ltero Syrians Adud; the Arabs Dionysus ; the Assyrians Be- the pre-existence of souls was the universal belief. Ha- HeroWorvip. lus; the Phænicians Saturn; the Carthaginians Her- ving proceeded thus far in the apotheosis of dead men, Worship.

cules; and the Palmyrians Elegabclus. Again, by the the next step taken in order to render it in some degree
Phrycians the moon was called Cybele, or the mother probable that the early founders of states, and inventors
of the gods; hy the Athenians İlinerva; by the Cy- of arts, were divine intelligences clothed with human
prians Venus ; by the Cretans Diana; by the Sicilians bodies, was to attribute to one such benefactor of man.
Proserpire; by others Hecate, Bellona, Vestu, Urani, kind the actions of many of the same name. Vossius,
Lucini, &c. Philo Byblius explains this practice: "Ic who empl yed vast erudition and much time on the sub-
is remarkable (says lie) that the ancient idolaters im- ject, bas proved, that before the æra of the Trojan
posed on the clernents, and on those parts of nature which wars most kings who were very powerful, or highly re:
they esteemed gods, the names of their kings; for the nowned for their skill in legislation, &c. were called
natural gods which they acknowledged were only the Jorc; and when the actions of all these were attributed
sun, moon, planéts, elements, and the like; they being to one Jore of Crete, it would be easy for the crafty
now in the humour of having gods of both classes, the priest, supporied by all the power and influence of the
morial and the inmortal."

state, to persuade an ignorant and barbarous people, that
“ As a farther proof that hero-worship was thus su- he whose wisdom and heroic exploits so far surpassed
perinduced upon the planetary, it is worthy of observa- those of ordinary men must have been the supreme God
tion, that the first statues consecrated to the greater in human form.

23 hero-gods--those who were supposed to be supreme- This short sketch of the progress of polytheism and Vices of the were not of a human forin, but conical or pyramidal, idolatiy will enable the reader to account ter many cir- sagan gods. like those which in the earliest agez of idolatry were cumstances recorded of the pagan gods of antiquity, dedicated to the son and planets. Thus the scholiast whic! at first view seem very surprising, and which at on the respæ of Aristophanes tells us, that the statues last brought the whole system into contempt among the of Apollo and Bacchus were cons pillars or obelisks; philosophers of Aibens and Rome. The circumstances and Pausanias, that the statue of Jupiter Meilichius re- to which we allude are ihe immoral characters of those presented a pyramid; that of the Argive Juno did the divinities, and the abominable rites with which they

same, as appears from a verse of Phoronis quoted by were worshipped. Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, and the * Strom. l. 1. Clemens Alexandrinus *; and indevil the practice was whole rabble of them, are described by the poets as ra

universalas well amongst the early barbarians as amongst vishers of iromen and notcrious adulterers. Hermes or
the Gieeks. But it is well known that the ancients Mercury was a thief, and the god of thieves. Venus
represented the rays of light by pillars of a conical or was a prostitute, and Bacchus a drunkard. The malice
pyramidal form ; and therefore it follows, that when and revenge of Juno were implacable; and so little re-
they erected such pillars as representatives of their hero- gard was any of them supposed to pay to the laws of

gods, these latter bad succeeded to the titles, rights, and lionour and rectitude, that it was a common practice of 4 Tarbur. honours of the natural and celestial divinities t." the Romans, when besieging a town, to evocate the ton's Div But though it seems to be certain that hero-worship tutelar deity, and to tempt him by a reward to betray Leg. book zo was thus engrafted on the plunetary, and that some of his friends and votaries f. In a word, they were, in | T. Livii, those heroes in process of time supplanted the planets the language of the poet,

lib. v. c. 21. themselves, this was such a revolution in theology as

et Macrob.

“ Gods partial, changeful, passionate, unjust, could not have been suddenly eflected by the united in

“ Whose attributes were rage, revenge, and lust." lib. iii

. c. 9. Progress of fluence of the prince and the priest. We doubt not this revolu- the fact that sol was believed to have reigned in Egypt, tion in theo

This was the natural consequence of their origin. Ha-Accounted. and was afterwards worshipped under the name Osiris; ving once animated human bodies, and being supposed for. but it was surely impossible to persuade any nation, still to retain human passions and appetites, they were however stupid or prone to idolatry, that a man, whoni believed, in their state of deification, to feel the same they remembered discharging the duties of their sovereign sensual desires which they had felt opon earth, and to and legislator, was the identical sun whom they belield pursue the same means for their gratification. As in the heavens. Osiris, if there was in Egypt a king the men could not well attempt to surpass the gods of that name, may have been deified immediately after in purity and virtue, they were easily persuaded by arthis death, and honoured with that worship which was ful and profligate priests, that the most acceptable worpaid to good damons ; but he must have been dead for ship which could be rendered to any particular deity ages before any attempt was made to persuade the na- was to imitate the example of that deity, and to indulge tion that he was the supreme Goll. Even then great in the practices over which he presided. Hence the address would be requisite to make such an attempt suc- worship of Bacchus was performed during the night by cessful. The prince or priest who entered upon it men and women mixing in the dark after intemperate would probably begin with declaring from the oracle, eating and drinking. Hence too it was the practice that the divine intelligence which animates and governs in Cyprus and some other countries to sacrifice to Vethe sun had descended to earth and animated the person nus the virginity of young women some days before of their renowned legislator; and that, after their laws their marriage, in order, as it was pretended, to secure were framed, and the other purposes served for which their chastity ever afterwards; and, if Herodotus

may

be
the descent was made, the same intelligence had re- credited, every woman among the Babylonians was ob-
turned to its original residence and employment among liged once in her life to prostitute herself in the temple
the celestials. The possibility of this double transmi- of the goddess Mylitte (Venus), that she might thence
gration from heaven to earth and from earth to heaven, forward be proof against all temptation.
would without difficulty be admitted in an age when The progress of polythei-m, as far as we have traced

ito,

sect. 6.

Satur.

24

logy.

a

26

Ilero. it, has been regular; and after the enormous error of from which Sunday is derived, among the Latins dies IleroWorship. forsaking the worship of the true God was admitted, Solis, was placed in a temple, ard adored and sacrificed Worship.

every subsequent step appears to be natural. It would to; for they believed that the sun did co-operate with 25 Progress of

be no difficult task to prove that it has likewise been this idol. He was represented like a man balf naked, i lolatry re

universal. Sir William Jones, the learned president of with his face like the sun, holding a burning wheel gular and the Asiatic Society, has discovered such a striking re- with both hands on his breast, signifying his course universal. semblance between the gods of Ancient Greece and round the world ; and by its fiery gleans, the light and + Asiatic those of the pagans of Hindostant, as puts it beyond a heat with which lie warms and nourisheth all things.. Researches

, doubt that those divinities had the same origin. The 2. The idol of the moon, from which cometh our lllonvoi. i.

GANES A of the Hindoos he has clearly proved to be the day, dies Lunæ, anciently Algonday, appears strangely JANUs of the Greeks and Romans. As the latter was singular, being habited in a short coat like a man. Her represented with two and sometimes with four faces, as holding a moon expresses what she is; but the reason of emblems of prudence and circumspection, the former is her short coat and long-eared cap is lost in oblivion. painted with an elephant's head, the well-known sym- 3. Tuisco, the most ancient and peculiar god of the

bol among the Indians of sagacious discernment. The Germans, represented in his garment of a skin according Indian ido. SATURN of Greece and Rome appears to bave been the to their ancient manner of clothing, was next to the latry. same personage with the Menu or SATYAVRATA of sun and moon, the idol of bighest rank in the calendar Hindostan, whose patronymic name is VAIVASWATA, of northern paganism. To him the third day in the

.
or child of the sum; which sufficiently marks his origin. week was dedicated ; and hence is derived the name
Among the Romans there were many Jupiters, of whom Tuesday, anciently Tuisday, called in Latin dies Hartis,
one appears from Ennius to have been nothing more though it must be confessed that Mars does not so much
than the firmament personified.

resemble this divinity as he does Odin or Woden.

4. Woden was a valiant prince among the Saxons.
Aspice hoc sublime candens, quem invocant omnes
Jovem.

His image was prayed to for victory over their ene

mies ; which, if they obtained, they usually sacrificed
But this Jupiter had the same attributes with the Indian the prisoners taken in battle to him. Our Wednesday
god of the visible heavens called INDRA or the king, is derived from him, anciently Wodens day. The north-
and DIVEsPETIR or the lord of the sky, whose consort ern histories make him the father of Thor, and Frige
is Sachi, and whose weapon is vajra or the thunderbolt. to be his wife.
INDRA is the regent of winds and showers; and though 5. Thor was placed in a large ball, sitting on a bed
the east is peculiarly under his care, yet his Olympus canopied over, with a crown of gold on his head, and
is the north-pole, allegorically represented as a mountain 12 stars over it, holding a sceptre in his right hand.
of gold and gems. With all his power he is considered To him was attributed the power over both heaven and

as a subordinate deity, and far inferior to the Indian earth; and that as he was pleased or displeased he could * Plate triad BRAHMA, Vishnou, and MAHADEVA or Siva*, send thunder, tempests, plagues, &c. or fair, seasonable ccccxxxv. who are three forms of one and the same godhead. weather, and cause fertility. From him our Thursdayde

The president having traced the resemblance between rives its name, anciently Thorsday; among the Romans
the idolatry of Rome and India through many other dies Jovis, as this idol may be substituted for Jupiter.
gods, observes, that we must not be surprised at find- 6. Friga represented both sexes, holding a drawn
ing, on a close examination, that the characters of all the sword in the right hand and a bow in the left; denoting
pagan

deities melt into each other, and at last into one that women as well as men sbould fight in time of need.
or two; for it seems a well-founded opinion, that the She was generally taken for a goddess; and was repu-
whole crowd of gods and goddesses in ancient Rome, ted the giver of peace and plenty, and causer of love
and likewise in Hindostan, mean only the powers of na- and amity. Her day of worship was called by the
ture, and principally those of the sun, expressed in a va- Saxons Frigedeag, now Friday, dics Veneris; but the
riety of ways, and by a multitude of fanciful names." habit and weapons of this figure have a resemblance of

Nor is it only in Greece, Rome, Egypt, and India, Diana rather than Venus.
that the progress of idolatıy bas been from planetary to 7. Seater, or Crodo, stood on the prickly back of a
hero-worship. From every account which modern tra. perch. He was thin-visaged and long-baired, with a
vellers have given us of the religion of savage nations, it long beard, bare-headed and bare-footed, carrying a pail
appears that those nations adore, as their first and great- of water in his right hand wherein are fruit and flowers,
est gods, the sun, moon, and stars; and that such of them and holding up a wheel in his left, and his coat tied
as have any other divinities have proceeded in the same with a long girdle. His standing on the sharp fins of
road with the celebrated nations of antiquity, from the this fish signified to the Saxons, that by worshipping
worship of the heavenly bodies to that of celestial dæ- him they should pass through all dangers unhurt: by
mons, and from celestial dæmons to the deification of bis girdle flying both ways was shown the Saxons free-
dead men. It appears likewise that they universally dom ; and by the pail with fruit and flowers, was de-
believe their hero gods and demigods to retain the noted that he would nourish the earth.

From him, or
passions, appetites, and propensities of men.

from the Roman deity Saturn, comes Saturday. Tbat the Scandinavians and our Saxon ancestors had Such were the principal gods of the northern nations: Scandinavian and

the same notions of the gods with the other pagans but these people had at the same time inferior deities, Saxon ido- whose opinions we have stated, is evident from their who were supposed to have been translated into heaven latry. calling the days of the week by the names of their divi. for their heroic deeds, and whose greatest happiness

nities, and from the forms of the statues by which those consisted in drinking ale out of the skulls of their ene+ Plate divinities were represented t. 1. The idol of the sun, mies in the hall of iroden. But the limits prescribed

27

CCCCXXXV.

23

Brute- to the present article do not permit us to pursue this this view they would make it criminal to kill or even to Brute-
Worship, subject; nor is it necessary that we should pursue it. hurt sheep, cows, oxen, or goats, &c. whilst they would Worship.

The attentive reader of the article MYTHOLOGY, of wage perpetual war upon the noxious animals and beasts
the histories given in this work of the various divinities of prey. Such animals as were assisting to them in the
of paganism, and of the different nations by whom those carrying on of this warfare would be justly considered
divinities were worshipped, will perceive that the pro- as in a high degree useful to society. Hence the most
gress of polytheism and idolatry has been uniform over grievous punishments were decreed against the killing,
the whole earth.

or so much as the wounding, of the ichneumon and ibis;
There is, however, one species of idolatry more won- because the former was looked upon as the instinctive

derful than any thing that has yet been mentioned, of enemy of the crocodile, and the latter of every species of Brute wor- which our readers will certainly expect some account. It serpents. The learned writer, however, observes, that in ship of the is the worship of brutes, reptiles and vegetables, among Egypt as in other countries, people would be tempted to Egyptians

the Egyptians. To the Greeks and Romans, as well sacrifice the good of the public to the gratification of their
as to us, that superstition appeared so monstrous, that own appetites, and sometimes even to the indulgence of
to enumerate every hypothesis, ancient and modern, by a momentary caprice. He thinks it was found necessary
which philosophers have endeavoured to account for it, to strengthen the authority of the laws enacted for the
would swell this article beyond all proportion. Brute- preservation of useful animals by the sanctions of reli-
worship prevailed at so early a period in Egypt, that gion: and he says, that with this view the priests decla-
the philosophers of antiquity, whose writings have de- red that certain animals were under the immediate pro-
scended to us, had little or no advantage over the mo-

tection of certain gods; that some of those animals had
derns in pursuing their researches into its origin ; and a divine virtue residing in them; and that they could
among the modern hypotheses those of Mosheim and not be killed without the most sacrilegious wickedness,
Warburton appear to us by mucb the most probable of mcurring the highest indignation of the gods. When once
any that we have seen (B). The former of these learned the idolatrous Egyptians were persuaded that certain ani-
writers attributes it wholly to the policy of the prince mals were sacred to the immortal gods, and had a di-
and the craft of the priest. The latter contends, with vine virtue residing in them, they could not avoid view-
much earnestness and ingenuity, that it resulted from ing those animals with some degree of veneration; and
the use of hieroglyphic writing. We are strongly in- tie priests, taking advantage of the superstition of the
clined to believe that both these causes contributed to people, appointed for each species of sacred animals ap-
the production of so portentous an effect; and that the propriated rites and ceremonies, which were quickly
use of hieroglyphics as sacred symbols, after they were followed with building shrines and temples to them, and
laid aside in civil life, completed that wonderful super approaching them with oblations and sacrifices, and
stition which the craft of the priest and the policy of the other rites of divinadoration.
prince had undoubtedly begun.

To corroborate this hypothesis, he observes, that, & Lib. ii. We learn from Herodotus *, that in his time the besides the animals sacred over all Egypt, each pro65- number of useful animals in Egypt was so small as vince and each city had its particular animal to which

hardly to be sufficient for tillage and the other pur- the inhabitants paid their devotions. This arose from Itroduced rith a poli- poses of civil life; whilst serpents and other noxious the universal practice among idolaters of consecrating ical view; animals, such as the crocodile, wolf, bear, and hippo- to themselves Lares and Penates; and as the animals

potamus, abounded in that country. From this fact which were worshipped over the whole kingdom were Cudworth, Mosheim very naturally concludes t, that the founders considered as sacred to the Dii majorum gentium, so the intellect.

of society and government in Egypt would by every animals whose worship was confined to particular cities
yst. cap.ir.
to 158.

art endeavour to increase the number of useful animals or provinces, were sacred to the Lares of those cities
as the number of inhabitants increased; and that with and provinces. Hence there was in Upper Egypt a

city

а

29

(B) There is, however, another hypothesis worthy of some attention, if it were only for the learning and ingenuity of its author. The celebrated Cudworth infers, from the writings of Philo and other Platonists of the Alexandrian school, that the ancient Egyptians held the Platonic doctrine of ideas existing from eternity, and constituting, in one of the persons of the godhead, the intelligible and archetypal world. (See PLATONISM). Philo, he observes, did not himself consider those ideas as so many distinct substances and animals, much less as gods; but he mentions. others who deified the whole of this intelligible system as well as its several parts. Hence, when they paid their devotions to the sensible sun, they pretended only to worship the divine idea or archetype of that luminary: and hence, thinks our leared author, the ancient Egyptians, by falling down to bulls, and cows, and crocodiles, meant at first to worship only the divine and eternal ideas of those animals. He allows, indeed, that as few could. entertain any thoughts at all of those eternal ideas, there were scarcely any who could persuade themselves that the intelligible system had so much reality in it as the sensible things of nature; and hence he thinks the devotion which was originally paid to the divine ideas had afterwards no higher object than the brutes and vegetables of which those ideas were the eternal patterns.

This hypothesis is ingenious, but not satisfactory. There is no evidence that the mysterious doctrine of Plato concerning ideas bad anywhere been thought of for ages after brute-worship was established in Egypt. Of the state of Egyptian theology at that early period, Philo, and the other philosophers of the Alexandrian school, had no better means of forming a judgment than we have ; and they laboured under many Grecian prejudices, which must have prevented them from judging with our impartiality.

32

ting, and

liest a yes.

Brule city called Lycopolis, because its inhabitants worshipped ting from such rude pictures, as those which were in use
180:ship the wolf, while the inhabitants of Thebes, or Heliopolis, among the Mexicans, through all the different species Worship.

paid their devotions to the eagle, which was probably of what he calls curiologic, tropiral, and symbolic biero-
looked upon as sacred to the sun. Our author, how- glyphics (see HIEROGLYPHICS)---shows, by many quo- continued
ever, holds it as a fact which will admit of no dispute, tations from ancient authors, that the Egyptian priests by the
that there was not one noxious animal or beast of prey wrapt up their theology in the symbolic hieroglyphics, meats of
worshipped by the Egyptians till after the conquest after alphabetic characters had banished from the trans-bierogly:
of their country hy the Persians. That the earliest actions of civil life a mode of communicating informa-pince waria
gods of Egypt were all benevolent beings, he appeals tion necessarily so obscure. These symbols were the fi-
to the testimony of Diodorus Siculus; but he quotes guies of animals and vegetables, denoting, from some
Her lotus and Plutarch as agreeing that the latter imaginary analogy, certain attributes of their divinities;
Egyptians worshipped an evil principle under the name and when the vulgar, forgetting this analogy, ceased to
of Typhon. This Typhon was the inveterate enemy of understand them as a species of writing, and were yet
Osiris, just as Ahraman was of Orınızd; and therefore taught to consider them as sacred, they could not well
he thinks it in the lighest degree probable that the view them in any other light than as emblems of the
Egyptians derived their belief of two self-existent prin- divinities whom they adored. But if rude sculptures
ciples, a good and an evil, from their Persian conquer- upon stone could be emblematical of the divinities, it
ors, among whom that opinion prevailed from the ear. was surely not unnatural to inter, that the living ani-

mals and vegetables which those sculptures represented
From whatever source their belief was derived, Ty- must be emblems of the same divinities more striking
phon was certainly worshipped in Egypt, not with a and more sacred. Hence the learned author thinks
view of obtaining from him any good, for there was arose that wonderful superstition peculiar to the Egyp-
nothing good in his nature, but in hopes of keeping tians, which made them worship not only animals and
him quiet, and averting much evil. As certain animals vegetables, but also a thousand chimeras of their own
had long been sacred to all the benevolent deities, it creation ; such as figures with buman bodies and the
was natural for a people so besotted with superstition as heads or feet of brutes, or with brutal bodies and the
the Egyptians to consecrate emblems of the same kind beads and feet of men.
to their god Typhon. Hence arose the worship of ser- These two bypotheses combined together appear to us
pents, crocodiles, bears, and other noxious animals and to account sufficiently for the idolatry of Egypt, mon-
beasts of prey. It may indeed seem at first sight very strous as it was. We are persuaded that with respect to
inconsistent to deify such animals, after they had been the origin of brute-worship Mosheim is in the right (C);
in the practice for ages of worshipping others for being and it was a very easy step for people in so good train-
their destroyers; but it is to be remembered that longing to proceed upon the crutches of hieroglyphies to
before the deification of crocodiles, &c. the real origin the worship of plants and those chimeras, which, as they
of brute worship was totally forgotten by the people, never had a real existence in nature, could not bave
if they were ever acquainted with it. The crafty priest been thought of as emblems of the divinity, bad they
who wishes to introduce a gainful superstition, must at not been used in ihat symbolic writing which Warbur-
first employ some plausible reason to delude the multi- ton so ally and ingeniously explains.
tude ; but after the superstition bas been long and firm- To this account of the origin of brote-worship, we
ly established, it is obviously bis business to keep its are fully aware that objections will occur. From a
origin out of sight.

learned friend, who perused the article in manuscript,
Such is Mosheim's account of the origin and pro- we have been favoured with one which, as it is exceed-
gress of that species of idolatry which was peculiar to ingly plausible, we shall endeavour to obviate. “ Brute-
Egypt; and with respect to the rise of brute-worship, worship was not peculiar to Egypt. The Hindoos, it
it appears perfectly satisfactory. But the Egyptians is well known, have a religious veneration for the cow
worshipped several species of vegetables; and it surely and the alligator ; but there is no evidence that in In-
could be no part of the policy of wise legislators to pre- dia the number of useful animals was ever so amall as
serve them from destruction, as vegetables are useful to make the interference of the prince and the priest
only as they contribute to animal subsistence. We are necessary for their preservation ; neither does it appear
therefore obliged to call in the aid of Warburton's hy- that the Hindoos adopted from any other people the
pothesis to account for this branch of Egyptian super- worship of a self-existent principle of evil." Such is
stition.

the objection. To which we reply, * Div. Leg.

That learned and ingenious author having proved *, That there is every reason to believe that brute-carried book iv. with great clearness and strength of argument, that bie- worship was introduced into India by a colony of E-from lite roglyphic writing was prior to the invention of alpha- gyptians at a very remote period. That between these

Indian betic characters; and having traced that kind of wri- two nations there was an early intercourse, is universal

ly

a

31

ect. 4.

gypt into

(c) To prove that it was merely to preserve and increase the breed of useful animals in Egypt, that the prince and the priest first taught the people to consider such animals as sacred, he argues thus: “ Hæc ita esse, non ex co tantum liquet, quod paulo ante observasi, nullas bestias universo ÆLyptiorum populo sacras fuisse, præter eas, quæ manifestam regioni utilitatem comparent; sed inde quoque apparet, quod longe major ratio habita fuit famellarum inter anin.alia, quam mariun. Boves diis immolare licebat, vaccas nullo modo. Canes fæminæ contumulabantur, non item mares." Lege Herodot. Histor. lib. ii. cap. 41. & cap. 67.