A T II 



/ioneJ by the difappearance of the fun, but the darknefs 

 v.hich OYcrfpiead cliaos previonfly to the creation, and from 

 vhich the Almighty Creator called forth into an habitable 

 Hate the material univcvfe. This myftcrioiis night was in 

 their opinion the origin of things. Oi-pheus, initiated in 

 the myileries of the Eg^'ptians, communicated them to the 

 Greeks, and recommended them by the harmony of his 

 vcrfes. Paufanias, when he vifited Greece, faw at Mcgara 

 " the grade of the night," where every thing was taught 

 that related to Athor. This fymbolical deity, by which the 

 Egyptians characterized the principle of things,' became, in 

 the language of the Greek philofopher, the " Venus Cce- 

 leftis," or the motlier of the world. 



A T H 



to reach above tlie clouds. Martianiis Capelliis affirTned 

 that it V. as fix milts high ; and it was believed that no 

 rain fell upon it, as the afhcikft on the altars ercfted near 

 its fummit remained dry and undifperfed. Plutarch and 

 Pliny have alTertcd, tliat it projedtcd its fiiadow, at the 

 fummer folftice, on the market-place of Myrina, the prin- 

 cipal city of the ifland Ijemnos. On this account, it it 

 faid, the inh;:tiitants of the city crefted a brazen cow at the 

 termination of tiie (hadow, on which was iufcribed thi» 

 verfe : 



" ASi-; x«X[f4.Ei v\'.Vfa Aii^viKt jSocj." 

 " Half Lcmnos' calf doth Athos' fhadow hide." 

 According to Pliny, the diftance between the foot of 

 mount Athos and the itland of Leronos was 87000 paces ; 



is," or the mother ot tlie world. Orpheus taught them 

 this part of their theogony in his hymn to the night, where 



he fays, " I fhall iing the night, mother of gods and men, and according to Bclon (Obferv. 1. i. c. 25.), eight leagues! 

 the origin of the creation, whom we fhall call Venus." "~" -^ ■"'••• - • - 

 Tiie poets foon took poffeflion of this metaphyfical idea, 

 and as they mufl. have a deity for embellifhiiig their poems. 



they made her fpring from the froth of the fea, and repre 

 fented her as animating the world, and giving life to every 

 thing that breathed. See Ovid de Faft. l.iv. v. 91. and Lu- 

 cretius, 1. i. V. I. &c. The Egyptian priefts, who had painted 

 night as a divinity, apprized that the m.inds of the vulgar re- 

 quired fenfiblc objefts, made another metamorphofis of night 

 into the moon, the planet of the night, and the moon was re- 

 prcfented by the cow, whofe horns exhibited, as their ima- 

 gination fuggelled, her flrft phafis. The philofophers far- 

 ther extended this doftrine ; and they beftowcd the name 

 of night, Athor, and Venus, on the period during which 

 the fun, having pafled the equator, remains in the fouthem 

 hemifphere, when the days are fnortell and the nights 

 longeiL See Macrobius, 1. i. c. 21. The following pafTage 

 from Plutarch (De Ifid. & Ofir.) proves that this opinion 

 originated in Egypt. " In the month of Athyr (the third 

 month of the Eg^'ptian year), the Egyptians fay that Ofi- 

 ris (or the fun), is dead. Then the nights become longer, 

 the darknefs increafes, and the force of the light is dimi- 

 niflied. On this occafion, the priefts perform mournful ce- 

 remonies. They expofe to the people a gilded ox covered 

 with a black veil, in token of the grief of the goddefs 

 Ifis (or the m.oon) : for in Egypt the ox is the fymbol 



of Ofiris, and of the earth," 



Athor had temples in Egypt. Herodotus mentions 

 " Athor-Beki," the city of Athor, which Strabo (1. i;.) 

 and Diodorus (1. i.) render by the name of Aphrodito- 

 pohs, the city of Venus. jElian (De Anim. 1. ii. c. 27.) 

 fpeaking of Chufas, a town of the Hermopolitan nome, 

 fays, that in this town they worihip Venus ; and that a pe- 

 cuhar worfhip was alfo paid to the cow. He alfo informs 

 us, that Ifis, or the moon, was reprefented by the homs 

 of the cow. Jablonfki, Pantheon jEgypt. vol. i. Savarj's 

 Letters, vol. ii. p. 354 — 364. 



ATHOS, in Geography, a famous mountain of Greece, 

 in the Chalcidian region of Macedonia, feated on a penin- 

 fula, the coaih of which form the Sinus Strymonicus, or 

 gulf of Conteifa, and the Sinus Singiticus, or gulf of Monte 

 Sanfto, and joined to the land by an ifthm^us about tvvelve tei-ms 

 leagues 

 bafe 

 about 

 This 



feven _. ..„ „ „, r ■ 1 ■ u» 



which attrafts particular attention on account ot its lieignt 

 and habitations, and is denominated Athos, Agioforosor 

 heholy mountain, and Monte Sando. Of its elevation 

 very extravagant and incredible accounts have been given 

 by fome ancient writers. Mela reports, that it is fo high as 

 Vol. III. 



The Greeks, ftruck with the fmgular fituation and tower- 

 ing afcent of tliis mountain, erefttd Hpon it fo many 

 churches, monafteries, and hermitages, that it became al- 

 moll v.holly inhabited by devotees; and this circumftance 

 gave occafion to its being denominated " the holy moun- 

 tain ;" which it ftill retains, though many of the confc- 

 cratcd buildings are decayed. Among modern travellers, 

 there is a coniiderable difference of opinion about its height : 

 fome make it thirty miles in circumference, and two in per- 

 pendicular elevation ; and add, that it may he travelled over 

 in three days, and fccn at the diftance of ninety miles : 

 others ftate the altitude of its conical fummit at 3300 feet. 

 The cold on its fummit is extreme ; neverthelefs it abounds 

 with many different kinds of plants and trees, particularly 

 the pine and fir, and it fupphes a multitude of fprings and 

 ftreams. Its variety of monafleries and churches gives it a 

 pifturefque appearance. It is now inhabited by Caloyers, 

 a fort of Greek monks, of the order of St. Bafil, who 

 never marry, and fare hardly, as they abflain from flefh, 

 and fubfiil chiefly on olives pickled when they are ripe. 

 Their number is reckoned about 6000, and they inhabit 

 feveral parts of the mountain, on which are twenty-four mo- 

 nafteries, raifed to the height of five or fix llories, and 

 furrounded with high walls, flanked with towers, and guarded 

 with artillery againft the affaults of banditti and robbers. 

 They are much refpeded by the T-.irks, and receive alms 

 from them. They have the character of being very in« 

 duilrious, and they clcthe themfelves like hennits. They 

 had formerly feveral valuable Greek manufcripts, and em- 

 ployed themfelves in writing copies of the Greek Tefta- 

 ment (fee Alexandrian Maiiiifcript) ; but they are now 

 become fo illiterate, that they can fcarcely read or write. 



As the fea on this coafl is very tempcftuous, and the 

 Perfian fleet had fuffertd fliipwreck in doubling this pro- 

 montory, Xerxes is faid, for preventing a Cmilar difafler, 

 to have cut a palfage through the mountain of fufficient 

 width, to admit two gallics, with three banks of oars each, 

 to pafs ill front : by thcfe means he fevered from the con- 

 tinent the cities of Dion, Olophyxus, Acrothoon, Thyfiis, 

 and Cleone. Before he began his works, lie is faid to have 

 written a letter, addreffed to the mountain, in the following 

 Athos, thou proud and afpiring mountain, that lift- 



" Perfoi-atus Athos, et quicquid Gnecia mendax 



Audet in hiftoria." 



Dinocratcs, an architeft in the fuit of Alexander, pro- 



pofed to this conqueror to perpetuate his memory by form- 



^ Hh ing 



