomenae; who is said to have prophesied, that a stone would fall from the Sun. All that he had averred, may be seen in the relation of the Scholiast above: which amounts only to this, that Petros was a name of the Sun. It was a word of Egyptian original, derived from Petor, the same as Ham, the Iamus of the antient Greeks. This Petros some of his countrymen understood in a different sense; and gave out, that he had foretold a stone would drop from the Sun. Some were idle enough to think that it was accomplished: and in consequence of it pretended to shew at aegospotamos the very [873]stone, which was said to have fallen. The like story was told of a stone at Abydus upon the h.e.l.lespont: and Anaxagoras was here too supposed to have been the prophet[874]. In Abydi gymnasio ex ea causa colitur hodieque modicus quidem (lapis), sed quem in medio terrarum casurum Anaxagoras praedixisse narratur. The temples, or Petra here mentioned, were Omphalian, or Oracular: hence they were by a common mistake supposed to have been in the centre of the habitable globe. They were also ???at??

?et?a?; which Elibatos the Greeks derived from a??? descendo; and on this account the Petra were thought to have fallen from the [875]Sun. We may by this clue unravel the mysterious story of Tantalus; and account for the punishment which he was doomed to undergo.

[876]???? d' ??e?

?ta? ?pe??p???, ?a? ?? pat?? ?pe???ease, ?a?te??? a?t? ?????

??? ae? e?????? ?efa?a? a?e??

??f??s??a? a?ata?.

The unhappy Tantalus From a satiety of bliss Underwent a cruel reverse.

He was doom'd to sit under a huge stone, Which the father of the G.o.ds Kept over his head suspended.

Thus he sat In continual dread of its downfal, And lost to every comfort.

It is said of Tantalus by some, that he was set up to his chin in water, with every kind of fruit within reach: yet hungry as he was and thirsty, he could never attain to what he wanted; every thing which he caught at eluding his efforts. But from the account given above by [877]Pindar, as well as by [878]Alcaeus, Aleman, and other writers, his punishment consisted in having a stone hanging over his head; which kept him in perpetual fear.

What is styled ?????, was I make no doubt originally Petros; which has been misinterpreted a stone. Tantalus is termed by Euripides a???ast?? t??

???ssa?, a man of an ungovernable tongue: and his history at bottom relates to a person who revealed the mysteries in which he had been [879]initiated.

The Scholiast upon Lycophron describes him in this light; and mentions him as a priest, who out of good nature divulged some secrets of his cloister; and was upon that account ejected from the society[880]. ? ?a?ta??? e?se??

?a? ?e?sept?? ?? ?e?e??, ?a? f??a????p?? ta t?? ?e?? ?st???a t??? a??t???

?ste??? e?p??, e?e???? t?? ?e??? ?ata?????. The mysteries which he revealed, were those of Osiris, the Sun: the Petor, and Petora of Egypt. He never afterwards could behold the Sun in its meridian, but it put him in mind of his crime: and he was afraid that the vengeance of the G.o.d would overwhelm him. This Deity, the Petor, and Petora of the Amonians, being by the later Greeks expressed Petros, and Petra, gave rise to the fable above about the stone of Tantalus. To this solution the same Scholiast upon Pindar bears witness, by informing us, [881]that the Sun was of old called a stone: and that some writers understood the story of Tantalus in this light; intimating that it was the Sun, which hung over his head to his perpetual terror. [882]????? a?????s? t?? ????? ep? t?? ?????--?a?

ep???e?s?a? a?t?? (?a?ta???) t?? ?????, ?f' ? de?at??s?a?, ?a?

?atapt?sse??. And again, ?e?? de t?? ????? ?? f?s???? ?e???s??, ?? ?????

(it should be pet?a) ?a?e?ta? ? ?????. _Some understand, what is said in the history about the stone, as relating to the Sun: and they suppose that it was the Sun which hung over his head, to his terror and confusion. The naturalists, speaking of the Sun, often call him a stone, or petra_.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Pl. V. _Temple of Mithras Petraeus in the Mountains of Persia. From Le Bruyn_]

By laying all these circ.u.mstances together, and comparing them, we may, I think, not only find out wherein the mistake consisted, but likewise explain the grounds from whence the mistake arose. And this clue may lead us to the detection of other fallacies, and those of greater consequence.

We may hence learn the reason, why so many Deities were styled ?et?a???, Petraei. We read of[883] ????a?, ? ?e?? e? pet?a?, _Mithras, the Deity out of the rock_; whose temple of old was really a rock or cavern. The same worship seems to have prevailed, in some degree, in the west; as we may judge from an antient inscription at Milan, which was dedicated[884]

Herculi in Petra. But all Deities were not so worshipped: and the very name Petra was no other than the sacred term Petora, given to a cavern, as being esteemed in the first ages an oracular temple. And some reverence to places of this sort was kept up a long time. We may from hence understand the reason of the prohibition given to some of the early proselytes to Christianity, that they should no more[885] ad petras vota reddere: and by the same light we may possibly explain that pa.s.sage in Homer, where he speaks of persons entering into compacts under oaks, and rocks, as places of[886] security. The oak was sacred to Zeus, and called Sar-On: and Petra in its original sense being a temple, must be looked upon as an asylum. But this term was not confined to a rock or cavern: every oracular temple was styled Petra, and Petora. Hence it proceeded that so many G.o.ds were called Te?? ?et?a???, and ?at??s?. Pindar speaks of Poseidon Petraios;[887] ?a?

??se?d???? ?et?a???: under which t.i.tle Neptune was worshipped by the Thessalians: but the latter was the more common t.i.tle. We meet in Pausanias with Apollo Patrous, and with [888]?e?? ?e???????, and ??te?? ?at??a; also [889]Bacchus ?at????, Zeus Patrous, and Vesta Patroa, together with other instances.

The Greeks, whenever they met with this term, even in regions the most remote, always gave it an interpretation according to their own preconceptions; and explained ?e?? ?at????, the oracular Deities, by Dii Patrii, or the G.o.ds of the country. Thus, in the Palmyrene inscription, two Syrian Deities are characterized by this t.i.tle.

[890]?G???O?O ??? ????????O ????O??S T???S.

Cyrus, in his expedition against the Medes, is represented as making vows [891]?st?? ?at???, ?a? ??? ?at???, ?a? t??? a????? Te???. But the Persians, from whom this history is presumed to be borrowed, could not mean by these terms Dii Patrii: for nothing could be more unnecessary than to say of a Persic prince, that the homage, which he payed, was to Persic Deities. It is a thing of course, and to be taken for granted, unless there be particular evidence to the contrary. His vows were made to Mithras, who was styled by the nations in the east Pator; his temples were Patra, and Petra, and his festivals Patrica. Nonnus gives a proper account of the Petra, when he represents it as Omphean, or oracular:

[892]?fa?? pe?? ?et??

??set? ??p?a???? ?????? ?d??sat? ?a????.

At Patara, in Lycia, was an oracular temple: and Patrae, in Achaia, had its name from divination, for which it was famous. Pausanias mentions the temple, and adds, [893]??? de t?? ?e??? t?? ???t??? est? p???--a?te??? de e?ta??a est?? a?e?de?. _Before the temple is the fountain of Demeter--and in the temple an oracle, which never is known to fail_.

The offerings, which people in antient times used to present to the G.o.ds, were generally purchased at the entrance of the temple; especially every species of consecrated bread, which was denominated accordingly. If it was an oracular temple of Alphi, the loaves and cakes were styled [894]Alphita.

If it was expressed Ampi, or Ompi, the cakes were Ompai[895], ?pa?: at the temple of Adorus[896], Adorea. Those made in honour of Ham-orus had the name of [897]h.o.m.oura, Amora, and Omoritae. Those sacred to Peon, the G.o.d of light, were called [898]Piones. At Cha-on, which signifies the house of the Sun, [899]Cauones, ?a???e?. From Pur-Ham, and Pur-Amon, they were denominated Puramoun, [900]???a???. From Ob-El, Pytho Deus, came [901]Obelia. If the place were a Petra or Petora, they had offerings of the same sort called Petora, by the Greeks expressed [902]??t??a, Pitura. One of the t.i.tles of the Sun was El-Aphas, Sol Deus ignis. This El-aphas the Greeks rendered Elaphos, e?af??; and supposed it to relate to a deer: and the t.i.tle El-Apha-Baal, given by the Amonians to the chief Deity, was changed to e?af?????, a term of a quite different purport. El-aphas, and El-apha-baal, related to the G.o.d Osiris, the Deity of light: and there were sacred liba made at his temple, similar to those above, and denominated from him ??af??, Elaphoi. In Athenaeus we have an account of their composition, which consisted of fine meal, and a mixture of sesamum and honey. [903]??af?? p?a???? d?a sta?t?? ?a? e??t?? ?a? s?sa??.

One species of sacred bread, which used to be offered to the G.o.ds, was of great antiquity, and called Boun. The Greeks, who changed the Nu final into a Sigma, expressed it in the nominative, ???; but, in the accusative, more truly boun, ???. Hesychius speaks of the Boun, and describes it, e?d??

peat?? ?e?ata e???t??; _a kind of cake, with a representation of two horns_. Julius Pollux mentions it after the same manner: ???, e?d??

peat?? ?e?ata e???t??; _a sort of cake with horns_. Diogenes Laertius, speaking of the same offering being made by Empedocles, describes the chief ingredients of which it was composed: [904]???? e??se--e? e??t?? ?a?

a?f?t??. _He offered up one of the sacred liba, called a boun, which was made of fine flour and honey_. It is said of Cecrops, [905]p??t?? ???

e??se: _He first offered up this sort of sweet bread_. Hence we may judge of the antiquity of the custom from the times to which Cecrops is referred.

The prophet Jeremiah takes notice of this kind of offering, when he is speaking of the Jewish women at Pathros in Egypt, and of their base idolatry; in all which their husbands had encouraged them. The women, in their expostulation upon his rebuke, tell him: _Since we left off to burn incense to the Queen of heaven, and to pour out drink-offerings unto her, we have wanted all things; and have been consumed by the sword and by the famine. And when we burnt incense to the Queen of heaven, and poured out drink-offerings unto her, did we make her cakes to worship her, and pour out drink-offerings unto her without our [906]men?_ The prophet, in another place, takes notice of the same idolatry. [907]_The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of heaven_. The word, in these instances, for sacred cakes, is ?????, Cunim. The Seventy translate it by a word of the same purport, ?a???a?, Chauonas; of which I have before taken notice: [908]??

a?e? t?? a?d??? ??? ep???sae? a?t? ?a???a?. ?t?.

I have mentioned that they were sometimes called Petora, and by the Greeks Pitura. This, probably, was the name of those liba, or cakes, which the young virgins of Babylonia and Persis, used to offer at the shrine of their G.o.d, when they were to be first prost.i.tuted: for, all, before marriage, were obliged to yield themselves up to some stranger to be deflowered. It was the custom for all the young women, when they arrived towards maturity, to sit in the avenue of the temple, with a girdle, or rope, round their middle; and whatever pa.s.senger laid hold of it was ent.i.tled to lead them away. This practice is taken notice of, as subsisting among the Babylonians, in the epistle ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah; which he is supposed to have written to Baruch. v. 43. ??de ???a??e? pe???ee?a?

s?????a e? ta?? ?d??? e??a???ta? ????sa? ta ???Y??? ?ta? de t?? a?t??

afe????e?sa ?p? t???? t?? pa?ap??e??e??? ??????, t?? p??s??? ??e?d??e?, ?t? ??? ????ta?, ?spe? a?t?, ??te t? s??????? a?t?? d?e??a??. This is a translation from an Hebrew or Chaldaic original; and, I should think, not quite accurate. What is here rendered ???a??e?, should, I imagine, be pa??e???; and the purport will be nearly this: _The virgins of Babylonia put girdles about their waist; and in this habit sit by the way side, holding their Pitura, or sacred offerings, over an urn of incense: and when any one of them is taken notice of by a stranger, and led away by her girdle to a place of privacy; upon her return she upbraids her next neighbour for not being thought worthy of the like honour; and for having her zone not yet broken or [909]loosed_. It was likewise a Persian custom, and seems to have been universally kept up wherever their religion prevailed. Strabo gives a particular account of this practice, as it was observed in the temple of Anait in Armenia. This was a Persian Deity, who had many places of worship in that part of the world. _Not only the men and maid servants_, says the author, _are in this manner prost.i.tuted at the shrine of the G.o.ddess; for in this there would be nothing extraordinary_: [910]???a ?a? ???ate?a? ?? ep?fa?estat?? t?? e????? a??e???s? pa??e????, ??? ???? est?, ?atap???e??e?sa?? p???? ?????? pa?a t? Te? eta ta?ta ded?s?a? p??? ?a??? ??? apa?????t?? t? t??a?t? s?????e?? ??de???. _But people of the first fashion in the nation used to devote their own daughters in the same manner: it being a religious inst.i.tution, that all young virgins shall, in honour of the Deity, be prost.i.tuted, and detained for some time in her temple: after which they are permitted to be given in marriage. Nor is any body at all scrupulous about cohabiting with a young woman afterwards, though she has been in this manner abused._

The Patrica were not only rites of Mithras, but also of Osiris, who was in reality the same Deity.

We have a curious inscription to this purpose, and a representation, which was first exhibited by the learned John Price in his observations upon Apuleius. It is copied from an original, which he saw at Venice: and there is an engraving from it in the Edition of Herodotus by [911]Gronovius, as well as in that by [912]Wesselinge: but about the purport of it they are strangely mistaken. They suppose it to relate to a daughter of Mycerinus, the son of Cheops. She died, it seems: and her father was so affected with her death, that he made a bull of wood, which he gilt, and in it interred his daughter. Herodotus says, that he saw the bull of Mycerinus; and that it alluded to this history. But, notwithstanding the authority of this great author, we may be a.s.sured that it was an emblematical representation, and an image of the sacred bull Apis and Mneuis. And, in respect to the sculpture above mentioned, and the characters therein expressed, the whole is a religious ceremony, and relates to an event of great antiquity, which was commemorated in the rites of Osiris. Of this I shall treat hereafter: at present, it is sufficient to observe, that the sacred process is carried on before a temple; on which is a Greek inscription, but in the provincial characters: ??d?? ?at????? ???t?? Fe??. How can ???t? ?at???? relate to a funeral? It denotes a festival in honour of the Sun, who was styled, as I have shewn, Pator; and his temple was called Patra: whence these rites were denominated Patrica. Plutarch alludes to this Egyptian ceremony, and supposes it to relate to Isis, and to her mourning for the loss of her son.

Speaking of the month Athyr, he mentions [913]???? d?a???s?? ?at?? e?a??

?ss??? pe??a???te? ep? pe??e? t?? Te?? de??????s?? (?? ????pt???). _The Egyptians have a custom in the month Athyr of ornamenting a golden image of a bull; which they cover with a black robe of the finest linen. This they do in commemoration of Isis, and her grief for the loss of Orus_. In every figure, as they are represented in the sculpture, there appears deep silence and reverential awe: but nothing that betrays any sorrow in the agents. They may commemorate the grief of Isis; but they certainly do not allude to any misfortune of their own: nor is there any thing the least funereal in the process. The Egyptians of all nations were the most extravagant in their [914]grief. If any died in a family of consequence, the women used by way of shewing their concern to soil their heads with the mud of the river; and to disfigure their faces with filth. In this manner they would run up and down the streets half naked, whipping themselves as they ran: and the men likewise whipped themselves. They cut off their hair upon the death of a dog; and shaved their eyebrows for a dead cat. We may therefore judge, that some very strong symptoms of grief would have been expressed, had this picture any way related to the sepulture of a king's daughter. Herodotus had his account from different people: one half he confessedly [915]disbelieved; and the remainder was equally incredible. For no king of Egypt, if he had made a representation of the sacred [916]bull, durst have prost.i.tuted it for a tomb: and, as I have before said, ???t?

?at???? can never relate to a funeral.

AN

ACCOUNT