tian or Canaanitish etymology. This is manifest from the terms of which it is made up; for it is compounded of Ur-Adon, sive Orus Adonis; and was sacred to the God of that name. The river, simply, and out of composition, was Adon, or Adonis and it is to be observed, that this is the name of one of the principal rivers in Canaan. It ran near the city Biblus, where the death of Thamuz was particularly lamented. It is a circumstance taken notice of by many authors, and most pathetically described by Milton. 23 Thammuz came next behind, Whose annual wound in Lebanon allur'd 24 It is said that the Eridanus was so called first by Pherecydes Syrus: and that my etymology is true, may in great measure be proved from the 23 Milton. Paradise Lost. 1. 1. v. 446. See also Ezekiel. c. 8. v. 14. 24 Hyginus. Fab. 154. p. 266. not. 7. Ετεροι δε φασι, δικαιοτατον αυτον ειναι Νειλον. Eratosthenes. Catasterism. 37. Scholiast upon Aratus. He shews that the name was of Egyptian original, at least consonant to the language of Egypt; for it was the same as the Nile. It is certain that it occurred in the antient sphere of Egypt, whence the Grecians received it. The great effusion of water in the celestial sphere, which, Aratus says, was the Nile, is still called the Eridanus: and, as the name was of oriental original, the purport of it must be looked for among the people of those parts. The river Strymon, in Thrace, was supposed to abound with swans, as much as the Eridanus; and the antient name of this river was Palæstinus. It was so called from the Amonians, who settled here under the name of Adonians, and who founded the city Adonis. They were by the later Greeks styled, after the Iönic manner, Edonians, and their city Edonis. 10 Στρυμών που ταμος εςι της Θράκης κατα πολιν Ηδωνίδα, προσηγορεύετο δε προτερὸν Παλαισίνος. The Strymon is a river of Thrace, which runs by the city Edonis: it was of old called the river Palæstinus. In these places, and in all others where any of the Canaanites settled, the Grecians have introduced some story about swans. 26 35 Καλείται δε ύπο των εγχωρίων Βυχεςνος. Αιγυπτιοι δε φασι Νείλου είναι τον κατητηρισμένον. Scholia in Aratum. p. 48. 25 Plutarch de Fluminibus. vol. 2. p. 1154. Some of them seem to have gained access at Delphi; as did likewise others from Egypt: and by such was that oracle first founded. Egypt, among other names, was called Ait, and Ai Ait, by the Greeks expressed Αετια : 47 Εκλήθη δε —και AETIA. The natives, in consequence of it, were called AETO, and Ara; which was interpreted eagles. Hence, we are told by Plutarch, that some of the feathered kind, either eagles or swans, came from the remote parts of the earth, and settled at Delphi. Αετούς τινας, η Κυκνές, ο Τερεν τιανε Πρισκε, μυθολογεσιν απο των άκρων της γης επι το μεσον φερομενες εις ταυτο συμπεσείν Πυθοί περι τον καλεμε τον ομφαλον. These eagles and swans undoubtedly relate to colonies from Egypt and Canaan. recollect but one philosopher styled Cygnus; and, what is remarkable, he was of Canaan. Antiochus, the Academic, mentioned by Cicero in his philosophical works, and also by 29 Strabo, was of 28 I 27 Eustathius in Dionysium. v. 239. See Steph. Byzant. A. γυπτος. 28 Plutarch περι των εκλελοιποτων χρητηρίων. vol. 1. p. 409. 29 Strabo. 1. 16. p. 1101. There was supposed to have been a person in Thessaly named Cycnus, the son of Apollo. He lived upon a lake Uria; which was so called from his mother. Inde lacus Hyries videt, et Cycnëia Tempe, Quæ subitus celebravit olor. Ovid. Metam. 1.7. v. 371. Uria was also a river in Boeotia: to have been the son of Poseidon. and here was a Cycnus, said Pausan. 1. 10. p. 831. Ascalon, in Palestine; and he was surnamed Cygnus, the Swan: which name, as it is so circumstanced, must, I think, necessarily allude to this country. As in early times colonies went by the name of the Deity whom they worshipped, or by the name of the insigne and hieroglyphic under which their country was denoted, every depredation made by such people was placed to the account of the Deity under such a device. This was the manner in which poets described things: and, in those days, all wrote in measure. Hence, instead of saying that the Egyptians, or Canaanites, or Tyrians, landed and carried off such and such persons; they said, that it was done by Jupiter, in the shape of an eagle, or a swan, or a bull: substituting an eagle for Egypt, a swan for Canaan, and a bull for the city of Tyre. It is said of the Telchines, who were Amonian priests, that they came to Attica under the conduct of Jupiter in the shape of an eagle. 30 30 31 Αιετος ἡγεμόνευε δι αιθερος αντιτυπος Ζευς. Ερασθέντα δε Πασιφάης Δια γενεσθαι μεν Ταύξον νυν δε αετον και 2. Porphyry de Abstin. 1. 3. p. 285. Πε νυν εκείνος ο αετος ; πε δαι ὁ κυκνος ; πε δαι αυτος ὁ Ζευς. Clemens. Alex. Cohort. p. 31. Nonni Dionysiaca. 1. 24. p. 626. By which is meant, that they were Egyptian priests; and an eagle was probably the device in their standard, as well as the insigne of their nation. Some of the same family were to be found among the Atlantes of Mauritania, and are represented as having the shape of swans. Prometheus, in Eschylus, speaks of them in the commission which he gives to lo: "You must go, says he, as far as the city Cisthene in the Gorgonian plains, where the three Phorcides reside; those antient, venerable ladies, who are in the shape of swans, and have but one eye, of which they make use in common. This history relates to an Amonian temple founded in the extreme parts of Africa; in which there were three priestesses of Canaanitish race; who, on that account, are said to be in the shape of swans. The notion of their having but one eye among them took its rise from an hieroglyphic very common in Egypt, and probably in Canaan this was the representation of an eye, 32 p. 48. Προς Γοργόνεια πεδία Κισθένης, ἵνα Αι φορκιδες ναιεσί, δηναίοι xogar, Τρεις κυκνόμορφοι, κοινον όμμ' εκτημέναι. Æschyli Prometheus. Αι μεν Φορκίδες τρεις- είχον είδος Κύκνων. Scholia ibidem. Φόρκυν ην ανής Κυξηναίος· διδε Κυρηναίοι κατα γένος μεν εισιν Αιθίοπες. Palaphatus. Edit. Elz. p. 76. |