142 On the Ancient HELLENES. 
Thofe who were addicted to that fpecies of idolatry were called 
Hellenim, or fun-worfbippers, and the appellation was probably 
fixed on them by thofe who perfevered in the worfhip of the 
true Gop. 
Tue Babylonians, according to the moft authentic accounts, 
were the firft people who worlhipped the hoft of heaven, and 
of confequence were the firft Hellenes. This name they re- 
tained much longer I believe than is generally imagined. The 
prophet JeREm1AuH, foretelling the overthrow of the Egyptians 
at Carchemifh on the river Euphrates, introduces the auxilia- 
ries of that army as exhorting one another in a fpeech to the 
following purpofe: “ Arife, and let us go again to our own 
“ people, and to the land of our nativity, from the face (edge) 
“ of the fword of the Fonim*.’’ The Seventy tranflate the 
laft claufe, Aro meorwrs wayougas ‘EAAquxns. Again, in another 
place +, we have the very fame words tranflated in the fame 
manner. It would be abfurd to imagine, that the tranflators 
were fo ignorant as to fuppofe that the Greeks were really in- 
tended in thefe paffages. They could not but know, that the 
infpired writer alluded to the Babylonians ; and that the Gre- 
cian Hellenes at that period, could have no manner of connec- 
tion with the Babylonians. The fact is, they knew that thefe 
people fhad been often ftyled Hellenes, i. e. worfbippers of the 
jun. They knew that this was a general appellation by which 
thefe people were known over all the neighbouring countries, 
and confequently applied it to them without the leaft hefitation. 
This account, in my opinion, furnifhes a very ftrong prefump- 
tion, that the Babylonians were the original Hellenes, and that 
this name was applied to them in confequence of their attach- 
ment to the worfhip of the fun. 
Jouannes Antiochenus ftyles the Midianites Hellenes. He 
calls JerHro, the father-in-law of Moses, Agysegevs ray “EAAg- 
Ya, 
* Chap. xlvi. ver. 16. + Ghap. 1. ver. 16, 2 
