Deity Chan-Adón; which the Greeks expressed Kurodar, and styled his votaries " Cunodontes. 31 The Greeks pretended, that they had the use of the sphere, and were acquainted with the zodiac, and its asterisms very early. But it is plain from their mistakes, that they received the knowledge of these things very late; at a time when the terms were obsolete, and the true purport of them not to be obtained. They borrowed all the schemes under which the stars are comprehended from the Egyptians who had formed them of old, and named them from circumstances in their own religion and mythology. They had particularly conferred the titles of their Deities upon those stars, which appeared the brightest in their hemisphere. One of the most remarkable and brilliant they called Cahen Sehor; another they termed Purcahen; a third Cahen Ourah, or Cun Ourah. These were all misconstrued, and changed by the Greeks; Cahen-Sehor to Canis Sirius; P'urcahen to Procyon; and Cahen Ourah to Cunosoura, the dog's tail. In respect to this last name I think, from the application of it in other instances, we may be assured that it could not be in acceptation what the Greeks would persuade us: nor had it any relation to a dog. There was the summit of 31 Solinus. c. 4. and Isidorus. Origi 1. 9. de Portentis. 33 a hill in Arcadia of this name: also a promontory in " Attica; and another in 34 Euboea. How could it possibly in its common acceptation be applicable to these places? And as a constellation if it signified a dog's tail, how came it to be a name given to the tail of a bear? It was a term brought from "Sidon, and Egypt: and the purport was to be sought for from the language of the Amonians. The antient Helladians used upon every promontory to raise pillars and altars to the God of light, Can-Our, the Chan-Orus of Egypt. But Can-Our, and Can-Ourah, they changed to xuvocouga, as I have shewn: yet notwithstanding this corruption, the true name is often to be discovered. The place which is termed Cunosoura by Lucian, in his Icaromemenippus, is called Cunoura by Stephanus Byzant. and by 36 Pausanias. Cunoura is also used by Lycophron, who understood antient terms full well, for any high rock or headland. 32 Steph. Byzantinus. 33 Ptolemy. 1. 3. c. 15. 34 Hesychius. Also a family at Lacedæmon, λn Aauwvinn: and Cunosouroi, the name of a family at Megara. See Alexander ab Alexandro. 1. 1. c. 17. 35 Esse duas Arctos, quarum Cynosura petatur Sidoniis; Heliceu Graia carina notet. Ovid. Fastor. 1. 3. v. 107. 3o L. 3. p. 207. 1 37 Εν αισι προς κυνουρα καμπύλους σχασας Προς κυνερα, προς τραχειας πετρας. Scholiast. ibid. We find the same mistake occur in the account transmitted to us concerning the first discovery of purple. The antients very gratefully gave the merit of every useful and salutary invention to the Gods. Ceres was supposed to have discovered to men corn, and bread: Osiris shewed them the use of the plough; Cinyras of the harp: Vesta taught them to build. Every Deity was looked up to as the cause of some blessing. The Tyrians and Sidonians were famous for the manufacture of purple: the die of which was very exquisite, and the discovery of it was attributed to Hercules of Tyre; the same who by Palæphatus is styled Hercules 3 Philosophus. But some will not allow him this honour; but say, that the dog of Hercules was the discoverer. For accidentally feeding upon the Murex, with which the coast abounded, the dog stained his mouth with the ichor of the fish; and from hence the first hint of dying was 39 taken. This gave birth to the prover 37 V.99. 38 38 Palæphatus περι εφευρήσεως κογχυλης. p. 124. 39 Cassiodorus of the purple. Cum fame canis avida in Tyrie bial expression, 4ο Ευρημα κυνος ην ή σέβας η πορφυρα. Nonnus mentions the particular circumstance of the dog's staining his mouth: 41 Χιονέας πορφυρε παρηΐδας αίματι κοχλό. Such is the story, which at first sight is too childish to admit of credit. It is not likely that a dog would feed upon shell-fish: and if this may at any time have happened, yet whoever is at all conversant in natural history, must know, that the murex is of the turbinated kind, and particularly aculeated; having strong and sharp protuberances, with which a dog would hardly engage. The story is founded upon the same. misconception, of which so many instances have been produced. Hercules of Tyre, like all other oriental divinities, was styled Cahen, and Cohen; as was allowed by the Greeks themselves. 42 Tou littore projecta conchylia impressis mandibulis contudisset, illa naturaliter humorem sanguineum diffluentia ora ejus mirabili colore tinxerunt: et ut est mos hominibus occasiones repentinas ad artes ducere, talia exempla meditantes fecerunt principibus. decus nobile. 1. 9. c. 36.. See also Chronicon Paschale. p. 43. Achilles Tatius. 1. 3. Julius Pollux. 1. 1. c. 4. p. 30. Ed. Amstel. Pliny. I. 9. c. 36. 4° Cyrus Prodromus επι αποδημῳ τη φιλία. 41 Nonni Dionysiaca. 1.-40. p. 1034. 42 Etymologicum Magnum. Ηρακλην φασι κατα την Αιγυπτιων διαλεκτον ΧΩΝΑ λεуεobα. We are told, that Hercules in the language of the Egyptians is called Chon. This intelligence, however, they could not abide by; but changed this sacred title to xvwv, a dog, which they described as an attendant upon the Deity. 43 The Grecians tell us, that the Egyptians styled Hermes a dog: but they seem to have been aware, that they were guilty of an undue representation. Hence Plutarch tries to soften, and qualify what is mentioned, by saying, * Ου γαρ κυρίως τον Ερμήν ΚΥΝΑ λεγεσιν (δι Αιγυπτιοι) : by which this learned writer would insinuate, that it was not so much the name of a dog, as the qualities of that animal, to which the Egyptians alluded. Plutarch thought by this refinement to take off the impropriety of conferring so base a name upon a Deity. But the truth is, that the Egyptians neither bestowed it nominally; nor alluded to it in any degree. The title which they gave to Hermes was the same that they bestowed upon Hercules: they expressed it Cahen, and Cohen; and it was very properly represented above by the Greek term Xwv, Chon. It 43 Johannes Antiochenus, who tells the story at large, says, that purple was the discovery xuvos Tμe, which in the original history was undoubtedly a shepherd king. Plutarch. Isis et Osiris. p. 355. VOL. II. |