was the heaven which Atlas was fuppofed to fupport.-Among the Perfians most of the temples were caverns in rocks, either formed by nature, or artificially produced. They had likewife Puratheia, or open temples, for the celebration of the rites of Fire. The caverns in the mountains of Chufiftan were facred to Mithras, and were made use of for his rites. In these gloomy receffes people who were to be initiated, were confined for a long season in the dark, and totally fecluded from all company. During this appointed term they underwent, as fome fay, eighty kinds of trials, or tortures, by way of expiation. Many died in the trial: and those who furvived were often fo crazed and fhaken in their intellects, that they never returned to their former state of mind. Some traces of this kind of penance may be ftill perceived in the Eaft, where the followers of Mahomet have been found to adopt it. Mr. Bryant, in his differtation on the Omphi, and on the worship upon high places, throws great light on feveral practices of antiquity, and illuftrates a number of paffages in ancient writers. We can only take notice of fome few of the circumftances mentioned by him. The term Omphi, he obferves, is of great antiquity, and denotes an oracular influence, by which people obtained an infight into the fecrets of futurity. As men in the firft ages repaired, with the utmoft reverence, to rocks and caverns, as to places of particular fanctity, where they thought that the Deity would moft likely difclofe himself either by a voice, or a dream, or fome other præternatural token; fo, many for the fame purpofe worshipped upon hills, and on the tops of high mountains; imagining that they hereby obtained a nearer communication with heaven.-This practice in early times was almoft univerfal, and every mountain was efteemed holy. The people who retired to eminences fancied that they were brought into the vicinity of the powers of the air, and of the deity who refided in the higher regions. But the chief excellence for which they were frequented was the Omphi, expreffed oun by the Greeks, and interpreted a xanda, vox divina, being efteemed a particular revelation from heaven. In short, they were looked upon as the peculiar places where God delivered his oracles. The word Omphi, or Amphi, fignifies the oracle of Ham; who, according to the Egyptian theology, was the fame as the Sun, or Ofiris. He was, likewife, revered as the chief Deity by the Chaldæans, and by moft nations in the Eaft. He was filed both Ham, and Cham; and his oracles both Omphi and Ompi. In confequence of this the mountains, where they were fuppofed to be delivered, came to be denominated Har-al-Ompi; which al-ompi by the Greeks was changed to Oxumos, Olympus; and the mountain was called ogos Õhuμm. There were many of this name. ορος Ολυμπο. They They were all looked upon to be prophetic; and fuppofed to be the refidence of the chief Deity, under whatever denomination he was specified, which was generally the God of Light. For these oracles no place was of more repute than the hill at Delphi, called Omphi-El, or the oracle of the Sun. But the Greeks, who changed Al-omphi to Olympus, perverted thefe terms in a manner ftill more strange: for finding them fomewhat fimilar in found to a word in their own language, their caprice immediately led them to think of oupaλos, a navel, which they fubftituted for the original word. This they did uniformly in all parts of the world; and always invented fome ftory to countenance their mistake. Hence, whenever we meet with an idle account of a navel, we may be pretty fure that there is fome allufion to an oracle. In refpect to Delphi, they prefumed that it was the Umbilicus, or Center of the whole earth. Speaking of the Omphalus of Jupiter Ammon, described by Quintus Curtius, and which that hiftorian has tranflated Umbilicus, and garnished with gold and jewels, our Author remarks, that the whole arifes from a miftake in terms, as in many inftances before. It was Omphi-El, the oracle of Ham, or the Sun and the shrine, from whence it was supposed to proceed, was carried in a boat. The Pateræ, reprefented as fo many filver bafons, were, in reality, the interpreters of the oracle. They were the priests, who, in the facred proceffions, walked on each fide, and fupported both the image and the boat, in which it was carried.-The cuftom of carrying the Deity in a fhrine, placed in a boat, and fupported by priests, was in ufe among the Egyptians, as well as the Ammonites. It is a circumftance which deferves our notice, as it appears to be very ancient, and had doubtless a myfterious allufion.-The perfon in the fhrine was their chief ancestor, and the whole procefs was a memorial of the deluge. From the fhrines of Amon may be deduced the hiftory of all oracles. The Greeks adhered religiously to ancient terms, however obsolete and unintelligible. They retained the name of Amphi, though they knew not the meaning; for it was antiquated, before they had letters. That it originally related to oracular revelation is plain, from its being always found annexed to the names of perfons famous on that account; and from its occurring in the names of men, renowned as prieffs and augurs, and fupposed to have been gifted with a degree of foreknowledge. We read of Amphiaraus, Amphilocus, Amphimachus, perfons represented as under particular divine influence, and interpreters of the will of the gods. Amphion, though degraded to a harper, was Amphi-On, the oracle of Apollo, the Sun. Mr Mr. Bryant imagines, that the facred influence under the name of Amphi is often alluded to in the exordia of the poets, especially by the writers in Dithyrambic measure, when they addrefs Apollo. Taken in its ufual fenfe (auqi circum) the word has no meaning: and there is otherwife no accounting for its being chofen above all others in the language to begin hymns of praife to this deity, who was the principal God of Prophecy. The circumftance of the deity being carried about in a shrine was always attended with fhouts and exclamations, and the whole was accompanied with a great concourfe of people. The ancient Greeks ftiled thefe celebrities the proceffion of the P'omphi (Pi being the ancient Egyptian prefix) and from hence were derived the words Tourn, and Pompa.-Many places were from the oracle called P'ompean: and fuppofed by the Romans to have been fo named from Pompeius Magnus; but they were too numerous, and too remote, to have been denominated from him or any other Roman. There was, indeed, Pompeia in Campania: but even that was of too high antiquity to have received its name from Rome.-Befides the cities ftiled Pompean, there were pillars named in like manner; which by many have been referred to the fame perfon. But they could not have been built by him, nor were they erected to his memory. This our Author fhews from their history. The vine was esteemed facred both to Dionufus and Bacchus. This tree had, therefore, the name of Ampel, which the Greeks rendered Aμmλos, from the Sun, Ham, whofe peculiar plant it was. This title is the fame as Omphel before mentioned, and relates to the oracular deity of the Pagan world; under which character Ham was principally alluded to. As Mr. Bryant has proved that Ampelus, and Omphalus, were the fame term originally, however varied afterwards, and differently appropriated; fo, likewife, he has fhewn that the word Nympha came from Ain Ompha; and that from Al Ompha was derived Lympha. This differed from Aqua, or common Water, as being of a facred, and prophetic nature. The ancients thought, that all mad perfons were gifted with divination; and they were in confequence of it ftiled Lymphati. Under the terms, Pator and Patra, our learned Writer informs us, that he cannot help thinking that the word warns, Pater, when ufed in the religious addreffes of the Greeks and Romans, meant not, as is fuppofed, a father, or parent; but related to the divine influence of the deity, called by the people of the Eaft, Pator. From hence he would infer, that two words, originally very diftin&t, have been rendered one and the fame. The word, Pater, in the common acceptation, might be applicable to Saturn-But when it became a title, which was was bestowed upon gods of every denomination, it made Jupiter animadvert with fome warmth upon the impropriety, if we may credit Lucilius: Ut Nemo fit noftrum, quin Pater optimus Divêm eft: Janus, Quirinus, Pater, omnes dicamur ad unum. And not only the gods, but the hierophantæ in moft temples; and those priests in particular, who were occupied in the celebration of mysteries were ftiled Patres: so that it was undoubtedly a religious term imported from Egypt.-The true name of the Amonian priests was Pater or Pator; and the inftrument which they held in their hands, was ftiled Petaurum.-The pateræ, or priests, were fo denominated from the deity ftiled Pator; whofe fhrines were named Patera, and Petora. They were oracular temples of the Sun, which in after times were called Petra, and afcribed to other gods. Many of them, for the fake of mariners, were erected upon rocks and eminences near the sea: hence the term warga, Petra, came at length to fignify any rock or ftone, and to be in a manner confined to that meaning. But in the first ages it was ever taken in a religious fenfe; and related to the fhrines of Ofiris, or the Sun, and to the oracles, which were fupposed to be there exhibited. There is in the hiftory of every oracular temple fome legend about a ftone; fome reference to the word Petra. To clear up this it is neceflary to ob- ferve, 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 filed Petra. This they oftentimes changed to ados; fo little did they underftand their own mythology. Mr. Bryant's difcoveries, relative to the words Pator and Patra, have enabled him to explain the ftrange notion about the prophecy of Anaxagoras, the ftory of Tantalus, and feveral other curious points of ancient literature. The next differtation is entitled, an Account of the Gods of Greece; to fhew that they were all originally one God, the Sun. Under this article our Author expofes the ignorance of the Grecians, and produces very important evidence, in fupport of his pofition. As there has been much uncertainty about the purport and extent of the terms Phoenix and Phoenices, and they are of great confequence in the courfe of hiftory, Mr. Bryant hath thought proper diftinctly to ftate their true meaning. They are terms of honour, which feem at firft to have been given to perfons of large ftature; but in procefs of time were conferred upon people of power and eminence.-There were Phoenicians of various countries. They were to be found upon the Sinus Perficus, upon the Sinus Arabicus, in Egypt, in Crete, in Africa, in în Epirus, and even in Attica.-In fhort, it was a title introduced at Sidon, and the coaft adjoining, by people from Egypt.It were therefore to be wished, that the words Phoenix and Phoenicia had never been used in the common acceptation; at least when the discourse turns upon the more ancient history of Canaan. The term Cahen denoted a prieft, or prefident; and it was a title often conferred upon princes and kings. Nor was it confined to men only: it was frequently annexed to the names of deities, to fignify their rule and fuperintendency over the earth. From them it was derived to their attendants, and to all perfons of a prophetical or facred character. The meaning of the term was fo obvious, that it might be imagined no miftake could have enfued: yet fuch is the perverfeness of human wit, that it was conftantly mifapplied by the Greeks and Romans. They could not help imagining from the found of the word, which approached nearly to that of xuw and Canis, that it had some reference to that animal, and in confequence of this unlucky resemblance they continually mifconftrued it a dog. The progress and effects of their mistake are fully confidered by our Author; and among other things, which justly merit the notice of his readers, he hath endeavoured to fhew, that, in the defcriptions which are left us of the Cunocephali, we have an account of an Egyptian feminary of education. The Cunocephali were a facred college, of very ancient inftitution, whofe members were perfons of great learning. Hermes was their patron, and their fituation was probably in the nome of Hermopolis. It is faid of the Cunocephali, that when one part was dead and buried, the other ftill furvived; which can relate to nothing elle but a fociety, or body politic, where there is a continual decrement, yet part ftill remains: and the whole is kept up by fucceffion. In treating of Chus, ftiled Xpures, and Xpurawg, Mr. Bryant informs us, that, among the different branches of the great Amonian family, which spread themselves abroad, the fons of Chus were the moft confiderable; and, at the fame time, the most enterprising. They got accefs into countries widely dif tant; where they may be traced under different denominations, but more particularly by their family title. This we might expect the Greeks to have rendered Chufos, and to have named Xvoaso, Chufæi. But by a fatal mifprifion they uniformly changed these terms to words more familiar to their ear, and rendered them Χρυσος, and Χρύσειος, as if they had a reference to gold.-Chus-or, Chuforus, they converted to Xpurwe, Chrufor: and, in confequence of thefe alterations, they have introduced in their accounts of the places where they settled REV. Dec. 1774. F f fome |