Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

Generation
XIII.

came the Diofcuri, or Cabiri (N), called alfo Corybantes, and Samothraces, who firft invented the art of fhip-building.

Thefe procreated others, who found out the virtues of herbs, the cures of poisonous bites, and charms.

Uranus, whofe parents lived in this age, as fucceeding his father Eluin in the kingdom, had by Ge, his fifter, four fons: 1. Ilus or Cronus; 2. Betylus; 3. Dagon or Siton; and 4. Atlas, befides much iffue by other wives; wherefore Ge, being grieved at it, and jealous, reproached Uranus fo that they parted from each other. But Uranus, though he had parted from her, yet, afterwards, by force invading, and lying with her, nevertheless, went away again; after having attempted to kill the children he had by her. Ge alfo defended or avenged herself by collecting auxiliary powers.

Cronus, arriving at man's age, and ufing Hermes Trifmegiftus as his counsellor and affiftant, and secretary, oppofed his father Uranus, in order to avenge his mother's cause. Cronus had children, Perfephone (Proferpina), and Athena (Minerva). The former died a virgin; but, by by the counfel of Athena and of Hermes, Cronus made of iron a fcymeter and a fpear. Then Hermes, fpeaking to the affiftants of Cronus with inchanting words, wrought in them a keen defire to fight against Uranus in behalf of Ge; and thus Cronus, warring against Uranus, drove him out of his kingdom, and fucceeded in the imperial power.

In the fight, a well beloved concubine of Uranus, being taken big with child, Cronus gave her in marriage to Dagon, and fhe brought forth, at his houfe, what he had in her womb by Uranus, and called him Demaroon.

After these things Cronus built a wall round about his houfe, and founded Byblus, the firft city of Phoenicia. But Cronus, fufpecting his own brother Atlas, with the advice of Hermes, threw him into a deep hole of the earth, where he was buried alive.

At that time, the defcendents of the Diofcuri, having built fome veffels, went to fea, and, being caft on shore near Mount Caffius, there confecrated a temple.

The auxiliaries of Hus, or Cronus, were called Eloim, which is as much as to fay Cronii, for fo were they named who were under Cronus. But Cronus, having a fon

(N) Of the Dioscuri, or Cabiri, the fons of Sydyc, we fhall fpeak hereafter, when we

come to the Grecian mytho logy.

called

called Sadid, dispatched him with his own fword, actuated by fufpicion. He alfo cut off the head of his own daughter; fo that all the gods were amazed at the cruelty of Cronus.

In process of time Uranus, being in exile, fent his virgin daughter Aftarte, with two other of her fifters, Rhea and Ďione, to cut off Cronus by deceit; but these fifters being taken, became his wives. Uranus afterwards fent Eimarmene and Hora (fate and beauty), with other auxiliaries, to war against him; but Cronus, having gained the affections of these alfo, kept them with him. Moreover, the god Uranus devised bætylia, and contrived ftones that moved, as having life.

Cronus begat on Aftarte feven daughters, called Titanides, or Artemides; and on Rhea feven fons, the youngest of whom, as foon as he was born, was confecrated a God. Alfo by Dione he had daughters; and by Aftarte two fons, Pothos and Eros (defire and love).

Dagon, having discovered bread-corn and the plough, was called Zeus Arotrius.

To Sydyc, or the juft, one of the Titanides bore Afclepius. Cronus had also in Peræa three fons: 1. Cronus, 2. Zeus Belus, 3. Apollo.

Contemporary with these were Pontus and Typhon, and Nereus the father of Pontus. From Pontus came Sidon, who, by the exceeding sweetness of her voice, or finging, first celebrated the hymns or odes of praises; and Polidon (or Neptune). But to Demaroon was born Melicarthus, otherwife called Hercules (O).

Then Uranus made war against Pontus; and joined with Demaroon when he invaded that prince; but Pontus put him to flight, and Demaroon vowed a facrifice for his escape.

But, in the thirty-fecond year of his power and reign, Ilus, or Cronus, having laid an ambufcade for his father Uranus, in a certain mid-land place, and having gotten him into his hands, cut of his privities near fountains and rivers. There Uranus was confecrated, and his

(O) This is the old Phoenician Mélicartus, or Hercules, whofe temple at Gadira or Gades, had no images in it, and continued to the time of Silius Italicus. Bochart fuppofes this way of worship,

practifed in this temple, was taken from the Jews, not confidering that Hercules Phoenicius was long before the Jewifh law, and that the patriarchal religion ufed no images.

fpirit or breath was feparated, and the blood of his fecrets dropped into the fountains and waters of the rivers; and the place is fhewed unto this day,

Aftarte, called the Greateft, and Demaroon, furnamed Zeus, and Adodus the king of the gods, reigned over the country by Cronus's confent or authority; and Aftarte put on her head, as the mark of her fovereignty, a bull's head. But, travelling about the world, the found a star falling from the air or sky, which, taking up, he confecrated in the holy ifland Tyre. The Phoenicians fay, that Aftarte is the, who is, among the Greeks, called Aphrodite (or Venus).

Cronus alfo, traverfing the earth, gave to his own daughter, Athena, the kingdom of Attica; and a plague and mortality intervening, he made his only fon a burn offering to his father Uranus. This fact our author relates more particularly in another place, faying, it was eftablished as a cuftom among the ancients, that, in all extraordinary calamities of the public, the rulers of a city or nation fhould give up their most favourite child to be flain, as an expiation to appease the avenging dæmons, and the victims in thefe cafes were butchered with much myfterious ceremony. Cronus, therefore, called by the Phoenicians Ifrael, who reigned there, and was, after his death, confecrated into the planet Cronus (or Saturn), have ing an only fon by Anobret, a nymph of the country, and whom, therefore, he called Jeud, which, in the Phoenician tongue, at this day, fignifies only begotten, and the country being involved in a dangerous war, he adorned this fon with royal attire, and facrificed him on an altar which he had prepared for that purpose. Cronus was alfo circumcifed, and forced his auxiliaries to undergo the fame operation; not long after this event he confe crated another fon, he had by Rhea, called Muth; fo the Phoenicians call Death or Pluto.

After these transactions, Cronus gave the city Byblus to the goddess Baaltis, which is Dione; and Berytus he gave to Pofidon, and to the Cabiri, to be inhabited by husbandmen and fishermen, who confecrated the remains of Pontus.

The God Taautus, having formerly imitated or repre fented Uranus, made images of the countenances of the gods Cronus and Dagon, and formed the facred charac

&c.

Sanchoniatho apud Eufeb, de Præp. Ev. lib. i. cap. zo. p. 36,

ters

"ters of the other elements. He contrived alfo for Cronus the enfign of his royal power, four eyes, partly before, and partly behind, two of them winking as in fleep; and upon his fhoulders four wings, two as flying, and two as let down to reft. The emblem was, "That Cronus, when he flept, yet was waking; and waking, yet flept." And fo for his wings, "That even. refting, he flew about; and, flying, yet refted." But the other gods had two wings each of them on their fhoulders, to intimate, that they flew about with, or under, Cronus. He alfo had two wings on his head, one for the governing part of the mind, and one for the fenfe.

But Cronus, repairing to the fouth country, gave all Egypt to the god Taautus, that it should be his kingdom, Thefe things, faith he, the Cabiri, the feven fons of Sydyc, and their eighth brother Afclepius, first of all set down in memoirs, as the god Taautus directed.

All these things the son of Thabion, the first hierophant (or director of facred rites) that ever was among the Phoenicians, allegorised; and, mixing the facts with phyfical and mundane phænomena, delivered them down to those that celebrated orgia, and to thofe prophets who prefided over the myfteries. Thefe again contrived to improve their fables, and fo delivered them down to their fucceffors, and to thofe that were afterwards introduced among them one of them was Ifiris, the inventor of three letters, the brother of Chua, the first Phoenician, as he was afterwards called.

Thus we have presented the reader with the fmall remains which are left of the Phoenician antiquities, collected by Sanchoniatho; wherein a free and open confeffion is made of the beginning of idolatry, and their gods ingenuously acknowleged to have been once mortal men; a fact which the Greeks were afhamed to own, and therefore turned all the ftories of the gods into allegories and phyfical discourses. Endeavours have been used to explain this fragment, and reconcile it with Scripture, on the fuppofition, that the records, from which Sanchoniatho extracted his hiftory, were corrupted in those inftances by the Cabiri, the first writers of them; who, in particular, fuppreffed all mention of the deluge, for the reafons already given.

In our opinion however, the hiftory of Sanchoniatho will in no view admit of the corrections that have been

[blocks in formation]

Yr. of Fl. 352. Ante Chr. 1996.

The firft migration of the fons of Noah to

Shinaar.

The extent and jitua

land of Shi

naar.

made; it may be confuted by Scripture, but it can never be reconciled with it; the plan is quite different from that of Mofes, and feems to be grounded upon a very dif, ferent tradition relating to the firft ages; if it be not rather a history framed long after the facts happened, by mixing fable or invention with fome vulgar notions or glimmerings of ancient transactions, which ftill remained in the life of the author, or editor, when the genuine and more perfect tradition of things had been lost.

SECT. IV.

Of the Removal of Mankind from the Neighbourhood of
Mount Ararat to the Plain of Shinaar, and of the
Building of Babel.

AS two or three very remarkable events fall within this
period, namely the building of Babel by the pofte-
rity of Noah, the confufion of languages, and the difper-
fion of mankind, it is incumbent upon us to give the
reader fome account of these important facts, the effects
of which are felt to this day, and were doubtlefs of great
benefit to mankind.

After the death of Noah, his fons Shem, Ham, and Japhet, thought fit to remove with their families from the plains near Ararat, where we suppose they till then continued, and, "travelling from the Eaft, found a plain in the land of Shinaar, and dwelt there.”

It is hard to determine what were the limits of the land of Shinaar (P) in the early times. We are informed from tion of the Scripture, that the city and tower of Babel were built in a plain within that province, and that Nebuchadnezzar carried the veffels of the temple into the land of Shinaar, into the house of his God, which in all probability was the temple of Belus in Babylon. Befides Babel, there are three other cities mentioned in Scripture, fituated in Shinaar, viz. Erec, Accad, and Calneh; but as all the four

(P) The name in Hebrew is Shinaar, or Sennaar; in Arabic, Senjar. Bochart fays, it is derived from naar, which fignifies to featter, or diffipate; and if fo, it could not have been impofed by the Noachi

da, on the plain where they first fixed, as Jofephus affirms, without fuppofing them to have forefeen the difperfion; to` which that etymology, if it be right, plainly alludes.

Leem

« AnteriorContinuar »