Erythia, according to Pliny, is another name for Gades.
[177] In the deep-hollow’d cavern of a rock.] It is probable that at Arima in Cilicia there was an Ophite temple; which, like all the most ancient temples, was a vast cavern. Some emblematical sculpture of the serpent-deity may have given rise to the creation of this mythological prodigy. The Hydra had, probably, a similar origin.
[178] A whirlwind, rude and wild.] There were two distinct Typhons or Typhaons, although they are sometimes confounded together. The one is the same as the gigantic Typhæus, subsequently described by Hesiod: the other the whirlwind here mentioned.
“By this Typhon was signified a mighty whirlwind, or inundation. It had a relation to the deluge. In hieroglyphical descriptions, the dove was represented as hovering over the mundane egg which was exposed to the fury of Typhon: for an egg, containing in it the proper elements of life, was thought no improper emblem of the ark, in which were preserved the rudiments of the future world.” Bryant.
Robinson is therefore manifestly wrong in proposing to substitute ανομον, lawless, for ανεμον, a wind: though the reading be countenanced by the Bodleian copy and the Florentine edition of Junta.
[179] The fifty-headed Cerberus.] Cerberus was the name of a place, though esteemed the dog of hell. We are told by Eusebius from Plutarch, that Cerberus was the Sun: but the term properly signified the temple, or place, of the Sun. The great luminary was styled by the Amonians both Or and Abor; that is, light, and the parent of light: and Cerberus is properly Kir-abor, the place of that deity. The same temple had different names from the diversity of the god’s titles, who was there worshipped. It was called Tor-caph-el; which was changed to τρικεφαλος: and Cerberus was from hence supposed to have had three heads. Bryant.
The poets increased the number of heads, as they seem to have thought a multitude of heads or arras sublimely terrific. Pindar out-does Hesiod by a whole fifty, and speaks of the hundred-headed Cerberus. Εκατον τα κεφαλον.
[180] Chimæra, breathing fire unquenchable.] The same passage occurs in the 6th book of the Iliad. “In Lycia was the city Phaselis, situated upon the mountain Chimæra; which mountain was sacred to the god of fire. Phaselis is a compound of Phi, which in the Amonian language is a mouth or opening, and of Az-el: another name for Orus, the god of light. Phaselis signifies a chasm of fire. The reason why this name was imposed may be seen in the history of the place. All the country around abounded in fiery eruptions. Chimæra is a compound of Chamur, the name of the deity, whose altar stood towards the top of the mountain. But the most satisfactory idea of it may be obtained from coins which were struck in its vicinity, and particularly describe it as a hollow and inflamed mountain.” Bryant.
[181] Depopulating Sphinx.] The Nile begins to rise during the fall of the Abyssinian rains; when the sun is vertical over Æthiopia: and its waters are at their height of inundation when the sun is in the signs Leo and Virgo. The Ægyptians seem to have invented a colossal representation of the two zodiacal signs, which served as a water-mark to point out the risings of the Nile: and this biform emblem of a virgin and lion constituted the famous ænigma.
[182] Tethys to Ocean brought the rivers forth.] When towers were situated upon eminences fashioned very round, they were by the Amonians called Tith, answering to Titthos in Greek. They were so denominated from their resemblance to a woman’s breast, and were particularly sacred to Orus and Osiris, the deities of light, who by the Grecians were represented under the title of Apollo. Tethys, the ancient goddess of the sea, was nothing else but an old tower upon a mount. On this account it was called Tith-is, the mount of fire. Thetis seems to have been a transposition of the same name, and was probably a Pharos, or fire-tower, near the sea. Bryant.