On the Ancient HELLENES. 139 



the certainty of that ancient fact. But it will fcarce, I imagine, 

 be fuppofed, that one fingle old Egyptian prieftefs had the ad- 

 clrefs and courage to erect the oracle in queflion. Whatever 

 the modern Greeks may have dreamed upon that fubjecl, fhe 

 muft have had men as her co-adjutors in that operation. Thefe 

 co-adjutors were the original Selli. Thefe people were actually 

 emigrants from Egypt and Phoenicia. As the Egyptians, in the 

 earlieft times, were averfe to navigation, all the Egyptian chiefs 

 who brought colonies into Greece, were obliged to tranfport 

 themfelves on board Phoenician vefTels, and of courfe generally 

 imported a mixture of thefe people. The facl then was, — The 

 original inhabitants of the neighbourhood of Dodona were a 

 colony of Egyptians and Phoenicians *. The Egyptians were, 

 however, the leaders in that emigration. Some part of thefe 

 belonged to the facerdotal tribe, and had been originally mini- 

 flers of the temple of No-ammon, Thebes or Diofpolis. Thefe 

 probably confided of both fexes, and thefe actually founded 

 the oracle and built the temple of Jupiter Dodonaeus, in imi- 

 tation of that of the fame Deity in Egypt. Like the priefts of 

 Delphi of a later date, they employed a prieftefs to publifh the 

 oracles to thofe who confulted them. After fome years, Dione, 

 or the Moon, was admitted to a participation of the worfhip 

 there eftablifhed. Upon this occafion, three additional prieft- 

 effes were appointed to minifter to that divinity. 



From this deduction, it appears obvious, that the Helli or 

 Selli of Dodona were originally a colony from Egypt and Phoe- 

 nicia ; that the leaders of this colony were Egyptians from The- 

 bais of Egypt ; that thefe brought in their train fome of the 

 priefts of Jupiter at Theba?, or were perhaps themfelves a 

 fwarm difcharged from that feminary; that from them the re- 

 gion about Dodona was called Hellas, and the natives Hellenes j 



f 2 that 



* I fay Phoenicians, becaufe moft of the names of the objecls about the temple 

 appear to be Phoenician. 



