FROM THE ANCIENT BOOKS OF THE HlNDUS, 407 



diirance of two iladia. There were two temples at Canopus ; die more ancient 

 infcribed to Hercules, which ilood in the fuburbs (a), and the more mo- 

 dern, but of greater celebrity, i-aifed in honour of Serap.is ,{l). Now there 

 feems to be no fmall affinity between ike characters of Dundhu and An- 

 taeus, of Visvadhanwa and Hercules; many heroes of antiquity 

 (Cicero reckons u^Jix, and others, forty-three, fome of whom were pecu- 

 liar to Egypt) had the title of Hercules j and the Greeks,, after their fafhion, 

 afcribed to one the mighty achievements of them all. Antaeus was, like 

 Dundhu, a favourite fervant of Osiris, who intrufted part of Egypt to his 

 government; but, having in fome refpect mifbehaved, he was depofed, abfcond- 

 ed, and was hunted by Hercules through every corner of Africa : hence I 

 conclude, that Dandhu-mara-fF.han was the town, called Anteu by the Egyptians* 

 and Antceopolis by the Greeks, where a temple was raifed and facrifkes made 

 to An tmus, in hope of obtaining protection againfl other demons and giants. 

 Rdcpafa-f ban feems to be the Rhacotis of the Greeks, which Cedrenus 

 calls in the oblique cafe Rhakhajien : it flood on the fite of the prefent Alex- 

 andria, and muft in former ages have been a place of confiderable note; for 

 Pliny tells us, that an old king of Egypt, named Mesphees, had erected 

 two obelifks in it, and that fome older kings of that country had built forts 

 there, with garrifons in them, againfl the pirates who infefted the coafl (c). 

 When Hercules had put on the fatal robe, he was afflicted, like Visva- 

 dhanwa', with a loathfome and excruciating difeafe, through the vengeance 

 of the dying Nessus : others relate (for the fame fable is often differently 

 told by the Greeks) that Hercules was covered with gangrenous ulcers 

 from the venom of the Lernean ferpent, and was cured in Phenice at a place 

 called Ake (the Acco of Scripture), by the juice ©f a plant, which abounds 



(a) Herod. B. 2. (b) Strab. B. 17. (cj Lib. 56. Cap. 9. 



