424 PRIMITIVE HISTORY OF THE lONIANS. 



is said to liave been founded by Codrus, the son of Melantlius of 

 Athens, Melantlius being but another foi-m of Molid. From an 

 adventiire of this Melanthus, the Apaturian festival, one strictly 

 Ionic, and celebrated both in Attica and Asia Minor, is recorded to 

 have taken its origin. Apaturia is a word derived from Abishxir. 

 Patera, Petra and Abadir are three terms relating to ancient idolatry 

 that had the same original. The Patera, a sacrificial implement out 

 of which wine was poured, belonged peculiarly to the worship of 

 Apollo Patareus. At Daphne, near Antioch, which has already 

 been shewn to commemorate Ahban the son of Abishur, there was a 

 statue of Apollo with the patera, as well as in many other places 

 famous for his worship. This patera relates also to Abihail, the wife 

 of Abishur, for it is the same as Phiala, the cup that fell into 

 Arethusa. We have already had wine associated with Abishur and 

 his line in Ancteus, the king of Samos, who lost his life, when, leqiving 

 his cup to meet a boar that was ravaging his vineyard, he gave rise 

 to the proverb, " There's many a slip 'twixt the cup and the lip ;" 

 and in Icarius, whom the shepherds, "with whom he shared the gift 

 of Bacchus, put to death. The stories of the Indian Soma, and the 

 Germanic Kvasir mil yet enable us to understand how Abishur may 

 fitly have been represented by that which no etymology of his name 

 can afford.'^^® The personality connected with the patera is given in 

 the legend that Patarvis was a son of Apollo. With Patarus there 

 is good reason for associating Patreus, the mythical founder of Patras 

 ill Achaia, for this city is said to have stood on the site of an Ionian 

 Anthea, and many of the legends concerning Pan relate to the same 

 place. Whether the words Petros and Petra in their mythological 

 relations have any etymological connection with " Shur, a wall," or 

 whether the mere similarity of the name Abishur or Patarus with 

 an existing term denoting " rock or stone," led to the deifi.cation of 

 Jove and Apollo under such forms, I cannot tell. Many authors of 

 recent times have investigated these names, and they have generally 

 concurred in viewing them as designations of solar divinities. The 

 chapter of Bryant, in which he discusses the subject in its A^arious 

 elements of priestly Patres, Paterse and Peti'aessse ; the sacred rocks 



123 J -would be disposed to question tlie etymology of the word Iclior as denoting the 

 etherial juice that flows in the veins of the gods, and to connect it historicaUy with Itarius, 

 Kvasu- and the Soma. May not liquor have had the same origin, the verb being derived fror 

 the noun ? 



