Uprightly, and be loved by upright men.
And take this motto, all who covet praise
(’Twas ægis-bearing Jove that spoke it first),
The godly seed fares well, the wicked is accurst.”
—Caverley’s Theocritus, xxvi.
This seems to bear out what is perhaps only vaguely implied in the sacred text that the curse was on Chanaan—the boy and his posterity—and not on the whole race of Cham.—Vide ante: also compare the “Bacchæ” of Euripides, in the following passage from Grote’s “Plato” (iii. 333):—“So in the ‘Bacchæ’ of Euripides, the two old men, Kadmus and Teiresias, after vainly attempting to inculcate upon Pentheus the belief in and the worship of Dionysus, at last appeal to his prudence and admonish him of the danger of unbelief;” which, if it be tradition, would look as if Chanaan’s offence was only the final and overt expression of previous unbelief.
[180] Vide Dr Smith’s “Myth. Dict.” art. Janus:—“Whereas the worship of Janus was introduced at Rome by Romulus, that of Sol was instituted by Titus Tatius.”
[181] If Janus is allowed to have been identified with Saturn (supra) we may see through the analogy of Saturn how these secondary functions came to be attributed to him—Saturn was also Chronos [that Chronos = Noah, vide Palmer’s Egypt. Chron., i. p. 60]; “but,” as Dr Smith says, “there is no resemblance between the deities, except that both were regarded as the most ancient deities in their respective countries.” As Chronos simply personifies antiquity itself, this only means that Saturn was the most ancient deity. When subsequently he became merged in “Chronos,” his ancient sickle became converted into a scythe. Dr Smith (“Dict. Myth.”) says, “He held in his hand a crooked pruning knife, and his feet were surrounded with a woollen riband;” and Goguet (“Origin of Laws,” i. 94) says, “All old traditions speak of the sickle of Saturn, who is said to have taught the people of his time to cultivate the earth.”—Plut. i. p. 2, 275; Macrob. Sat., lib. i. 217.
Goguet (“Origin of Laws,” i. 283) says, “Several critics are of opinion that the Janus of the ancients is the same with Javan the son of Japhet, Gen. x. 3.”
It may afford a clue if I advert to the circumstance that whilst in the Phœnician alphabet (vide Bunsen’s Egypt. iv. 290, 293, 297), Dagon, Dagan = Corn (the Fish-man, vide supra, [p. 200]), stands for the letter D. “The door” is its hieroglyphic equivalent. Thus we get in strange juxtaposition what we may call symbols, connecting Janus with the Fish-god and with the god of agriculture.—Vide supra, [p. 200], and infra.