DEL 
their wives, into a vaft ark which he had provided, and 
he went into it himfelf. At the fame time animals of 
every fpecies, boars, horfes, lions, ferpents, whatever 
lived upon the'face of the earth, followed him by pairs : 
all which he received into the ark, and experienced no 
evil from them ; for there prevailed a wonderful har¬ 
mony throughout, by the immediate influence of the 
Deity. Thus were they wafted with him as long as the 
flood endured. 5 After this he proceeds to mention, 
that, upon the difappearing of the waters, Deucalion went 
forth from the ark, and raifed an altar to God; but he 
tranfpofes the fcene to Hierapolis in Syria, where the na¬ 
tives pretended, as has been already mentioned, to have 
very particular memorials of the deluge. 
“Mod of the authors who have tranfmitted to us 
thefe accounts, at the fame time inform us, that the re¬ 
mains of the ark were to be feen in their days on one of 
the mountains of Armenia. Abydenus particularly lays, 
in confirmation of this opinion, that the people of the 
country ufed to get fmall pieces of the wood, which they 
carried about by way of amulet. And Berolus men¬ 
tions, that they fcraped off 'the afphaltus with which it 
was covered, and ufed it as a charm. Some of the fa¬ 
thers feem to infill on the certainty of the ark being (fill 
remaining in their time. Theophilus fays exprefsly, that 
the remains were to be feen upon the mountains of 
Aram, or Armenia. And Chryfoftom appeals to it as to 
a thing well known. ‘ Do not (fays he) thole mountains 
of Armenia bear witnefs to the truth r thofe mountains 
where the ark firll relied ? And are not the remains of it 
preferved there even unto this day 
“ There was a cullom among the priefts of Amon, of 
carrying a boat in proceflion, at particular feafons, in 
which was an oracular Ihrine held in great veneration. 
They were faid to have been eighty in number, and to 
have carried the lacred veffel about juft as they were di¬ 
rected by the impulfe of the Deity. This cullom was 
likewife in ule among the Egyptians, and bilhop Pocock 
has preferved three fpecimens of ancient fculpture, 
wherein this ceremony is difplayed. They are of won¬ 
derful antiquity, and were found by him in Upper Egypt. 
Part of the ceremony in mod of the ancient mylteries 
confided in carrying about a Ihip or boat; which cullom, 
upon due examination, will be found to relate to nothing 
elle but Noah and the deluge. It is faid of Sefodris, 
that he conftrucled a dtip which was 280 cubits in length. 
It was of cedar, plated without with gold, and inlaid 
with diver; and it was, when finidied, dedicated to Ofi- 
ris at’Thebes. It is riot credible that there Ihould have 
been a diip of this iize, efpecially in an inland diftridt, 
the mod remote of any in Egypt. It was certainly a 
temple and a flirine. The former was framed upon this 
large fcale ; and it was the latter on which the gold and 
diver were fo lavidily expended. There is a remarkable 
circumftance relating to the Argonautic expedition ; that 
the dragon llain by Jafon was of the lize of a trireme ; 
by which, mud be meant, that it was of the fiiape of a 
ihip in general, for there were no triremes at the time al¬ 
luded to. And I have moreover ihewn, that all thefe 
dragons, as they have been reprefcnted by the poets, 
were in reality temples, Dracontia ; where, among other 
rites, the worlhip of the ferpent was inftituted. There 
is therefore reafon to think, that this temple, as well as 
that of Sefodris, was faihioned, in refpedt to its fuperfi- 
cial contents, after the model of a diip ; and as to the 
latter, it was probably intended, in its outlines, to be the 
exadt reprefentation of the ark, in commemoration of 
which it was certainly built. It was a temple facred to 
Ofiris at Theba ; or, to fay the truth, it was itfelf called 
Thcba ; and both the city, faid to be one of the mod an¬ 
cient in Egypt, as well as the province, were undoubtedly 
denominated from it. Now Thcba was the name of the 
ark. It is the very word made ufe of by the facred 
writer; fo that we may be allured of the prototype after 
which this temple was fafhioned. It is faid indeed to 
Vol. V. No. 306. 
U G E. 6m 
have been Only 280 Cubits in length ; whereas the ark of 
Noah was 300. But this is a variation of only'one-fif¬ 
teenth in the whole : and as the ancient cubit was not in 
all countries the fame, we may fuppofe that this difparity 
arofe rather from the manher of meafuring than from 
any real difference in the extent of the building. It was 
an idolatrous temple, faid to have been built by Sefodris 
in honour of Ofiris. I have been repeatedly obliged to 
take notice of the ignorance of the Greeks, in refpedt to 
ancient titles, and have dtewn their mifapplication of 
terms in many inftances; efpecially in their fuppofing 
temples to have been eredted by perfons to whom they 
were in reality facred. Sefodris was Ofiris ; the fame as 
Dionufus, Menes, and Noah. He is called Scifithrus by 
Abydenus; Xixouthros by Berolus and Apollodorus; 
and is reprefented by them as a prince in whole time the 
deluge happened. He was called Zuth, Xuth, and Zeus; 
and had certainly divine honours paid to him. 
“ Paufanias gives a remarkable account of a temple of 
Hercules at Eruthra in Ionia ; which he mentions as of 
the higheft antiquity, and very like thofe of Egypt. 
The deity was reprefented upon a float, and was iup- 
pofed to have come thither in this manner from Pheni- 
cia. Ariftides mentions, that at Smyrna, upon the fead 
called Dionyjia, a fliip ufed to be carried in proceflion. 
The fame cuftom'prevailed among the Athenians at the 
Panathenaea ; when what was termed the facred (hip was 
borne with great reverence through the city to the tem¬ 
ple of Dameter at Eleufis. At Phalerus, near Athens, 
there were honours paid to an unknown hero, whowas re¬ 
prefented in the ftern of a (hip. At Olympia, the mod fa¬ 
cred place in Greece, was a reprefentation of the like na¬ 
ture. It was a building, like the fore-part of a fliip, 
which flood facing the end of the hippodromus; and 
towards the middle of it was an altar, upon which, at 
the renewal of each olympiad, certain rites were per¬ 
formed. I think it is pretty plain,” continues Dr. Bry¬ 
ant, “ that all thefe emblematical reprefentations, of 
which I have given fo many inftances, related to the hif- 
tory of the deluge, and the confervation of one family in 
the ark. This hiftory was pretty recent when thefe 
works were executed in Egypt, and when the rites were 
firft edabliflied ; and there is reafon to think, that in early 
times mod (brines of the Mizraitn were formed under the 
refemblance of a (hip, in memory of this great event. 
Nay, farther, both (hips and temples received their names 
from thence ; being ftyled by the Greeks, who borrowed 
largely from Egypt, N av; and Nao$, and mariners Nav-rai, 
Nauta, in reference to the patriarch, who was varioully 
ftyled Noas, Nous, and Noah.” 
Thus has Dr. Bryant deciphered almoft all the ancient 
fables, of which no fatisfadiory folution was ever given 
before. He (hews that the primitive gods of Egypt, who 
were in number eight, were no other than the eight per¬ 
fons faved in the ark ; that almoft all the heathen deities 
had one way or other a reference to Noah. He (hews 
that he was charadterifed under the titles of Janus, Ne- 
reus, Proteus, Oannes, Dagon, &c. and, in (hort, that 
the deluge, fo far from being unknown to the heathens, 
or forgotten by them, was in a manner the bads of the 
whole of their worfliip. He traces the hiftory of the 
raven and dove fent forth by Noah, in the cuftoms of va¬ 
rious nations, not only in the eaft but the weft alfo. Of 
the numberlefs teftimonies of the truth of this part of 
facred hiftory to be met with among the weftern nations, 
however, we (hall felect one more, which is an ancient 
coin, ufually known by the name of the Apamean medal. 
“ The learned Falconerius (fays Dr. Bryant) has a cu¬ 
rious diflertation upon a coin of Philip the Elder, which 
was (truck at Apamea, and contained on its reverfe an 
epitome of this hiftory. The reverfe of mod Afiatic 
coins relate to the religion and mythology of the places 
where they were (truck. On the reverfe of this coin is 
delineated a kind of fquare machine, floating upon the 
water. Through an opening in it are feen two perfons, 
S N a ?nan 
