6 beat upon by violent winds gave way; and by the just judgment of God crushed him to pieces. Cedrenus also mentions it as a current notion, that Nimrod perished in the tower. But this, I think, could not be true: for the term of Nimrod's life, extend it to the utmost of Patriarchic age after the flood, could not have sufficed for this. And though writers do assert, that the tower was overthrown, and the principal person buried in its ruins and it must be confessed, that antient mythology has continual allusions to some such event: yet I should ima→ gine, that this related to the overthrow of the deity there worshipped, and to the extirpation of his rites and religion, rather than to any real person. The fable of Vulcan, who was thrown down from heaven, and cast into the sea, is founded upon this story. He was supposed to have been the son of Juno, and detested by his mother, who threw him down with her own hands. 7 Παις εμος Ἡφαισος, ῥικνος ποδας, ὁν τεκον αυτή, Ριψ' ανα χερσιν έλεσα, και εμβαλον ευρεϊ ποντῳ. Εφ ̓ ὧν ὁ Πυργος ανεμῳ, βιαιῳ, ὡς ἱσορεσι τινες, και αυτος Ιοσηπος, xarameow oursrgiks. Cedrenus. p. 11. See Joseph. Ant. 1. 1. C. 4. 7 Homer. Hymn to Apollo. v. 317. It related probably to the abolition of fire-worship at the destruction of Babel. My crippled offspring Vulcan I produc'd ; sea. Many writers speak of him as being thrown off from the battlements of a high tower by Jupiter: and there is a passage to this purpose in Homer, which has embarrassed commentators; though I do not think it very obscure, if we consider the history to which it relates. 8 ριψε ποδος τετάγων απο Βηλε θεσπεσίοιο. The poet, who was a zealous copier of antient mythology, mentions, that Vulcan was cast down by Jupiter from an eminence. He says, that he was thrown ano Bλ which must certainly signi fy απο από πυργο Βηλε, Οι αφ' ἱερα Βηλε; for the sentence is manifestly elliptical. He seiz'd him by the foot, and headlong threw From the high tower of Belus. This is the purport of the passage; and it is con sonant to all history. Iliad. V. A. v. 591. i The Giants, whom Abydenus makes the builders of Babel, are, by other writers, represented as the Titans. They are said to have received their name from their mother Titea. 9 Κοινως δε παντας απο της μητρος ονομαζόμενες Τιτηνας: by which we are to understand, that they were all denominated from their religion and place of worship. I have taken notice of some of the antient altars, which consisted of a conical hill of earth, styled oftentimes, from its figure, λopos pasoɛidns, a mound, or hill, in the shape of a woman's breast. Titæa (TiTaia) was one of these. It is a term compounded of 10 Tit-aia, and signifies literally a breast of earth, analogous to TITlos alas of the Greeks. These altars were also called Tit-an, and Tit-anis, from the great fountain of light, Diod. Sicul. 1. 3. p. 190. Κερες δ' Ουρανιωνας εγείνατο ποτνια Γαία, Orphic. Frag. p. 375. 10 Tit is analogous to 'n, Tid, of the Chaldeans. So Titurus was from Tit-Ur, pasos pe. The priests, so famous for their music, were from hence styled Tituri. It was sometimes expressed Tith-Or; hence the summit of Parnassus had the name of Tithorea, being sacred to Orus, the Apollo of Greece. Pausan. 1. 10. p. 878. There were places named Titaresus, from Tit-Ares, the same as Tit-Orus. Τιταρήσιος ποταμος Ηπειρο. Hesych. styled An, and Anis. Hence many places were called Titanis and "Titana, where the worship of the Sun prevailed: for Anes, and Hanes, signified the fountain of light, or fire. Titana was sometimes expressed Tithana, by the Ionians rendered Tithena: and as Titea was supposed to have been the mother of the Titans, so Tithena was said to be their ** nurse. But they were all uniformly of the same nature, altars raised of soil. That Tith-ana, the supposed nurse, was a sacred mound of earth, is plain from Nonnus, who mentions an altar of this sort in the vicinity of Tyre; and says, that it was erected by those earth-born people, the Giants.. Ayx 14 Τυρε παρα πόντον, ἐν αῤῥαγεεσσι δε πετραις, Γηγενέες βαθυκολπον εδωμησαντο Τιθήνην. At Sicyon was a place called Titana. Steph. Byzant. also a temple. Pausan. I. 2. p. 138. Euboea called Titanis. Hesych. 12 Tilnvas #popus, Tirbas. Hesych. So Tith-On was like Tith-Or, pasos: whence was formed a personage, named Tithonus, beloved by Aurora. 13 Nonni Dionys. 1. 40. p. 1048. 34 14 Bel, and Belus, was a title bestowed upon many persons. It was particularly given to Nimrod, who built the city Babel or Babylon. Hence Dorotheus Sidonius, an antient poet, calls that city the work of Tyrian Belus. Upon the coast of Tyre, amid the rocks, Tuph also, in the antient language, was an hill; and Typhoeus is a masculine compound from Tuph-aia, and signifies a mound of earth. Typhon, Tuqwv, was in like manner a compound of Tuph-On; and was a mount, or altar, of the same construction, and sacred to the sun. I make no doubt but both Typhon and Typhoeus were names by which the tower of Belus was of old denoted. But out of these the mythologists have formed personages; and they represent them as gigantic monsters, whom the earth produced in defiance of heaven. Hence Typhon is, by Antoninus Liberalis, described as " Ins vos aio105 Γης ύιος εξαισιος Αρχαιη Βαβυλων Τυριό Βήλοιο πολισμα. This term Tupios has been applied to the city Tyre. But Togos here is from in, Turris; and Belus Tupios signifies Belus of Babel, who erected the famous tower. This leads me to suspect, that in these verses of Nonnus there is a mistake; and that this Tithena, which the Giants built, was not in the vicinity of the city Tyre: but it was an high altar, ayy Togs, near the tower of Babel, which was erected by the Titanians. Nonnus, imagining that by Tur was meant Tyre, has made the Tithena to be situate waju OVTOV, by the sea; from which, I believe, it was far removed. 15 Typhon, Terræ filius. Hyginus. fab. 152. |