Aroa, dixerunt, sub hàc formâ, quâ miseriam humano generi invexit, primo cultus 20. 22 It is said, that, in the ritual of Zoroaster, the great expanse of the heavens, and even nature itself, was described under the symbol of a serpent". The like was mentioned in the Octateuch of Ostanes: and moreover, that in Persis and in other parts of the east they erected temples to the serpent tribe, and held festivals to their honour, esteeming them * Θεός της μεγίσους, και αρχηγός των Aw, the supreme of all Gods, and the superintendants of the whole world. The worship began among the people of Chaldea. They built the city Opis upon the "Tigris, and were greatly addicted to divination, and to the worship of the serpent. Inventi sunt ex iis (Chaldeis) augures, et magi, divinatores, et sortilegi, et inquirentes Ob, et Ideoni. From Chaldea the worship passed into Egypt, where the serpent Deity was called Canoph, Can-eph, and C'neph. It had also the name of Ob, or Oub, and was the same as the Basiliscus, or Royal Serpent; the same also as the Ther 10 Daniel Heinsius. Aristarchus. p. 11. "Euseb. P. E. 1. 1. p. 41, 42. * Euseb. ibidem. Ταδε αυτα και Ορανης κτλ. Herod. 1. 2. c. 189. also Ptolemy. 24 M. Maimonides in more Nevochim. See Selden de Diis Syris. Synt. 1. c. 3. p. 49. 25 muthis and in like manner was made use of by way of ornament to the statues of their " Gods. The chief Deity of Egypt is said to have been Vulcan, who was also styled Opas, as we learn from 26 Cicero. Cicero. He was the same as Osiris, the Sun; and hence was often called Ob-El, sive Pytho Sol and there were pillars sacred to him with curious hieroglyphical inscriptions, which had the same name. They were very lofty, and narrow in comparison of their length; hence among the Greeks, who copied from the Egyptians, every thing gradually tapering to a point was styled Obelos, and Obeliscus. Ophel (OphEl) was a name of the same purport: and I have shewn, that many sacred mounds, or Tapha, were thus denominated from the serpent Deity, to whom they were sacred. Sanchoniathon makes mention of an history, which he once wrote upon the worship of the serpent. The title of this work, according to Eusebius was, Ethothion, or Ethothia. Another treatise upon the same subject was written by 25 Ούβαιον, ὁ εσιν Ἑλληνίς: Βασιλίσκον· ὅνπες χρυσουν ποιέντες Θεοις gida. Horapollo. 1. 1. p. 2. Oucator is so corrected for Ougason, from MSS. by J. Corn. De Pauw. 25 Cicero de Nat. Deor. 1. 3. 27 Præp. Evan. 1. 1. p. 41. Pherecydes Syrus, which was probably a copy of the former; for he is said to have composed it, παρα Φοινίκων λαβων τας αφορμας, from some previous accounts of the Phenicians. The title of his book was the Theology of Ophion, styled Ophioneus; and of his worshippers, called Ophionidæ. Thoth, and Athoth, were certainly titles of the Deity in the Gentile world: and the book of Sanchoniathon might very possibly have been from hence named Ethothion, or more truly Athothion. But from the subject, upon which it was written, as well as from the treatise of Pherecydes, I should think, that Athothion, or Ethothion, was a mistake for Ath-ophion, a title which more immediately related to that worship, of which the writer treated. Ath was a sacred title, as I have shewn and I imagine, that this dissertation did not barely relate to the serpentine Deity; but contained accounts of his votaries, the Ophitæ, the principal of which were the sons of Chus. The worship of the Serpent began among them; and they were from thence denominated Ethopians, and Aithopians, which the Greeks rendered Α.θ.οπες, It was a name, which they did not receive from their complexion, as has been commonly surmised; for the branch of Phut, and the 23 Euseb. supra. |