[ 5 ] 



againft Herodotus foi- the opinion fuppofed to be conveyed in 

 the following words, Lib. ii. Cap. ^^. page 129. Edit. WefTel : 



'H(r]o^ov yap kcci Of/,ripov rjXMi'/iv TiTpctKotrioKn Ina-i Jijcew uiu Trpea-pvlepovg 

 •y(VB(r6a.i, ycoci ox) TrXBcTi, 'oujoi II Ikti 0; •Koiyjcrtx.vleg ^ioyov\7]v 'EXXrja-i, zcci 

 rouTi ©ioKTi raf iTranpilag Sovji;, xa; r/^aj ri xcci rs^vag SilXoflig, xxi hSsk 

 oiuTuv a-ijfji-fivxv\ii; — " For Hefiod and Homer, whom I believe to 

 " have exifled four hundred years before me and no more, 

 " were they who formed a theogony for the Greeks, gave 

 " firnames to the Gods, diftinguifhed tlieir honours and their 

 " fundlions, and inverted them with their feveral forms." 



In the common acceptation of this paflage, which thefe gen- 

 tlemen feem to have adopted, nothing is more certain than 

 that Herodotus is miflaken. That religion, and Gods, together 

 with their refpeiflive names, were known to the Greeks long 

 before the times of Hefiod and Homer has been proved by 

 fundry irrefragable arguments ; but, if no other proofs were 

 to be had, the manner in which thefe poets fpeak of the Gods, 

 as of beings long fince known, and worfhipped by the anceftors 

 of the generation then exifting, would alone be fufEcient evi- 

 dence to this point ; and more efpecially Homer, who clearly 

 fuppofes every theological circumftance of which he treats to 

 have been commonly known at the time of the Trojan war, 

 many years before he was born ; and furely it would have been 

 a ftrange, abfurd and unaccountable anachronifm in this great 

 bard, if he fhoiild have made his heroes invoke by name deities 

 whofe worfhip did not exift in their time, and whofe names he 

 himfelf had invented, little lefs, by the fliorteft calculation, than 



a century 



