MYTHOLOGY. 21 



father in-law of the patriarch Jacob, was a maker 

 of idols, and that he had his little images, or 

 houfhold gods, which he formed of baked earth, 

 arid which fhows, that idolatry exifted in the 

 greateft antiquity, it then explains cofmogon^ f 

 and tbeogony, or the belief that the firft inhabi- 

 tants of the earth entertained of the creation of 

 the univerfe, and what the pagan theology 

 taught of the genealogy of their falfe gods. It 

 begins with the tradition of the Chaldeans, a 

 people fo ancient, that Nimrod was their firft 

 king ; but at the fame time, fo credulous and 

 fuperftitious, that we may regard them as the 

 authors of all thofe fables, and the propagators 

 of all thofe vifions, that have fince blinded human 

 reafon. According to this tradition, a monfter 

 named Oannes, or Oes y half fifh and half man, 

 jprang from the ll-a, before the chaos was com- 

 pletely difperfed, and gave laws to the Chaldeans. 

 A woman, called Qmorks, reigned over all the 

 earth. Bel cue her in two, and made of one 

 moiety the heavens, and of the other the earth. 

 They likewife invented the two primitive beings, 

 of which the good one, who was named Ora- 

 mafdes y had the direction of heaven, and the 

 other called Arimanius y that of hell. 



i . The fcience of mythology then teaches 

 the theogony of the I'ha-niuans i concerning 

 whom it draws great lights from Sanchoniathon, 

 a pr'u c the T: 



*vars, more than four lumdtx He- 



iiod 



