name of Agya Maynτwv: all which will be farther explained hereafter. Not far from Cibotus was a city called " Baris; which was a name of the same purport as the former, and was certainly founded in memory of the same event. Cibotus signified an ark, and was often used for a repository; but differed from xin, cista, by being made use of either for things sacred, or for things of great value, like the Camilla of the Latines : 9. ή μεν εις υποδοχήν εδεσμάτων, ἡ δ ̓ ἱματίων και χρυσε xißuros. The rites of Damater related to the ark and deluge, like those of Isis: and the sacred emblems, whatever they may have been, were carried in an holy machine, called " K.ßwros.

The ark, according to the traditions of the Gentile world, was prophetic, and was looked upon as a kind of temple, a place of residence of the Deity. In the compass of eight persons it comprehended all mankind; which eight persons were thought to be so highly favoured by heaven, that they were looked up to by their posterity with great reverence, and came at last to be re

91 Near Beudos, in Pisidia, and not a great way from Cibotus. Ptolem. 1. 5. p. 142. Hieroclis Synecdemus. Pisidia. p. 673. Beudos, Baris, Bootus, were all of the same purport..

92 Schol. in Aristophan. I. v. 1208.

93 Pausan. 1. 10. p. 866.

puted Deities. Hence, in the antient mythology of Egypt, there were precisely eight "Gods: of these the Sun was the chief, and was said first to have reigned. Some made Hephaistus the first king of that country, while others supposed it to have been Pan. 9 Παρ' Αιγυπτιοισι δε Παν μεν αρχαιο τατος, και των ΟΚΤΩ ΤΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΩΝ λεγομενων θεων. There is, in reality, no inconsistency in these accounts, for they were all three titles of the same Deity, the Sun: and when divine honours began to be paid to men, the Amonians conferred these titles upon the great Patriarch, as well as upon his son Amon. And, as in the histories of their kings, the Egytians were able to trace the line of their descent upwards to these antient "7 personages; the names of the latter were by these means prefixed to those lists: and they were in aftertimes thought to have reigned in that country. This was the celebrated Ogdoas of Egypt, which their posterity held in such veneration, that

9+ Diodor. Sicul. 1. 1. P. 12.

95 Herodot. 1. 2. c. 145.

"There is reason to think, that the patriarch Noah had the name of Amon, as well as his son. The cities styled No-Amon, and Amon-No, were certainly named from Noah. According to Plutarch, Amon signified occultus. Isis et Osiris. p. 354.

97 Μεθερμηνευομένων δ' αυτων, τινας μεν ομώνυμος ύπαρξειν τους ganois. n. T. λ. Diodor. Sicul. 1. 1. P. 12.

98

they exalted them to the heavens, and made their history the chief subject of the sphere. This will appear very manifest in their symbolical representation of the solar system, of which Martianus Capella has transmitted to us a very curious specimen 99. Ibi (in systemate solari) quandam navem totius naturæ cursibus diversà cupiditate moderantem, cunctaque flammarum congestione plenissimam, et beatis circumactam mercibus conspicimus; cui nautæ septem, germani tamen suique similes, præsidebant. In eâdem verò rate fons quidam lucis æthereæ, arcanisque fluoribus manans, in totius mundi lumina fundebatur. Thus we find that they esteemed the ark an emblem of the system of the heavens. And when they began to distinguish the stars in the firmament, and to reduce them to particular constellations, there is reason to think, that most of the asterisms were formed with the like reference. For although the delineations of the sphere have, by the Greeks, through whose hands we receive them, been greatly abused, yet there still remains sufficient evidence to shew that such reference subsisted. The watery sign Aquarius, and the great effusion of that element, as it is depicted in the sphere, undoubtedly related to this history. Some

93 Martian. Capella. Satyric. 1. 2. p. 43.

said, that the person meant in the character of Aquarius was Ganymede. Hegesianax maintained that it was Deucalion, and related to the deluge. 99 Hegesianax autem Deucalionem dicit esse, quod, eo regnante, tanta'vis aquæ se de cœlo profuderit, ut cataclysmus factus esse diceretur. Eubulus autem Cecropem demonstrat esse: antiquitatem generis commemorans, et ostendens, antequam vinum traditum sit hominibus, aquâ in sacrificiis Deorum usos esse; et ante Cecropem regnâsse, quam vinum sit inventum. The reader may here judge, whether Cecrops the celebrated king of Attica, who lived before the plantation of the vine, and was figured under the character of Aquarius, like Deucalion, be any other than Deucalion himself, the Noah of the east.

Noah was represented, as we may infer from 100 Berosus, under the semblance of a fish by the Babylonians and those representations of fishes in the sphere, probably related to him and his The reasons given for their being placed

sons.

99 Hygin. Poet. Astronom. c. 29. p. 482.

Audi Scholiasten Germanici Aquario-Nigidius Hydrochoon sive Aquarium existimat esse Deucalionem Thessalum, qui in maximo cataclysmo sit relictus cum uxore Pyrrhâ in monte Ætnâ, qui est altissimus in Siciliâ. Not. in Hygin. fab. 153. p. 265. ex Germanici Scholiaste.

100 Eusebii. Chron. p. 6.

there were, that Venus, when she fled from 'Typhon, took the form of a fish; and that the fish, styled Notius, saved Isis in some great extremity pro quo beneficio simulacrum Piscis et ejus filiorum, de quibus ante diximus, inter astra. constituit: for which reason Venus placed the fish Notius and his sons among the stars. By this we may perceive, that Hyginus speaks of these asterisms as representations of persons: and he mentions from Eratosthenes, that the fish Notius was the father of mankind: ex eo pisce natos homi

nes.

2

It is said of Noah, that after the deluge he built the first 3 altar to God: which is a circumstance always taken notice of in the history given of him by Gentile writers. He is likewise mentioned as the first planter of the vine; and the inventor of wine itself, and of Zuth or ferment, by which similar liquors were manufactured. We may therefore suppose that both the altar, and the crater, or cup, related to these circumstances.

' Hygin. Poet. Astron. c. 41. p. 494.

* Eratosthenes ex eo pisce natos homines dicit. Hygin. Poet. Astron. 1. 2. c. 30.

3

Ερατοσθένης δε φησι, τετο θυτήριον είναι, εν ᾧ το πρωτον οι θεοι συνωμοσίαν εποιήσαντο. Theon. ad Arctum. p. 46. Nonnulli cum Eratosthene dicunt, eum Cratera esse, quo Icarius sit usus, cum hominibus ostenderet vinum. Hygin. fab. 140. p. 494.