M Y T 
in dreffmg meat, he went to Sparta, where he gained 
much practice, efpecially among the younger citizens. 
But he was expelled by the magiftrates, who obferved 
that the aid of Mythecus was unneceflary, as hunger was 
the bed feafoning. 
MY'THIC, or Mythical, adj. [p,v 0 mo?, Gr.] Fabu¬ 
lous.—The account we have of them, fo far from being 
tnytldch or unintelligible, is mod plainly written for our 
admonition. Shuchford on the Creation. 
MYTHOG'RAPHER, f. [from the Gr. pvQoq, fable, 
and yfxtyui, to write.] A writer of fables.—The lfatues of 
Mars and Venus I imagined had been copied from Ful- 
gentius, Boccacio’s favourite mythographer. Wanton's 
llijl. E. P. 
MYTIIOLOG'IC, or Mythological, adj. [from 
mythology.'] Relating to the explication of fabulous hif- 
tory.—A relation, which her mailers of the mythologic 
prolopopeia expreffed, we may luppofe, by giving them 
in marriage to each other. Coventry. —The original of the 
conceit was probably hieroglyphical, which after became 
mythological, and by tradition dole into a total verity, 
which was but partially true in its covert fenfe and mo¬ 
rality. Brown's Vulg. Err. 
M YTHOLOG'ICALLY, add. In a mannerfuitable to 
the fydem of fables.—The relating mythologically phyfical 
or moral truths concerning the origin and nature of things, 
was not, perhaps, as modern writers too hadily imagine, 
the cullomary practice of Moles’s age ; but rather began 
after his times. Shuchford. 
MYTHOL'OGIST, f. A relater or expofitor of the 
ancient fables of the heathens.—It was a celebrated pro¬ 
blem among the ancient mythologijis, What was the 
dronged thing, what the wiled, and what the greated ? 
IS or vis's Mifcell. 
To MYTHOL'OGIZE, v. n. To relate or explain the 
fabulous hidory of the heathens.— They mythologized, 
that five gods were now born, Oliris, Orus, Typho, Iris, 
and Nephte. Shuchford. 
MYTHOL'OGY, J'. [from the Gr. p.v§&, fable, Xoy©-, 
difcourfe.] Syllem of fables; explication of the fabulous 
liidory of the gods of the heathen world.—The modedy 
of mythology delerves to be commended : the fcenes there 
are laid at a dillance; it is once upon a time, in the days 
of yore, and in the land of Utopia. Bentley. 
Mythology, which leads us into an acquaintance 
•with the gods and fables .of ancient times and remote na¬ 
tions, is of fuch importance, that, notwithdanding the 
obfcurity and uncertainty in which it is involved, and 
the fcope which it affords for conjectures and differences 
of opinion, the dudy of it cannot be wholly difre- 
garded ; more elpecially by perfons who perufe the writ¬ 
ings of the Greeks and Romans, and particularly thofe of 
their mod celebrated poets. It likewife bears relation to 
various branches of literature and fcience, that are deemed 
both curious and ufeful; and will contribute to guide 
and alfid the refearches of hidorians, antiquarians, and 
of artids of various defcriptions. Wliild the cladical 
fcholar finds it neceffary to acquaint himfelf with the 
pagan gods and fables, the fictions of antiquity, and the 
numerous monuments that record them, duly examined, 
•will ferve to amufe and indrudl thofe who invedigate 
them ; and mythology will thus fublerve many ufeful 
purpofes in chronology, hidory, fculpture, painting, and 
other arts and fciences. It will require, indeed, a conli- 
derable fliare of judgment to guard againd delulion, cor- 
reftly to interpret the fables that prefent themfelves, and 
to form a jud opinion of the rank, attributes, and cha¬ 
racter, as well as of the number and variety, of the deities 
which were acknowledged as fuch in different ages and 
nations. Mythology has additional claims on our atten¬ 
tion, if we allow, with fome writers, that the fables of 
antiquity are not mere fictions, but that they have a real 
connection with the hidory of the fird ages, and compre¬ 
hend fome of their mod confiderable tranfaClions ; and 
that mod of the gods had been men, whole hidory forms 
M Y T 475 
a part of that of the particular nations in which they be¬ 
came objeCts of veneration, and even of worlhip. 
Lord Bacon thinks that a great deal of concealed in- 
druCtion and allegory was originally intended in mod 
parts of the ancient mythology; he obferves, that fome 
fables difcover a great and evident fimilitude, relation, 
and connection, with the thing they fignify, as well in 
the druCture of the fable as in the meaning of the names 
whereby the perfons or aCtors are characterized. The 
fame writer thinks it may pafs for a farther indication of 
a concealed and fecret meaning, that fome of thefe fables 
are fo abfurd and idle in their narration, as to lliow an al¬ 
legory even afar off 5 but the argument of mod weight 
upon this fubjeCt he takes to be this, that many of thefe 
fables appear by no means to have been invented by the 
perfons who relate them : he looks on them not as the 
produCt of the age, nor the invention of the poets, but as 
lacred relics, as he terms them, gentle whifpers, and the 
breath of better times, that, from the tradition of more 
ancient nations, came at length into the dutes and trum¬ 
pets of the Greeks. He concludes, that the knowledge 
of the early ages was either great or happy : great, if 
they by defign made this ule of trope and figure; or happy, 
if, wliild they had other views, they afforded matter and 
occafion to fuch noble contemplations. 
To whatever remote period we may trace back the 
hidory of the human race, and in whatever date of igno¬ 
rance we may find them, we mud allow them to poffefs 
thofe feelings and charafteridics which are common to 
our fpecies. Hence man, in his mod uncultivated date, 
is as much alive to aCts of beneficence as when he is im¬ 
proved by talte or enlightened by fcience. Whether we 
luppofe the idea of a Supreme Being to be innate or ac¬ 
quired, it is certainly one of thofe fentiments which are 
incident to the earlied periods of fociety; infomuch that 
we can fcarcely fuppofe any nation to have been lo igno¬ 
rant as to have enjoyed the bounties of Providence with¬ 
out once alking whence they were derived. Rofcoe's Difc. 
at the Opening of the Royal Injlitution at Liverpool, 1818. 
If the various fydems of pagan idolatry be compared 
together, fo many points of arbitrary refemblance and 
fuch a palpable uniformity of fentiment and principle 
will be difcovered, that we lhall find ourfelves inevitably 
compelled to pronounce them all of common origin. 
What is meant is this. If we had obferved, that every 
heathen nation merely wordlipped the fouls of deified an- 
cedors, and that each people jImply venerated the Sun 
and the Moon and the Stars; we fnould then have had no 
proof that their feveral modes of idolatry emanated from 
a common centre; becaufe, in that cafe, though they 
would all be fubdantially the lame, yet they would be 
marked by no arbitrary points of agreement; and it is. 
obvious, that nations, without the lead anterior com¬ 
munication with each other, might univerfally lapfe into 
thefe methods of worlhip, fince they are precifely the me¬ 
thods which would mod naturally prefent themfelves to 
all apollate tribes. Hence we could no more infer the 
common origination of their various fydems, from fuch 
coincidences, than we could argue the common delcent 
of two barbarous nations, in diredtly oppolite quarters of 
the globe, from the circumdance of their individual mem¬ 
bers being hunters and fiihers and warriors ; from their 
. being alike clad with the Ikins of daughtered wild beads ; 
or from their equally uiing the rudely-formed bow and 
arrows. But, if we lliould obferve that all pagan nations, 
wherever fituated, not only wordlipped their deified an- 
cedors, but afcribed to them the very fame adtions and 
lufferings; if we lliould find, that they not only adored 
the heavenly bodies, but entertained the felf-fame notions 
relpedting them, although fuch notions were wholly 
arbitrary, and entirely abhorrent from the nature of 
thofe bodies; and, if we lliould likewife perceive that 
one ruling idea, itfelf an arbitrary idea, condantly per¬ 
vaded the general combination of the feveral parts that 
compofed the feveral fydems, animating them all as it 
were 
