not framed subsequently to their arrival there. Sanchoniatho informs us, that one of the titles of Dagon was Siton. But Siton is Seth or Sid united in composition with On: and Seth, which is the Egyptian name of Typhon, is evidently the Indo-Scythic Sat. The Dagon and Siton, in short, of the Philistines and Phenicians are plainly the Buddha-Dagun and the Pouti-Sat or Buddha-Sat of the Cuthic Hindoos.

That Dagon is astronomically the Sun, may be yet further argued from the character of Atargatis or Derceto, the Syrian Venus. This goddess was in form precisely the same as Dagon, allowing only for the difference of sex. Now Derceto is declared to be the same as Isis: and Isis, as we are assured by Diodorus, was the Moon. If then the female deity was the Moon, we may safely conclude, from the genius of old mythology, that the corresponding male deity was the Sun. '

18. The very same astronomical character is sustained by the triple god of the Hindoos, Brahma-Vishnou-Siva; and not only by this preeminent triple god, but likewise by all their other male deities. Each of these, we are assured, ultimately resolves himself into Brahm; while Brahm, from whose unity springs the subordinate triad, is acknowledged to be the Sun. The peculiar mode, in which the Hindoos identify their three great gods with the solar orb, is a curious specimen of the physical refinements of ancient mythology. At night and in the west, the Sun is Vishnou; he is Brahma, in the east and in the morning; from noon to evening, he is Siva.*

19. The Persian Mithras also is well known to have been the Sun: and accordingly he is declared to be so by Strabo, Hesychius, Suidas, Nonnus, Statius, and in an ancient inscription preserved by Martianus Capella.'

20. The Druidical Hu, who is clearly the same character as the Greek Huas or Dionusus and who is thence rightly so called by Dionysius, is another of the gentile gods, who in his celestial capacity is undoubtedly the Sun. The smallest of the small is Hu the mighty, in the world's judgment, says

'Sanchon. apud Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. i. c. 10. Hieron. Comm. apud Seld. de diis Syr. synt. ii. c. 3. p. 203. Parkhurst's Heb. Lex. vox N. Asiat. Res. vol. i. p. 285. Simp. in Arist. Ausc. Phys. lib. iv. Diod. Bibl. lib. i. p. 10. Symes's Embass. to Ava. vol. ii. p. 110. 2 Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 6, 9, 13, 33, 277, 294. Asiat. Res. vol. i. p. 267. vol. v. p. 254. 'Strab. Geog. lib. xv. p. 732. Hesych. Lex. Suid. Lex. Nonni Dionys. lib. xl. Stat. Thebaid. lib. i. ver. 715 et infra. Soli invicto Mithra. Inscript. apud Mart. Capell. lib. iii.

CHAP. 1.

the bard Rhys Brydydd, meaning, I apprehend, that he had become contemptible in the eyes of the evangelized Britons: yet he is the greatest and lord over us, we sincerely believe, and our god of mystery. Light is his course and swift: a particle of lucid sun-shine is his car. He is great on land and seas, the greatest whom I shall behold, greater than the worlds. Let us beware of offering mean indignity to him, the great and bountiful. Sometimes this god was called Beli, which the Romans wrote Belinus; an appellation, plainly deducible from the oriental Bel, Belus, or Baal: and, since Hu, Beli, and the Sun, were alike celebrated as the sovereign of heaven and the supreme lord of Britain, it is manifest, that Hu or Beli was the solar deity. The name appears, among the different Celtic tribes, to have been variously expressed Beli, Belis, Belen, Belatucader or the illustrious Beli, and Abellion or father Baal the Sun; which last, if I mistake not, is precisely the same compound title as the classical Apollo or Apollon: but, however it may be varied, Selden rightly refers its origin to the eastern Baal, and pronounces the god who bore it to be the solar divinity of the Hyperboreans.'

21. The same mythological ideas prevailed also in America at the period of its first discovery. The Mexicans worshipped the Sun, esteeming him the offspring of their principal god Vitzliputzli. But this circumstance, by the general analogy of Paganism, shews, that Vitzliputzli was himself the Sun. Thus the Hindoos considered their triad as the offspring of Brahm; thus the Egyptians reckoned Horus the son of Osiris, and Helius the son of Phtha or Vulcan; and thus the Greeks feigned Esculapius to be the son of Apollo, Apollo to be the son of Jupiter, and Jupiter again to be the son of Cronus ; while yet Brahm and the great triad, Osiris and Horus, Phtha and Helius, Apollo and Esculapius, Cronus and Jupiter, were all equally and severally

the solar orb. 2

22. The Sun was likewise the principal god of the Peruvians; and his worship was joined with that of Virachoca: a junction, by which it was intimated, that Virachoca himself was the Sun, when his character was viewed astronomically.3

1

Dionys. Perieg. ver. 565-574. Davies's Myth. of Brit. Druids. p. 110, 116, 117, 120, 336, 562. Seld. de diis Syr. synt. ii. c. 1. p. 143.

II As most of the great gods of the Gentiles are declared by the old my- CHAP. 1. thological writers to be each separately the Sun; so we may naturally expect to find, that their general mutual identity would be a prominent feature in the arcane theology of Paganism. Such accordingly is the case: and the special name, by which this mystic intercommunion of deities was usually designated, appears, as we learn from Damascius, to have been in the Greek language Theocrasia.

Many are the declarations to this purpose, which are still extant. Thus Damascius and Suidas assert the identity of Osiris and Adonis; and Clemens Alexandrinus teaches that of Dionusus and Attis: while Macrobius informs us, that Adonis, Attis, Osiris, Horus, and Liber, were all equally the Sun'; and Ausonius, that Bacchus, Osiris, Phanac, Dionusus, Liber, and Aidoneus, were but one and the same god under different names.* In a similar manner, the Orphic poet declares, that Jupiter, Pluto, and Bacchus were only varied appellations of the Sun: and Diodorus and Suidas tell us, that Osiris and Bacchus were one divinity.' So again: Vulcan or Phtha, as we learn from Jamblichus, was the same as Osiris: and Pan, as we are taught by Diodorus, was the same as Serapis, Osiris, Dionusus, Pluto, Ammon, and Jupiter. Thus likewise Anubis or Hermanubis, the Egyptian Thoth or Mercury, was no other, we are told, than Cronus or Saturn; who himself again was one deity with the Molech or Baal of Palestine. With the Egyptian Thoth or Taut, the oriental Tator Buddha clearly identifies himself: and, as Brahma, Vishnou, and Siva, are mutually the same deity; so they are severally declared to be one with Buddha. Janus, in like manner, as we learn from Nigidius, was the same as Apollo; and thence the same as Cronus or Saturn, though the latter was reputed to have been his host." Mars again, in

5

Οσιριν οντα και Αδωνιν κατα την μυστικήν ΘΕΟΚΡΑΣΙΑΝ. Damas. vit. Isid. apud Phot. Bibl. p. 1049.

2 Damas. ut supra. Suid. Lex. vox 'Heaïoxos. Clem. Alex. Cohort. p. 12. Macrob. Saturn. lib. i. c. 21, 18. Auson. Epig. 30.

3 Orph. Fragm. Gesn. p. 364. Diod. Bibl. lib, i. p. 13. Suid. Lex.

Jamb. de Myster. sect. viii. c. 3. Diod. Bibl. lib. i. p. 22.

" Plut. de Isid. p. 368. Pescen. Fest. apud Lactan. Instit. lib. i. c. 21. Porphyr. de Ab

stin. lib. ii. 56.

6 Moor's Hind. Panth. p. 6, 9. Asiat. Res. vol. i. p. 285. vol. v. p. 7 Nigid, apud Macrob. Saturn. lib. i. c. 9, 7.

254.

BOOK IV.

the judgment of Macrobius, was one with Bacchus and Mercury; and Apollo, according to the Clarian oracle, with Horus, Osiris, Bacchus, and the Sun.' So likewise Dionysius tells us, that Bacchus was the great god of the Britons; and Diodorus, that they worshipped Apollo or the Sun in a vast circular temple. But we find, that the national title of this deity was Hu or Beli, that he had all the attributes of Bacchus and Apollo, and that he was specially adored in the immense circle of Stone-Henge.' Hu, Bacchus, and Apollo, then were one god: and, as Hu had the attributes both of Bacchus and Apollo ascribed to him; so, as we learn from Macrobius, the worship of these two latter deities prevailed in mystic union on the sacred hill Parnassus.*

But, on a subject like this, it were almost endless to multiply authorities. Suffice it to say in conclusion, that, according to the Orphic poet, Protogonus or the first-born, Phanes, Priapus, Titan, Helius or the Sun, Jupiter, Pan, Hercules, Cronus, Prometheus, Bacchus, Apolo, Pean, Adonis, and Cupid, are all one divinity: according to Sophocles, Titan or the Sun is the same as that Prometheus, whom the Orphic poet declares to be Cronus: according to Statius, Titan, Osiris, and Mithras, are only different names of the solar god Phoebus or Apollo: and, according to Nonnus, Hercules, Belus, Ammon, Apis, Cronus, Jupiter, Serapis, Phaethon, Mithras, and Apollo, are all fundamentally one and the same god; and that god is Helius

Macrob. Saturn. lib. i. c. 19. Orac. Vet. Opsop. p. 6.

Dionys. Perieg. ver. 565-574. Diod. Bibl. lib. ii. p. 130.

3 Davies's Mythol. p. 113, 126, 562.

Macrob. Saturn. lib. i. c. 18.

5 Orph. Hymn. v. 1, 8, 9. vii. 2, 13. x. 1, 12. xi. 1. xii. 2, 7. Fragm. p. 364. Hymn. xxxiii. 1, 3. lv. lvii. Soph. Edip. Colon. ver. 57. Stat. Thebaid. lib. i. ver 717-741, Nonni Dionys, lib. xl.

CHAPTER II.

Respecting certain remarkable opinions which the Gentiles entertained of the Sun.

1. Thus it sufficiently appears, that the chief masculine deity of the Gentiles

HUS

was the Sun, adored, agreeably to the mystic theocrasy of Paganism, under a great variety of names both in different countries and even in the same country; which names, in the popular worship, were erected into so many distinct gods. But, while the Sun was their acknowledged principal divinity, they entertained some very remarkable opinions concerning him, which are by no means applicable to the literal Sun: and the origin of these opinions is in fact explained by themselves; and that in a manner, which is sufficiently intelligible and unambiguous.

1. Among the ancient Egyptians, the Sun was represented under the figure of a man sailing in a ship upon the ocean.1 Sometimes the ship was supported on the back of a crocodile: sometimes the man appeared, floating in the ship, but at the same time seated upon the aquatic lotos: and sometimes the lotos was simply his vehicle, the ship being omitted. At other times

1 Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. v. p. 566. Jamb. de Myster. sect. vii. p. 151, Porph. de ant. nymph. p. 256. Plut. de Isid. p. 364.

2 Clem. Alex. Strom. lib. v. p. 566. Porph. apud Euseb. Præp. Evan. lib. iii. c. 9. p. 69.. Jamb. de Myster. sect. vii. p. 151..