of the Assyrian Monarchy. — 335 
qui pacato statuisset in orbe columnas 
Tam dura traheret mollia pensa mani. 
Prop. 11. 9. 17. 
(74) The priests of Hercules wore women’s clothes in 
his mysteries. Joh. Lydus de Mensibus p, 92. referring 
to Nicomachus, who had written on Egyptian festivals. 
The worshippers of Bacchus at times did the same, Hes. 
1u@aAdos. As a counterpart to this, the Venus Urania, the 
Assyrian and Pheenician Venus, was armed. Herod.1.—105. 
Paus. 267. Ed. Kuhn; though her name Mvairra, from the 
root 19 to bring forth, shows that she was also the god- 
dess of generation. “ Signum etiam veneris est Cypri bar- 
batum corpore,sed veste muliebri, cum sceptro ac staturavi- 
rili.’ Maer. Sat. 111. 8. Strabo p. 588, 9. ed. Alm. speaking 
of the temple of Comana in Pontus, describes the worship 
there in a manner which leaves no doubt that she had the 
attributes of Venus, and says that she had also a temple 
at Comana in Cataonia; yet in speaking of this (p. 535) 
he calls it a temple of Evw, Bellona, from the union of 
martial attributes with those of the goddess of love. Now 
these goddesses were the same as Atergatis, Derceto, 
Semiramis. The priests of the goddess of Comana, like 
those of Cybele, Rhea, Atergatis and Derceto, emasculated 
themselves. Hence the “exsectos Comanos” of Valerius 
Flaccus. 
(75) Although this proneness of the Greeks to invent 
persons and adventures to account for names be obvious on 
the slightest inspection, it may not be uninteresting to pro- 
duce here an instance or two which have not been gene- 
rally observed. When we are told that Attica was called 
Kpevan fram Cranaus, though the name (rocky) is exactly 
descriptive of its soil, or Avysadsix a maritime region from 
ZEgialus, instead of asyiadoc the sea-shore, the falsehood of 
the etymology which supposes the name to have originated 
