Origin of Mythology. 1 77 



Bryant, on the authority of Virgil, Macrobius, Servi- 

 iis, Athenagoras, Pausanias ancT otlier writers, ventures 

 to affirm that most or all the Greek and Roman deities 

 were in factow^-, or thatthey referred primarily to the sun. 

 That the Greeks and Romans confounded their charac- 

 ters, iscertain ; but that Saturn, Jupiter, Dionusus, Apol- 

 lo, Hermes, Pan, Pluto, Ceres, and most of the other de- 

 ities, all originated in the worship of the slm, or had pri- 

 marily the same character and functions, is extremely im- 

 probable.* 



Gebelin, on the other hand, has endeavored to prove 

 that the deities worshipped by the ancients, represented 

 the heavenly orbs, and constellations which go\^erned or 

 influenced the seasons; or the seasons and physical events 

 by which agriculture was regulated, and on which the 

 primary ocupations of men depended for success. His 

 explication of the offices of the deities is extremely ingen- 

 ious, and in my opinion far more satisfactory, than those 

 of any writer whose works I have seen. Yet I think his 

 opinions susceptible of correction and material improve- 

 ment ; indeed, his explanation of the names of the dei- 

 ties, is generally erroneous.'i- 



In the course of my philological researches, but with- 

 out any particular design to investigate the Pagan my- 

 thology, I have probably discovered the true origin of 

 some of the supposed deities of antiquity. And from the 

 facts discovered, it appears probable, that the principal, if 

 not the only safe guide to direct us to the real origin of a 



* See Bryant's Analysis, vol. i. et passim. — Faber, vol. i. Cliiver, 

 citing the autiiority of Macrobius, in his Saturnalia, lib, i. ca. 17, as- 

 sents to his opinion, that all the names of the gods referred to the 

 sun, and those of the goddesses, to the moon ; and adds that all of' 

 them " ad unism, verum, aeternuraque Deum esse referenda." — Lib. 

 J. 26. All history is full of testimonies to the extensive worship of 

 the sun. Not only was this luminary the object of worship among 

 the Persians, under the name oi Mithras, and among the Sabeans in 

 Ch.aklca and Arabia, but among the Scythian nations, the Celts and 

 Teutones. The Massagetce, says Herodotus, lib. i. 216, sacrificed 

 horses to the sun, their only deity. But this does not prove that all 

 the names of deities had reference to the sun. 



t See his Allegories Orientales, in his Monde Primitif. vol. i. and 

 his Histoive du Calendrier, in vol. iv. 



X 



