As to the word Ilion, which was the sacred name of Troy, it is very easy to recognize the name of the material principle, called ὕλη (ulè) by the Greeks and ylis by the Egyptians. Iamblichus speaks of it at great length in his Book on the Mysteries (§ 7), as the principle from which all has birth: this was also the opinion of Porphyry (Euseb., Præp. Evang., l. ix., c. 9 and 11).
[102] Metrodorus of Lampsacus cited by Tatian (Adver. Gent., § 37). Plato, In Alcibiad., ii., Cronius, Porphyry, Phurnutus, Iamblichus, cited by Court de Gébelin, (Génie allég.), p. 36, 43; Plato, In Ion.; Cicero, De Natur. Deor., l. ii.; Strabo, l. i.; Origen, Contr. Cels. Among the moderns can be counted Bacon, Blackwell, Basnage, Bergier, and Court de Gébelin himself, who has given a list of eighty writers who have this opinion.
[103] Dionys. Halic., De Comp. verb., t. v., c. 16, 26; Quintil., l. x., c. 1; Longin., De Sublim., c. 13; Ælian., Var. Hist., l. viii., c. 2; Plat., Alcibiad., i.
[104] Plat., In Vitâ Lycurg.
[105] Allat., De Patr. Homer., c. 5; Meurs., In Pisist., c. 9 et 12; Plat., In Hipparc.
[106] Senec., Epist., 117.
[107] Ibidem, 88.
[108] Dionys. Halic., In Vitâ Homer.; Eustath., In Iliad, l. i.
[109] Strabo, l. xiv., p. 646.
[110] Arist., De Poët., c. 2, cit. par Barth., Voyag. d’Anach., t. vii., c. 80, p. 44.