176 Origin of Mythology. 



and traditionary tales, introduced by fancy and conjec- 

 ture, -which has been accumulating for almost four thou- 

 sand years. 



The present age has furnished two learned treatises on 

 this subject; the " Analysis of Ancient Mythology," by 

 Mr. Bryant, and a " Dissertation on the Mysteries of the 

 Cabiri," by Mr. Faber. These authors, both men of er- 

 udition and celebrity, are entitled to the praise of throy/- 

 ing light on a very obscure subject. But not having re- 

 sorted, in many instances, to the true sources of correct 

 information, they have probably fallen into numerous 

 mistakes.* Bryant supposes that the w^ar of the Titans 

 relates to the overthrow of Nimrod and his adherents, 

 in the attempt to build Babel. Faber, on the contrary, 

 endca^'ors to prove that that contest relates to the events 

 of the delu2:e, and that to the same events are to be re- 

 ferred the mysteries of the Cabiri, or great deities of 

 Greece, as well as the mysteries of Isis, Ceres, Mithras, 

 Bacchus, Rhea and Adonis. He maintains that the char- 

 acters in Grecian and Indian mythology, under the names 

 of Deucalion, Ogyges, Saturn, Janus, Uranus, Cronus, 

 Atlas, Dagon, Inachus, Phoroneus, Argus, Menu and 

 Minyas, Taut or Thoth, Hermes, Mercury, Budha, Fo- 

 hi, Woden, Bacchus, Osiris, Adonis, Hercules, Pluto, 

 Vulcan, Brahma, Vishnou, and Secva, all represent No- 

 ah, venerated as a prince, or worshipped with the sun as 

 a deity. 



* These gentlemen have assumed, as the basis of their etymolo- 

 gies, certain primitive or elementary words, found in the oriental lan- 

 guages, most of which they have correctly explained, but the radical 

 sense of several of tliem, they have evidently mistaken. Both of 

 them, hov.'ever, have, in my opinion, misapplied a number of these 

 ekmenls. Faber in particular, has, if I mistake not, fallen into nu- 

 merous errors. In many instances he has even made the teimina- 

 ting syllable of Greek and Latin words, which is almost always the 

 article, 05, us. Sec. a radical noun. An inattention to this fact iias been 

 a fruitful source of mistakes on this subject. Thus the river Cyrus.^ 

 is the oriental Kur, with tlie article as, us, added by the Greeks and 

 Romans ; Euphrates, is the oriental Forat, or Phrat ; Indian, is Ind or 

 Sind ; Ganges, is Gcwga, or Gonga. The same is the fact with most 

 words winch v.'e I'eceive through Greek and Roman channels, 

 whether native words of Greece and Italy, or Ibreigu woidii which 

 their writers had occasion to use. 



