OF SERPENTS. 223 



The Pagan Temples were wont to be haunted with Serpents, in 

 fo much that it grew into a Phrafe of Speech, the /acre^ Serpent*. 

 And thus Serpents are deified and folemnly enrolled among the 

 Gods. 



SANCHONIATHON, a Fhcenician Uijlonographer, and 

 Philo Biblius, who tranflated his Antiquities, have left us a full 

 Account of the Origin of the Apotheojis, or Canonization of Ser- 

 pents -f-; v/hich leads me to fay fomething of what the Ancients 

 called Apotheojis of departed Souls, and the flrange Ceremonies 

 ufed in the Apotheofis or Deification of the deceafed Emperor, who 

 had deferved well of their Country. 



APOTHEOSIS among the Ancients was a Pagan Cere- 

 mony whereby Emperors and great Men were placed among the 

 Gods, called alfo Deification, and Confiecration : Temples and 

 Altars were eredled to the new Deities, viz. Serpents and Men, 

 Sacrifices offered to them ; and for that end. Colleges of Priefls 

 were inftituted for the Honour of thefe Demi-Gods. 



I T was one of the Dodlrines of Pythagoras^ which he bor- 

 row ed from the Chaldeans, that ufeful and virtuous Perfons, after 

 their Death, were raifed into the Order of the Gods. Hence the 

 Ancients deified all the Inventors of Things that were beneficial 

 to Mankind, and thofe who had done Services of Importance to 

 their Country. 



By degrees thefe new Gods grew very numerous. One of 

 their own. Poets rallying them for frequent Deifications, intro- 

 duces poor Atlas, who is faid to bear the Heavens on his Shoulders ^ 

 complaining, that he was ready to fink under the Number and 

 Weight of fo many new Gods, as were every day coin'd, and 

 added to the Heavens, which made his Shoulders to warch. 

 N.B. Atlas in Anatomy is the Name of the firfl Vertebra oi the 

 Neck, which fupports the Head, and is the higheft, fo called in 

 allufion to the famous Mountain Atlas in Africa^ fuppos'd to be 

 the higheft in the World, fo that it feems to hold up the Hea- 

 vens ; and alfo to the Fable that makes Atlas King of Mauri- 

 tania in that Country, to bear up the vifible Heavens. I now 

 proceed to the Defcription which we have in Herodian, a Greek 

 Hiftorian in the third Century, who in fpeaking of the Apotheofis 



of 

 * Sacer anguis. 

 -)- Sanchoniatban is fuppofed by fome to be cotemporary with Gidion. 



