CHAP. XII. EARLY NOTIONS OF THE GREEKS. 177 



" that Pronapides adopted them, who was the pre- 

 ceptor of Homer, as Boccaccio* affirms, on the 

 authority of" a fragment of Tlieodontiiis. Accord- 

 ing to this ancient theogony, the most rational of 

 all, there was only one eternal God, from whom all 

 the other Deities were produced. It was not per- 

 mitted to give any name to this first Being f, and 

 no one could say who he was. Anaxagoras thought 

 to have defined him, by saying that he was voui,-, 

 understanding. However, as the most simple ideas 

 have been altered in after times, Lactantius, the 

 scholiast of Statins, calls this sovereign Being Dai- 

 mogorgon, as does the author above alluded to, in 

 imitation of Theodontius. His name signifies the 

 Genius of the Earth ; but, from the description 

 given of this God, it scarcely agrees with the idea 

 tliat the first philosophers entertained of Him ; 

 for it is right to observe that the poets, who were 

 the earliest theologians of Greece, have, as it were, 

 personified their ideas, and made out theogonies 

 according to their fancy, though they appear always 

 to suppose a Being really independent. Most of 

 them agree in an eternity, an ontogony, or gene- 

 ration of beings, some of whom are heavenly, 

 others earthly or infernal ; but Daimogorgon and 

 Aclilys, according to their system, were before 

 the world, even anterior to chaos. Their Acmon, 

 their Hypsistus, existed before the heavens, which 

 the Latins called Coelus, and the Greeks Ouranos. 



* Genealog. of -the Gods, i. c. 3. 



■j- Statins says, " Et triplicis imindi sumnuim, qiicm scire nefastiim 

 est, ilium sod tacco." Thcbais, lib. 4. v. .'31(). 

 VOL. I Second Serifs. N 



