A NEW SYSTEM; OR, AN ANALYSIS OF ANTIENT MYTHOLOGY. OF THE PROGRESS OF THE IONIC WORSHIP; AND OF THE IONAH-HELLENIC COLONIES. I HAVE repeatedly taken notice, that the worship of the Dove, and the circumstances of the Deluge, were very early interwoven among the various rites, and ceremonies of the eastern world. This worship, and all other memorials of that great event, were represented in hieroglyphical characters in Babylonia: and from these symbolical marks, ill understood, was that mythology framed, which through the Greeks has been derived to us. The people, by whom these rites were kept up, were styled Semarim, Iönim, and Dercetidae; according to the particular symbol, which they venerated: and some allusions to these names will continually occur in their history, wheresoever they may have settled. The Capthorim brought these rites with them into Palestine; where they were kept up in Gaza, Ascalon, and Azotus. They worshipped Dagon; and held the Dove in high veneration. Hence it was thought, that Semiramis was born in these parts, and nourished by pigeons. Their coast seems to have been called the coast of the Iönim for the sea, with which it was bounded, was named the Ionian sea quite to the Nile. ' Λεγεσι δε τινες και το απο Γάζης μέχρις Αίγυπτε πέλαγος ΙΟΝΙΟΝ λεγεσθαι. Indeed Gaza was itself styled Iönah: * Iwn Γαζα εκαλείτο : which name Stephanus supposes it to have received from the flight of Iö. ragaεκλήθη δε και ΙΩΝΗ εκ της Ιες προσπλεύσασης, και μείνασης αυτής εκεί, Εκληθη δε και Μίνωα. notice of the same circumstance: n Eustathius takes μέχρις Αιγύπτε πέλαγος Ιόνιον λεγεσθαι TO απо Γαζής Steph. Byzant. lovov. 2 Ibid. 3 Ibid. Fala. Menoïs oppidum juxta Gazam. Hieron. in locis Hebræis. Scholia in Dionys. Perieg. v. 94. ήτοι της Σελήνης" Ιω γὰρ ἡ Σεληνη κατα την των Αργείων ART. If the title of Ionian came from Iö, that name must have been originally Iön or Iönah: and so it will hereafter appear. What one writer terms Minoa, the other renders Eλnn; which is a true interpretation of 5 M, the Moon, the name of the dcified person, Meen-Noah. I have mentioned, that the like terms, and worship, and allusions to the same history, prevailed at Sidon, and in Syria. The city Antioch upon the Orontes was called Iönah. Ιωνης έτως εκαλείτο ή Αντιόχεια, ή επι Δάφνη, ἣν ῳκισαν Agy. Who these Argeans were, that founded this city Iönah, needs not, I believe, any explanation. It was mentioned above, that Iö, among her various peregrinations, arrived at last at Gaza in Palestine, which from her was called Iönah. Under the notion of the flight of Iö, as well as of Osiris, Damater, Astarte, Rhea, Isis, Dionusus, the poets alluded to the journeying of mankind from Mount Ararat; but more particularly the retreat of the Iönim, upon their dispersion from the * Hence Io, or lönah, by being the representative of Meen, came to be esteemed the Moon. Ιω γαρ ή Σεληνη κατα την των Ας halt. Scholia in Dionys. Perieg. v. 94. O. Agyai μusiπως το όνομα της Σελήνης το αποκρυφον Ιω λέγασιν, έως άρτι. Joan. -Antochenus. p. 31. See Chron. Pasch, p. 41. Steph. Byzant. Iwon. ↑ ID:d. raka. land of Shinar. The Greeks represented this person as a feminine, and made her the daughter of Inachus. They supposed her travels to commence from Argos; and then described her as proceeding in a retrograde direction towards the east. The line of her procedure may be seen in the Prometheus of Eschylus: which account, if we change the order of the rout, and collate it with other histories, will be found in great measure consonant to the truth. It contains a description of the Iönim abovementioned; who, at various times, and in different bodies, betook themselves very early to countries far remote. One part of their travel is about Ararat and Caucasus; and what were afterwards called the Gordiæan mountains. In these parts the ark rested and here the expedition should commence. The like story was told by the Syrians of Astarte; by the Egyptians of Isis. They were all three one and the same personage; and their histories of the same purport. Quæ autem de Iside ejusque erroribus Egyptii, eadem ferè de Astarte Phoenices, de Iöne Græci fabulantur. The Greeks for the most part, and particularly the Athenians, pretended to be autoxloves, the original inhabitants of their country but they had innumerable evidences to By the travels of lö from Argus is signified the journeying of mankind from the ark. 9 Marshami Can. Chron. Sæc. 1. p. 42. |