252 ON THE GODS OF GREECE, 



As the Mountain-born Goddefs, or Pdrvati, fhe has 

 many properties of the Olympian Juno : her majeftick 

 deportment, high fpirit, and general attributes, are the 

 fame ; and we find her both on Mount Caildfa, and at 

 the banquets of the Deities, uniformly the companion 

 of her hufband. One circumftance in the parallel is 

 extremely lingular: fhe is ufually attended by her fon 

 Cdrticeya, who rides on a peacock ; and in fome draw- 

 ings, his own robe feems to be fpangled with eyes ; to 

 which mud be added that, in fome of her temples, a 

 peacock, without a rider, Hands near her image. Though 

 Cdrticeya, with his fix faces and numerous eyes, bears 

 fome refemblance to Argus, whom Juno employed as 

 her principal wardour, yet, as he is a Deity of the fe- 

 cond clafs, and a Commander of celeftial Armies, he 

 feems clearly to be the Orus of Egypt, and the Mars of 

 Italy : his name, Scanda, by which he is celebrated in 

 one of the Pur anas, has a connection, I am perfuaded, 

 with the old Secander of Perfia, whom the poets ridi- 

 culoufly confound with the Macedonian. 



The attributes of Durgd,or difficult of accefs, are alfo 

 confpicuous in the feftival above-mentioned, which is 

 called by her name, and in this chara&er fhe refembles 

 Minerva ; not the peaceful inventrefs of the fine and 

 ufeful arts, but Pallas, armed with a helmet and fpear : 

 both reprefcnt heroick Virtue, or valour united with 

 wifdom; both flew demons and giants with their own 

 hands, and both protected the wife and virtuous, who 

 paid them due adoration. As Pallas, they fay, takes 

 her name from vibrating a lance, and ufually appears in 

 complete armour, thus Curis, the old Latain word for 

 a fpear, was one of Juno's titles; and fo, if Giraldus be 

 corrett, was Hoplofmia, which at Elis, it feems, meant a 

 female dreffed in panoply, or complete accoutrements. 

 The unarmed Minerva of the Romans* apparently corre- 



fpondsj 



