MEDAL. 
to Strabo, tbe fame people: they lived in the neighbour¬ 
hood of the Saches, from whom they, with all the Scy¬ 
thians, were defcended. Herodotus places them near the 
Amardes. They, then, and the Saches, were the only 
Scythians whofe tribes were diftinguifhed by the privative 
particle being put before their name; for they were called 
the Parties and the Aparnes, like the Mardes and Amardes. 
Since, then, thefe were the only nations thus diftinguifhed, 
the medals which point out one of them, as they could 
not belong to the Parties, muft necelTarily belong to the 
Mardes, whofe name, as pronounced by themfelves, they 
bear. And, as Groucafus and Caucafus were names given 
to the fame mountain ; fo the Mardes and the Maries, the 
Amardes and the Amarles, were not different nations, al¬ 
though their names, like that of the mountain, were writ¬ 
ten and pronounced by foreigners in a different manner 
from what they were by the natives of Groucafus, and the 
country of the Maries and Amarles. 
If what has been faid were not fufficient, the irnprefftons 
on the money coined by the Maries would confirm the fadt, 
that they lived near Perfia, and were defcended from the 
Saches, whofe cofinogony, reprefented, as we fhall fee, on 
their coins, they preferved ; and, finally, that they inha¬ 
bited that country which ancient authors deferibe as the 
refidence of the Mardes and Amardes. The Mardes and 
Amardes inhabited the north of Perfia, as appears from a 
paffage of Nearchus quoted by Strabo, and from what 
Herodotus, Pliny, and other ancient authors, fay of them. 
The Mardes are by many confide'red as Perfians ; their re¬ 
ligion and emblems inult of courfe have been nearly fimi- 
lar; and on comparing the emblems which are yet to be 
feen on the Perfian monuments with thofe on the medals 
of the Maries and Amarles, the fa< 5 t is fully proved ; for 
■we find on the coins of the latter, figures exactly refem- 
bling thofe which have efcaped among the ruins of Perfo- 
polis. Such, among others, is that of the ox with a human 
face ; and that of the difk, fo frequently reprefented on 
the frieze of the temples of that city, and on the monu¬ 
ments of Tfchil-Minor. 
The Mardes and Amardes were the neighbours of 
the Gelons, or Geleans. Thefe latter were the defeend- 
ants of Gelon, one of the brothers of that Scythes from 
whom the Scythians took their name. The name of Ge¬ 
leans, as alfo that of their founder, was found again in the 
fouthern part of Sicily, where a city and the river on whofe 
banks it flood were called Gela, the inhabitants Geleans ; 
and the name of Gelon, which was common among them, 
was borne by that prince, who governed Syracufe with 
great moderation, and delivered Sicily from the yoke of the 
Carthaginians. If it be fomething remarkable to find the 
fame proper and national names in an ifland fituated in 
the Mediterranean, as belonged to the inhabitants of the 
fouthern coall of the Cafpian Sea ; it is ftill more fo, to 
difeover on the medals of the Geleans of Sicily, and on 
thofe of the inhabitants of Camarina, their nearelt neigh¬ 
bours, impreflions exactly refembling thofe which are to 
be feen on the medals of nations in Afia, who formerly 
dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Afiatic Geleans. But 
our furprife is increafed, on comparing thefe medals: thofe 
of the Mardes have not merely the ox with an human face, 
fuch as is feen on the medals of the Geleans of Sicily, but 
even the contour of the face of that emblematical figure ; 
its expreffion, features, and the cut of its beard, are ex¬ 
actly fimilar in every point to thofe of the figure found on 
the coins of the Mardes of Afia. 
As fuch a minute refemblance in abfolutely the fame 
fubjeft, and found among people bearing the lame name, 
though at fo confiderable a diflance from each other, 
could never be the effect of chance, it neceffarily follows, 
that their artifts were obliged to copy txadlly the original 
model of the ox with an human face, and made it a point 
never to deviate from it. And, as we are well afl'ured that 
the iflands of the Mediterranean were originally peopled 
from ine continent, it is evident of courfe that the reli¬ 
gious ceremonies which the inhabitants of Gela always ob- 
Vql. XIV. No. 1015. 
S09 
ferved were introduced from the continent, and were bor¬ 
rowed from thofe of the Geleans of Afia, whofe name 
they adopted, together with that form of religion which 
feems to have been common to the Mardes, the Perfians, 
and other nations, and received from them by thofe na¬ 
tions who in the moft remote times eflablifhed themfelves 
in Europe. It is farther to be obferved, that the features 
of this human face beftowed on the ox in the medals of 
the Mardes and the Geleans of Sicily, exactly refemble 
thofe of fome entire human figures found among the fculp- 
ture of the ancient Perfians. Every thing, in fliort, con¬ 
firms the opinion, that all thefe figures fo faithfully co¬ 
pied by the Greeks were originally brought from Afia. 
See fig. 7. 
Dr. Combe was the firft who remarked the difference 
between the inferiptions engraved on the medals of Ca¬ 
marina and thofe of the Maries, orMardes. He has ranked 
thefe among the uncertain. Several aide antiquaries had 
been deceived in them ; they thought they might add a K, 
which never exilted on the medals of the Maries, without 
paying any attention to the A, which never could find a 
place in the word Kamarina. Their miftake took its rife 
from the refemblance of the reverfe of thefe medals, on 
each of which a goofe was reprefented, as well as the 
fimilitude of the winged figures reprefented on the face 
of both thefe coins. See figs. 7 and 8. Thefe figures, 
though different, hold each of them a difk, in the which 
is reprefented another body of a round or oval form. 
Our author elfewhere obferves, that the goofe erefted in 
the temples of Priapus, was, as Petronius fays, the fa¬ 
vourite bird of that deity. It is th e Anon of the Indians ; 
it determines the nature of the figures it accompanies ; 
and, as it is an attribute of the fymbol of generation, fo is 
it likewife of the Ens generans, or Creating Being ; for 
which reafon it is to be feen in feveral reprefentations of the 
Trimourti, or three-headed divinity of the Indians, in their 
pagoda at Elephanta. The winged figures which are 
placed on the face of the coins whofe reverfe bears the 
impreflion of this goofe, muft therefore be thofe of the 
Creative Being ; which is the reafon, that on the medals 
of the Maries, as alfo on thole of the inhabitants of Cama¬ 
rina, thefe figures hold a difk, the fymbol of the fun, in 
which difk is a globe, or other fpherical body ; by which 
is typified the world, and the egg out of which it was 
fuppofed to have proceeded by the aftion of the Creative 
Being, and by the means of the fpirit called by the Per¬ 
fians Mihir, and by the Greeks Love. This fpirit, which, 
co-operating with the Creative Being, produced the world, 
and every animate being, was reprelented among the In¬ 
dians by a dove ; and the wings of that bird are given to 
the Ens generans on the medals of Camarina, and thofe of 
the Maries. Thefe wings, in a religious monument pre¬ 
ferved among the ruins of Perfepolis, fupport the difk 
feen upon the medals we are fpeaking of, and point out 
the incubation which preceded the creation of the world, 
expreffed by the egg of Canos contained in thedilk. The 
Creative Being is reprefented on the coins of Camarina. 
(fig. 8.) by a fingle figure ; on thofe of the Maries (fig. 7.) 
by a figure with two heads, which explains the title which 
was given it of dyphies, or biform. In thefe latter may be 
traced the features of the face of the ox with an human 
head, on which this double figure is placed. This fame 
ox is reprefented in a coloffal marble figure, which fiands 
at the entrance of the ruins of Perfepolis, with wings, 
being thofe of Mihir, or Love. 
The analogy between thefe monuments of antiquity, 
whole refpedlive parts thus mutually dcvelope and explain 
each other, evidently (hows that which exifted between 
the religion of the Indians, the Perfians, and the inhabi¬ 
tants of Sicily and Greece. On a Perfian emblem, fig. 9, 
is expreffed the connection between the Creative Being 
and Mihir, or Love. The wings of the latter fupport the 
figure of the Ens generans, whofe face exactly refembles 
that of the winged cx on the coins of the Maries, and 
thofe of the inhabitants of Gela in Sicily. The Creative 
9 U Being 
