481 
mythology. 
fined to the pit of hell. They are for ever ranging over 
the world, to fcatter difcord and mifery among the Tons 
of men. The Peri nearly refemble the fairies of Europe ; 
and perhaps the Dives gave birth to the giants and magi¬ 
cians of the middle ages. The Peri and Dives wage in- 
cefiant wars ; and, when the Dives make any of the Peri 
prifoners, they (hut them up in iron cages, and hang 
fhemon the higheft trees to expofe them to public view, 
and to the fury of every chilling blaft. When the Peri 
are in danger of being overpowered by their foes, they 
folicit the ailiftance of fome mortal hero; which produces 
al'eriesof mythological adventures, highly ornamental to 
the (trains of the Perfian bards, and which, at the fame 
time, furnifties an inexhaultible fund of the mod diverfi- 
fied machinery. 
One of the mod celebrated adventurers in the mytho¬ 
logy of Perfia is Talimuras, one of their mod ancient mo- 
narchs. This prince performs a variety of exploits, 
while he endeavours to recover the fairy Merjan. He at¬ 
tacks the dive Demrudi in his own cave ; where, having 
vanquifhed the giant or demon, he finds vad piles of 
hoarded wealth: thefe he carries od’with the fair captive. 
The battles, labours, and adventures, of R'odan, another 
Perfian worthy, who lived many ages after the former, 
are celebrated by the Perfian bards with the fame extra¬ 
vagance of hyperbole with which the labours of Hercules 
have been fung by the poets of Greece and Rome. The 
adventures of the Perfian heroes breathe all the wildnefs of 
achievement recorded of the knights of Gothic romance. 
The doftrine of enchantments, transformations, &c. ex¬ 
hibited in both, is a charafteridic fymptom of one com¬ 
mon original. Perfia is the genuine cladic ground of 
eadern mythology, and the fource of the ideas of chivalry 
and romance; from which they were propagated to the 
regions of Scandinavia, and indeed to the remoted corners 
of Europe towards the wed. 
Perhaps our readers may be of our opinion, when we 
oder it as a conjecture, that the tales of the war of the 
Peri and Dives originated from a vague tradition concern¬ 
ing good and bad angels ; nor is it, in our opinion, impro¬ 
bable, that the fable of the wars between the gods and 
giants, fo famous in the mythology of Greece and Italy, 
was imported into the former of thefe countries from the 
fame quarter. For a more particular account of the Per¬ 
fian mythology, our readers may confult Dr. Hyde Relig. 
vet. Perf. Medor. &c. D’Herbelot’s Bibl. Orient, and Mr. 
Richardfon’s Introduction to his Perfian and Arabic 
Dictionary. 
The mythology of the Chaldeans, like that of the other 
nations of the eait, commences at a period myriads of years 
prior to the era of the Mofaic creation. Their cofmo- 
gony, exhibited by Berofus, who was a pried of Belus, 
and deeply verfed in the antiquities of his country, is a 
piece of mythology of the mod extravagant nature. It 
has been copied by Eufebius (Chron. lib. i.) it is likewile 
to be found in Syncellus, copied from Alexander Poly- 
liidor. According to this hidorian, there were at Baby¬ 
lon written records preferved with the greated care, com¬ 
prehending a period of fifteen myriads of years. Thofe 
writings likewife contained a hiftory of the heavens and 
the fea, of the earth, and of the origin of mankind. “ In 
the beginning (fays Berofus, copying from Oannes, of 
whom we (hall give a brief account below) there was no¬ 
thing but darknefs and an abyfs of water, wherein redded 
mod hideous beings produced from a twofold principle. 
Men appeared with two wings ; lome with two and fome 
with four faces. They had one body, but two heads ; 
the one of a man, the other of a woman. Other human 
figures were to be feen, furniflied with the legs and horns 
of goats. Some had the feet of horfes behind, but before 
werefafhioned like men, refembling hippocentaurs.” The 
remaining part of this mythology is much of the fame 
complexion ; indeed fo extravagant, that we imagine our 
readers will readily enough difpenfe with our trandating 
the fequel. “ Of all thefe (fays the author) were pre- 
Vol. XVI. No. iiz8. 
ferved delineations in the temple of Belus at Babylon. 
The perfon who was fuppofed to prefide over them was 
called Omorea. This word, in the Chaldean language, is 
Thalath, which the Greeks call Thalajfa; but it more pro¬ 
perly imports the Moon. Matters being in this fituation, 
their god (fays Eufebius), the god (fays Syncellus), came 
and cut the woman afunder; and out of one half of her 
he formed the earth, and out of the other he made the 
heavens; and, at the fame time, he deftroyed the monfters 
of the abyfs. This whole mythology is an allegorical 
hiftory copied from hieroglyphical reprefentations, the 
real purport of which could not be deciphered by the 
author. Such, in general, were the confequences of the 
hieroglyphical ftyle of writing. 
Oannes, the great civilizer and legiflator of the Chal¬ 
deans, according to Apollodorus, who copied from Be¬ 
rofus, was an amphibious animal of a heterogeneous ap¬ 
pearance. He was endowed with reafon, and a very un¬ 
common acutenefs of parts. His whole body refembled a 
fifh. Under the head of a fifti he had alfo another head, 
and feet below fimilar to thofe of a man, which were fub- 
joined to the tail of the fifh. His voice and language 
were articulate and perfectly intelligible ; and there was a 
figure of him (till extant in the days of Berofus. He made 
his appearance in the Erythrean or Red Sea, where it 
borders upon Babylonia. This monftrous being con- 
verfed with men by day ; but at night he plunged into 
the fea, and remained concealed in the water till next 
morning. He taught the Babylonians the ufe of letters, 
and the knowledge of all the arts and fciences. He in- 
ftrudted them in the method of building houfes, con- 
llru&ing temples, and all other edifices. He taught them 
to compile laws and religious ceremonies, and explained 
to them the principles of mathematics, geometry, and 
altronomy. In a word he communicated to them every 
thing neceftary, uleful, and ornamental; and fo univerfal 
were his inftrudtions, that not one fingle article had ever 
been added to them fince the time they werefirft commu¬ 
nicated. Helladius is of opinion that this itrange per- 
fonage, whoever he was, came to be reprefented under the 
figure of a fi(h, not becauie he was actually believed to be 
fuch, but becaufe he was clothed with the (kin of a feal. 
By this account our readers will fee that the Babylonian 
Oannes is the exadt counterpart of the Fold of the Chi- 
nefe; and the Thoth, or Mercury Trifmegiftus, of the 
Egyptians. It is likewife apparent, that the idea of the 
monller compounded of the man and the fifli has origi¬ 
nated from fome hieroglyphic of that form grafted upon 
the appearance of man. Some modern mythologifts have 
been of opinion that Oannes was actually Noah, the great 
preacher of righteoufnefs ; who, as fome think, fettled in 
Shinar or Chaldea after the deluge, and who, in confe- 
quence of his connexion with that event, might be pro¬ 
perly reprefented under the emblem of the Man of the .Sea. 
The nativity of Venus, the goddefs of beauty and love, 
is another piece of mythology famous among the Babylo¬ 
nians and Aflyrians. An egg, lay they, of a prodigious 
fize, dropt from heaven into the river Euphrates. Some 
doves fettled upon this egg, after that the filhes had rolled 
it to the bank. In a fhort time this egg produced Venus, 
who was afterwards called Dea Syria, the Syrian Goddefs. 
In conlequence of this tradition (fays Hyginus) pigeons 
and fillies became lacred to this goddefs among the Syrians, 
who always abftained from eating the one or the other. 
Of this imaginary being we have a very exadt and enter¬ 
taining hiftory in the treatife De Dea Syria, generally a 1- 
cribed to Lucian. 
The fable of Semiramis is nearly connedted with the 
preceding one. Diodorus Siculus has preferved the my¬ 
thological hiftory of this deity, which he and all the 
writers of antiquity have confounded with the Babylonian 
princefs of the fame name. That hiltorian informs us, 
that the word Semiramis, in the Syrian dialed!, fignifies 
“ a wild pigeon ;” but we apprehend that this term was 
a name or epithet of the Moon, as it is compounded of 
6 G two 
