Origin of Mythologt/. .191 



In the obscurity" which these fables have thro-wii oa 

 the history of the pagan deities, we have little certain 

 light, except vv'hat is derived from the radical sense of 

 their names, and from the drapery and appendages of their 

 statues. The former have retained their primitive sig- 

 nification, and the latter their form — and the club of 

 Hercules, like the Latin pugno, to fight, from pugnuSy 

 the fist, bears along the stream of time an imperishable 

 iPiemorial of the manner of fighting in the age when the 

 character and name of Hercules originated.* 



Bacchus^ says Bryant, was Cush, the grand-son of 

 Noah. Bochart forms his name from bar-cJms, the son 

 of Cush, and supposes liim to have been the celebrated 

 JVimrod. Faber maintains that Bacchus was Noah him- 

 self, and the revels of this deity have been fimcied to bear 

 some allusion to the intoxication of the diluvian patri- 

 arch. Wilford has strangely supposed that Bacchus is a 

 title corrupted from the Indian Bhagavat, or preserving 

 power. Gebelin, on the contrary, aliedges and attempts 

 to prove, that Bacchus was the same as the sun ; that at 

 first he w^as an allegorical being, representing the influ- 

 ences of the sun in producing and ripening corn and the 

 vine ; and afterw^ards he was considered as an illustrious 

 personage, the author of these productions.! 



But in truth Bacchus is an imaginary being, whose 

 name was formed from the Celtic bach, drunk, by the ad- 

 dition of the Greek article. In Irish, bach is drunk, 

 bacchaire a drunkard, and bachla is the root of the Latin 

 pocidum, a cup. Bacchus^ then, is neither more nor less than 

 hard drinking or intoxication personified, and in progress 

 of time, exalted into a deity. He was also called Dion- 

 ysus, or Dionysius, and Cicero informs us that " Dion- 

 ysos multos habemus," we have many Bacchuses. The 

 number, it is believed, has not been diminished by time. 4: 



Bacchus is represented by the figure of an efieminate- 



* See Herod. Euterpe, 44, 45. 



t Bryant's Analysis, i. 257, 4°. — Bochart. Geog. Sac. lib. i. ca. ], 

 — Faber, vol. i. 155. — Gebelin, vol. iv. 541. — Asiat.Res. iii. 352, 395. 



\ Cicero De Nat. Door. lib. iii. 23. Bach radically signifies a 

 hollov/, a cup, or bowl ; so that Baqchus is literally the personiiica- 

 labn of a cup or hosyl. 



