Chapter 8

Castor, the supposed disciple of Chiron, was in reality the same as Chiron; being a sacred tower, a Chironian edifice, which served both for a temple and Pharos. As these buildings for the most part stood on strands of the sea, and promontories; Castor was esteemed in consequence of it a tutelary Deity of that element. The name seems to be a compound of Ca-Astor, the temple or place of Astor; who was rendered at different times Asterius, Asterion, and Astarte. Ca-Astor was by the Greeks abbreviated to Castor; which in its original sense I should imagine betokened a fire-tower: but the Greeks in this instance, as well as in innumerable others, have mistaken the place and temple for the Deity, to whom it was consecrated. The whole history of Castor and Pollux, the two Dioscuri, is very strange and inconsistent. Sometimes they are described as two mortals of Lacedaemon, who were guilty of violence and rapine, and were slain for their wickedness. At other times they are represented as the two principal Deities; and styled Dii Magni, Dii Maximi, Dii Potentes, Cabeiri. Mention is made by Pausanias of the great regard paid to them, and particularly by the Cephalenses. [370][Greek: Megalous gar sphas hoi tautei Theous onomazousin.] _The people there style them by way of eminence the Great Gods_. There are altars extant, which are inscribed [371]CASTORI ET POLLUCI DIIS MAGNIS. In [372]Gruter is a Greek inscription to the same purport. [Greek: Gaios Gaiou Acharneus Hiereus genomenos Theon Megalon Dioskoron Kabeiron.] But though Castor was enshrined, as a God, he was properly a Tarchon, such as I have before described; and had all the requisites which are to be found in such buildings. They were the great repositories of treasure; which people there entrusted, as to places of great security. The temple of Castor vas particularly famous on this account, as we may learn from Juvenal:

[373]AErata multus in arca Fiscus, et ad vigilem ponendi Castora nummi.

The Deity, who was alluded to under the name of Castor, was the Sun: and he had several temples of that denomination in Laconia, and other parts of Greece. His rites were first introduced by people from Egypt and Canaan. This we may infer, among other circumstances, from the title of Anac being so particularly conferred on him and his brother Pollux: whence their temple was styled [Greek: Anakeion] in Laconia; and their festival at Athens [Greek: anakeia], anakeia. For Anac was a Canaanitish term of honour; which the Greeks changed to [Greek: anax] and [374][Greek: anaktes]. I have before mentioned, that in these places were preserved the Archives of the cities and provinces in which they stood: and they were often made use of for courts of judicature, called [Greek: prutaneia], and praetoria; whither the antient people of the place resorted, to determine about right and wrong. Hence it is that Castor and Pollux, two names of the same personage, were supposed to preside over judicial affairs. This department does but ill agree with the general and absurd character, under which they are represented: for what has horsemanship and boxing to do with law and equity? But these were mistaken attributes, which arose from a misapplication of history. Within the precincts of their temples was a parade for boxing and wrestling; and often an Hippodromus. Hence arose these attributes, by which the Poets celebrated these personages:

[375][Greek: Kastora th' Hippodamon, kai pux agathon Poludeukea.]

The Deity, originally referred to, was the Sun: As he was the chief Deity, he must necessarily have been esteemed the supervisor and arbitrator of all sublunary things:

[376][Greek: Eelios, hos pant' ephorai, kai pant' epakouei.]

On this account the same province of supreme judge was conferred on his substitute Castor, in conjunction with his brother Pollux: and they were accordingly looked upon as the conservators of the rights of mankind. Cicero makes a noble appeal to them in his seventh oration against Verres; and enlarges upon the great department, of which they were presumed to be possessed: at the same time mentioning the treasures, which were deposited in their temples. [377]Vos omnium rerum forensium, consiliorum maximorum, legum, judiciorumque arbitri, et testes, celeberrimo in loco PRAETORII locati, Castor et Pollux; quorum ex templo quaestum sibi iste (Verres) et praedam maximam improbissime comparavit--teque, Ceres, et Libera--a quibis initia vitae atque victus, legum, morum, mansuetudinis, humanitatis exempla hominibus et civitatibus data ac dispertita esse dicuntur. Thus we find that they are at the close joined with Ceres, and Libera; and spoken of as the civilizers of the world: but their peculiar province was law and judicature.

Many instances to the same purpose might be produced; some few of which I will lay before the reader. Trophonius, like Chiron and Castor, was a sacred tower; being compounded of Tor-Oph-On, Solis Pythonis turris, rendered Trophon, and Trophonius. It was an oracular temple, situated near a vast cavern: and the responses were given by dreams. Tiresias, that antient prophet, was an edifice of the same nature: and the name is a compound of Tor-Ees, and Tor-Asis; from whence the Greeks formed the word Tiresias. He is generally esteemed a diviner, or soothsayer, to whom people applied for advice: but it was to the temple that they applied, and to the Deity, who was there supposed to reside. He was, moreover, said to have lived nine ages: till he was at last taken by the Epigoni, when he died. The truth is, there was a tower of this name at Thebes, built by the Amonians, and sacred to the God Orus. It stood nine ages, and was then demolished. It was afterwards repaired, and made use of for a place of augury: and its situation was close to the temple of Amon. [378][Greek: Thebaiois de meta tou Ammonos to Hieron, oionoskopeion te Teiresiou kaloumenon.] Tiresias, according to Apollodorus, was the son of Eueres, [379][Greek: Eueres], or, according to the true Dorian pronunciation, Euares, the same as the Egyptian Uc Arez, the Sun. He is by Hyginus styled [380]Eurimi filius; and in another place Eurii filius, Pastor. Eurius, Eurimus, Euarez, are all names of the Sun, or places sacred to him; but changed to terms of relation by not being understood. Tiresias is additionally styled Pastor; because all the Amonian Deities, as well as their princes, were called Shepherds: and those, who came originally from Chaldea, were styled the children of Ur, or Urius.

By the same analogy we may trace the true history of Terambus, the Deity of Egypt, who was called the Shepherd Terambus. The name is a compound of Tor-Ambus, or Tor-Ambi, the oracular tower of Ham. He is said to have been the son of Eusires, [381][Greek: Euseirou tou Poseidonos]; and to have come over, and settled in Thessaly, near mount Othrys. According to Antonius Liberalis, he was very rich in flocks, and a great musician, and particularly expert in all pastoral measure. To him they attributed the invention of the pipe. The meaning of the history is, I think, too plain, after what has preceded, to need a comment. It is fabled of him, that he was at last turned into a bird called Cerambis, or Cerambix. Terambus and Cerambis are both antient terms of the same purport: the one properly expressed is Tor-Ambi; the other Cer-Ambi, the oracular temple of the Sun.

I have taken notice that towers of this sort were the repositories of much treasure; and they were often consecrated to the Ophite Deity, called Opis and Oupis. It is the same which Callimachus addresses by the title of [382][Greek: Oupi, Anass' euopi]: and of whom Cicero speaks, and styles Upis; [383]quam Graeci Upim paterno nomine appellant. The temple was hence called Kir-Upis; which the Grecians abridged to [Greek: Grupes]: and finding many of the Amonian temples in the north, with the device of a winged serpent upon the frontal, they gave this name to the hieroglyphic. Hence, I imagine, arose the notion of [Greek: Grupes], or Gryphons; which, like the dragons abovementioned, were supposed to be guardians of treasure, and to never sleep. The real conservators of the wealth were the priests. They kept up a perpetual fire, and an unextinguished light in the night. From Kir Upis, the place of his residence, a priest was named Grupis; and from Kir-Uph-On, Gryphon. The Poets have represented the Grupes as animals of the serpentine kind; and supposed them to have been found in countries of the Arimaspians, Alazonians, Hyperboreans, and other the most northern regions, which the Amonians possessed. In some of the temples women officiated, who were denominated from the Deity they served. The Scholiast upon Callimachus calls the chief of them Upis; and styles her, and her associates, [Greek: Koras] [384][Greek: Huperboreous], Hyperborean young women. The Hyperboreans, Alazonians, Arimaspians, were Scythic nations of the same family. All the stories about Prometheus, Chimaera, Medusa, Pegasus, Hydra, as well as of the Grupes, or Gryphons, arose, in great measure, from the sacred devices upon the entablatures of temples.

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TAPH, TUPH, TAPHOS.

There was another name current among the Amonians, by which they called their [Greek: lophoi], or high places. This was Taph; which at times was rendered Tuph, Toph, and Taphos. Lower Egypt being a flat, and annually overflowed, the natives were forced to raise the soil, on which they built their principal edifices, in order to secure them from the inundation: and many of their sacred towers were erected upon conical mounds of earth. But there were often hills of the same form constructed for religious purposes, upon which there was no building. These were very common in Egypt. Hence we read of Taphanis, or Taph-Hanes, Taph-Osiris, Taph-Osiris parva, and contra Taphias, in Antoninus; all of this country. In other parts were Taphiousa, Tape, Taphura, Tapori, Taphus, Taphosus, Taphitis. All these names relate to high altars, upon which they used oftentimes to offer human sacrifices. Typhon was one of these; being a compound of Tuph-On, which signifies the hill or altar of the Sun. Tophet, where the Israelites made their children pass through fire to [385]Moloch, was a mount of this form. And there seem to have been more than one of this denomination; as we learn from the prophet Jeremiah, [386]_They have built the high places of Tophet, which is in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to burn their sons and their daughters in the fire._ And in another place: _They have built also the high places of Baal, to burn their sons with fire for burnt-offerings unto Baal._ These cruel operations were generally performed upon mounts of this sort; which, from their conical figure, were named Tuph and Tupha. It seems to have been a term current in many countries. The high Persian [387]bonnet had the same name from its shape: and Bede mentions a particular kind of standard in his time; which was made of plumes in a globular shape, and called in like manner, [388]Tupha, vexilli genus, ex consertis plumarum globis. There was probably a tradition, that the calf, worshipped by the Israelites in the wilderness near Horeb, was raised upon a sacred mound, like those described above: for Philo Judaeus says, that it was exhibited after the model of an Egyptian Tuphos: [389][Greek: Aiguptiakou mimema Tuphou]. This I do not take to have been a Grecian word; but the name of a sacred orbicular mount, analogous to the Touphas of Persis.

The Amonians, when they settled in Greece, raised many of these Tupha, or Tapha, in different parts. These, beside their original name, were still farther denominated from some title of the Deity, to whose honour they were erected. But as it was usual, in antient times, to bury persons of distinction under heaps of earth formed in this fashion; these Tapha came to signify tombs: and almost all the sacred mounds, raised for religious purposes, were looked upon as monuments of deceased heroes. Hence [390]Taph-Osiris was rendered [Greek: taphos], or the burying place of the God Osiris: and as there were many such places in Egypt and Arabia, sacred to Osiris and Dionusus; they were all by the Greeks esteemed places of sepulture. Through this mistake many different nations had the honour attributed to them of these Deities being interred in their country. The tumulus of the Latines was mistaken in the same manner. It was originally a sacred hillock; and was often raised before temples, as an altar; such as I have before described. It is represented in this light by Virgil:

[391]Est urbe egressis tumulus, templumque vetustum Desertae Cereris; juxtaque antiqua cupressus.

In process of time the word tumulus was in great measure looked upon as a tomb; and tumulo signified to bury. The Greeks speak of numberless sepulchral monuments, which they have thus misinterpreted. They pretended to shew the tomb of [392]Dionusus at Delphi; also of Deucalion, Pyrrha, Orion, in other places. They imagined that Jupiter was buried in Crete: which Callimachus supposes to have been a forgery of the natives.

[393][Greek: Kretes aei pseustai; kai gar taphon, o Ana, seio] [Greek: Kretes etekteinanto, su d' ou thanes, essi gar aiei.]

I make no doubt, but that there was some high place in Crete, which the later Greeks, and especially those who were not of the country, mistook for a tomb. But it certainly must have been otherwise esteemed by those who raised it: for it is not credible, however blind idolatry may have been, that people should enshrine persons as immortal, where they had the plainest evidences of their mortality. An inscription _Viro Immortali_ was in a style of flattery too refined for the simplicity of those ages. If divine honours were conferred, they were the effects of time, and paid at some distance; not upon the spot, at the vestibule of the charnel-house. Besides, it is evident, that most of the deified personages never existed: but were mere titles of the Deity, the Sun; as has been, in great measure, proved by Macrobius. Nor was there ever any thing of such detriment to antient history, as the supposing that the Gods of the Gentile world had been natives of the countries, where they were worshipped. They have by these means been admitted into the annals of times: and it has been the chief study of the learned to register the legendary stories concerning them; to conciliate absurdities, and to arrange the whole in a chronological series. A fruitless labour, and inexplicable: for there are in all these fables such inconsistences, and contradictions, as no art, nor industry, can remedy. Hence, all who have expended their learning to this purpose, are in opposition to one another, and often at variance with themselves. Some of them by these means have rendered their works, which might have been of infinite use to the world, little better than the reveries of Monsieur Voltaire. The greatest part of the Grecian theology arose from misconceptions and blunders: and the stories concerning their Gods and Heroes were founded on terms misinterpreted and abused. Thus from the word [Greek: taphos], taphos, which they adopted in a limited sense, they formed a notion of their gods having been buried in every place, where there was a tumulus to their honour. This misled bishop Cumberland, Usher, Pearson, Petavius, Scaliger, with numberless other learned men; and among the foremost the great Newton. This extraordinary genius has greatly impaired the excellent system, upon which he proceeded, by admitting these fancied beings into chronology. We are so imbued in our childhood with notions of Mars, Hercules, and the rest of the celestial outlaws, that we scarce ever can lay them aside. We absolutely argue upon Pagan principles: and though we cannot believe the fables, which have been transmitted to us; yet we forget ourselves continually; and make inferences from them, as if they were real. In short, till we recollect ourselves, we are semi-pagans. It gives one pain to see men of learning, and principle, debating which was the Jupiter who lay with Semele; and whether it was the same that outwitted Amphitryon. This is not, says a critic, the Hermes, who cut off Argus's head; but one of later date, who turned Battus into a stone. I fancy, says another, that this was done, when Ioe was turned into a cow. It is said of Jupiter, that he made the night, in which he enjoyed Alcmena, as long as [394]three; or, as some say, as long as nine. The Abbe [395]Banier with some phlegm excepts to this coalition of nights; and is unwilling to allow it. But he is afterwards more complying; and seems to give it his sanction, with this proviso, that chronological verity be not thereby impeached. _I am of opinion_, says he, _that there was no foundation for the fable of Jupiter's having made the night, on which he lay with Alcmena, longer than others: at least this event put nothing in nature out of order; since the day, which followed, was proportionably shorter, as Plautus [396]remarks._

Atque quanto nox fuisti longior hac proxima, Tanto brevior dies ut fiat, faciam; ut aeque disparet, Et dies e nocte accedat.

Were it not invidious, I could subjoin names to every article, which I have alleged; and produce numberless instances to the same purpose.