MYTHOLOGY. 
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from this region they made their way into Greece, which, 
according to the moft authentic accounts, was at that 
time inhabited by a race of favages. The arts and inven¬ 
tions which they communicated to the natives ; the myf- 
teries of religion which they inculcated; the laws, cuf- 
toms, polity, and good order, which they eftablifhed ; in 
ihort, the blefiings of humanity, and civilization, which 
they everywhere difieminated; in procefs of time infpired 
the unpolilhed inhabitants with a kind of divine admira¬ 
tion. Thole ambitious mortals improved this admiration 
into divine homage and adoration. The greater part of 
that worlhip, which had been formerly addrefled to the 
luminaries of heaven, was now transferred to thofe il- 
lullrious perfonages. They claimed and obtained divine 
honours from the deluded rabble of enthufiaftic Greeks. 
Hence fprung an inexhaullible fund of the molt incon- 
liftent and irreconcilable fidtions. 
The foibles and frailties of the deified mortals were 
tranfmitted to pofterity, incorporated as it were with the 
pompous attributes of fupreme divinity. Hence the he¬ 
terogeneous mixture of the mighty and the mean which 
checquers the charadters of the Iliad and Odyfi'ey. The 
Greeks adopted the oriental-fables, the import of which 
they did not underftand. Thefe they accommodated to 
heroes and illuftrious perfonages who had figured in their 
own country in the earlieft periods. The labours of Her¬ 
cules originated in Egypt, and evidently relate to the an¬ 
nual progrefs of the fun.in the-zodiac, though the vain¬ 
glorious Greeks .accommodated them to a hero of their 
own, the reputed fon of Jupiter and Alcmena. The ex¬ 
pedition of Ofiris they borrowed from the Egyptians, and 
transferred to their Bacchus, the fon of Jupiter and Semele 
the daughter of Cadmus. The transformation and wan¬ 
derings of Io are evidently tranfcribed from the Egyptian 
romance of the travels of Ifis in quell of the body of Ofiris, 
or of the Phoenician Allarte, drawn from Sanchoniathon. 
lo is in reality the Egyptian name of the Moon, and 
AJiarte was the name of the fame planet among the Phoe¬ 
nicians. Both thefe fables are allegorical reprefentations 
of the anomalies of the lunar planet, or perhaps of the 
progrefs of the worlhip of that planet in different parts of 
the world. The fable of the conflagration occafioned by 
Phaeton is clearly of oriental extraction, and alludes to 
an exceflive drought which in the early periods of time 
fcorched Ethiopia and the adjacent countries. The fa¬ 
bulous adventures of Perfeus are faid to have happened 
in the fame regions, and are allegorical reprelentations of 
the influence of the folar luminary ; for the original Per- 
feus was the fun. The rape of Proferpine and the wan¬ 
derings of Ceres ; the Eleufinian mylteries ; the orgia or 
facred rites of Bacchus ; the rites and worlhip of the Ca- 
biri; were imported from Egypt and Phoenicia, but 
ftrangely garbled and disfigured by the hierophants of 
Greece. The gigantomacliia , or war between the gods 
and the giants, and all the fabulous events and varieties 
of that war, form an exadt counterpart to the battles of 
the Peri and Dives, celebrated in the romantic annals of 
Periia. 
But the popular fuperftitions of the Greeks and Ro¬ 
mans differed in one important particular from the erro¬ 
neous lyftems of faith prevalent amongft other civilized 
* nations : they were not embodied in any work which claimed 
divine origin. The Vedas are fuppofed by their followers 
to contain the words of Brahma; and Vyafa, who ar¬ 
ranged them in their prelent form, to have adted under 
the influence of immediate infpiration. To Thoth (the 
genius of the planet Mercury) the works held facred by 
the Egyptians and Phcenicians were aferibed by thofe na¬ 
tions. The theology of the Affyrians was revealed by a 
divinity in the form of a fifii, who correlponds with the 
Matlya avatara (or pifeiform god) of the Hindoos. The 
Zendavefta, as the fire-worlhippers fuppol'e, was revealed 
by Ormufd to Zaratufht, in a cave of the mountain Al- 
borj ; and Mahomet profefled only to publilh the dodlrines 
imparted to him by the angel Gabriel. That the Greeks 
poffeffed no fuch embodied fyftem of faith', is a fa< 5 t »<* 
lefs certain than it is ealily accounted for. The Egyptians 
and the Pelafgi brought their refpedtive dogmata into 
Greece; but the works which promulgated them were 
confined to the facerdotal clafs, who were too wife to em¬ 
bark in thefe dangerous adventures; and the languages in 
which they were compofed foon became unknown to the 
defeendants of the firft fettlers. This circumftance ap¬ 
pears to afford a plaufible explanation of a fail, from 
which we are inclined to deduce fome important confe- 
quences, which have fometimes been aferibed to the na¬ 
ture of polytheilin itfelf. The facility with which new 
gods were introduced and new rites adopted by the an¬ 
cients, may, we think, be imputed in a great meafure to 
the want of a confecrated and embodied fyftem, which, 
while it enjoined the belief of certain dodlrines, virtually 
or exprefsly excluded all others. 
The learned Bryant, in the preface to his “ Analyfis 
of Ancient Mythology,” rejedls as fabulous the fuppofed 
heroes of the firft ages in every country. No fuch con- 
quefts, he fays, were ever achieved, as are aferibed to 
Ofiris, Dionulus, and Sefoftris. The niftories of Her¬ 
cules and Perfeus are equally void of truth. Cadmus, as 
this writer afferts, never brought letters into Greece, and 
no fuch perfon everexifted as the Grecians have delcribed. 
Ninus and Semiramis are, in his opinion, as ideal as Se¬ 
foftris and Ofiris. There never were fuch expeditions 
undertaken, orconqueits made, as are attributed to thefe 
princes ; nor were any fuch empires conftituted as are 
fuppofed to have been eftablifhed by them. He makes as 
little account of the hiftories of Saturn, Janus, Pelops, 
Atlas, Dardanus, Minos of Crete, and Zoroafter of Bac- 
tria. With refpedl to Greece, our author gives credit to 
very few events which were antecedent to the Olym¬ 
piads ; nor does he give the lead afl’ent to the ftory of 
Phryxus, and the golden fleece; he denies that there were 
any fuch perfons as the Grecian Argonauts, and he re¬ 
jects the expedition of Jafon to Colchis as a fable. 
A confiderable part of the mythology of the Greeks 
fprung from their ignorance of the oriental languages. 
They dildained to apply themfelves to the ftudy of lan¬ 
guages fpoken by people whom, in the pride of their 
heart, they ftigmatized with the epithet of barbarians. 
This averiion to every foreign dialedi was highly detri¬ 
mental to their progrefs in the fciences. The lame ne¬ 
glect or averiion has, we imagine, proved an irreparable 
injury to the republic of letters in all fucceeding ages. 
The aoids, or ftroiling bards, laid hold on thofe oriental 
legends, which they lophifticated with their own addi¬ 
tions and improvements, in order to accommodate them 
to the popular tafte. Thefe wonderful tales figured in 
their rhapfodical compofitions, and were greedily fwal- 
lowed down by the credulous vulgar. Thole fidlions, as 
they rolled down, were conllantly augmented with frelh 
materials, till in procefs of time their original import was 
either forgotten or buried in impenetrable darknefs. A 
multitude of thefe Hefiod has colledted in his Theogonia, 
or Generation of the Gods, which unhappily became the 
religious creed of the illiterate part of the Greeks. In¬ 
deed, fable was fo clofely interwoven with the religion of 
that airy volatile people, that it leems to have contami¬ 
nated not only their religious and moral, but even their 
political, tenets. 
Simple and unornamented truth, addrefled merely to the 
underftanding, is feldom fufticiently interefting and impref- 
five to engage the attention of mankind. Philofophers, 
liiftorians, and poets, have therefore recurred, in all ages 
of the world, to thofe embelliftiments which the imagi¬ 
nation fupplies, and which are adapted to excite, and call 
forth into exercife, the feelings and paffions of the human 
frame. Hence they have been led to ufe forms and modes 
of expreflion that have been luggefted to them, either by 
fienlible objedts, or by occurrences that are rare and un¬ 
common, and that ferve to excite admiration, and to im¬ 
part armifement and pleafure. Fables are compofitions of 
this 
