38 



time ; but, with real improvement, they at the same time 

 communicated to them their own corrupt rehgious opinions. 

 From them they learned the worship of the sun, moon, 

 and planets, and of the elements, and to limit the number 

 of the principal or greater Gods to twelve, Avhich the 

 Phenicians themselves learned from the Chaldeans ;* the 

 only difference being that the Chaldeans confined them to 

 the twelve signs of the Zodiac, whereas the Phenicians 

 comprehended the elements among them, as did also the 

 Greeks. The Phenician Baal, or Lord, or Supreme God, 

 the Athenians already acknowledged Zen to be ;-j- and 

 tiierefore did not learn this from the Phenicians, but from 

 them they learned that he inhabited the superior part of 

 the air, as did Here or Juno the inferior. Here denotes lady 

 or mistress ;|. and as the state of the lower air is inconstant, 

 and frequently turbulent, this laid the foundation of many 

 fables in subsequent ages. The earth they stiled Hestia or 

 Vesta, from its stability : the God of fire, the Phenician 

 Chrysor, they called Ephestion, from its power of softening 

 metals : the God of water, or the watery element, they called 

 Possideon, Neptune, though they afterwards considered him 

 peculiarly as the God of the sea, that being the largest 

 collection of waters : the moon, the Ashteroth or Astarte of 

 the Phenicians, the Greeks adopted under the name of 

 Artemis; and as her temple was always situated in a wood,|| 



the 



* Diodor. Lib. 2. p. 144. f Pausan. 600. 

 X I Lenep. 292. |j 38 Mem. Inscrip. 3^3. 



