1 92 Origin of Mythologi/, 



boy, some times holding a thjTsus, and a cluster of grapes 

 with a horn, and crowned with vine and ivy leaves. He 

 also sits upon a globe, bespangled with stars ; and often 

 appears naked, riding upon the shoulders of Pan. The last 

 circumstance may perhaps be an emblem of the effects 

 of wine in giving courage, and of the bacchanalian's con- 

 tempt of fear. 



Mercury, according to Bryant, was the sun. Faber 

 believes him to have been the solar Noah. Bochart sup- 

 poses him to have been Canaan, because he presided over 

 commerce ; while Cluver labors to prove that Thoth or 

 Tauty the Egyptian Mercury, was really the true God, 

 who was worshipped in ancient Germany, under the ti- 

 tle of Tuisto. From this deity, he supposes the Germans 

 received their common appellation of Teutons. Faber 

 forms the name from APerech-ur, the great burning di- 

 vinity of the ark ! ! 



Gebelin alledges this name to be Celtic, and compound- 

 ed Q>i mere -lire.... [mark 2i\\<di vir) a man of marks, letters^ 

 or signs, as he was the deity of speech, and interpreter of 

 the gods. The usual derivation of his name is from the 

 Latin merx, trade. But Gebelin supposes the Hebrew 

 inD, (whence merx) signifying exchange, sale, or wares 

 sold, to be formed from the primitive mere, a mark, from 

 the practice of marking goods for barter or sale.* 



The Mercury of the Romans was evidently the s^me 

 character as the Egyptian Thoth, Thot or Taut and the 

 Grecian ^pf^,<i, Hermes ; although authors mention seve- 

 ral personages under the same name. Gebelin alledges 

 the Egyptian name Thot, Taut, to signify a sign or mark j 

 and hence his character as the deity of letters. In the 

 Celtic dialects, we find a word equally expressive of his 

 character, from which this name may have originated ; ia 

 Welch, tavod, in Armoric, teaut, the tongue. The first 

 etymology makes this personage the god of letters ; the 

 last, the god oi speech. Thoth, then, is letters or speech 

 personified and deified. Hence his principal offices were 

 to instruct men in the knowied2:e of letters and useful 



* Bochart. Geog. Sac. lib. i. cci. 2, and De Phoen. lib. i. 42 — Bry- 

 ant, i. 338— Faber, i. 283 — Cluver. Germ. Antiq. lib. i. ca. 9. 22^^ 

 23, 26— Gebelin, vol. i. Alleg. Orient, p. 43and vol. iv. 57. 



