I have mentioned that they were sometimes called Petora, and by the Greeks Pitura. This, probably, was the name of those liba, or cakes, which the young virgins of Babylonia and Persis, used to offer at the shrine of their God, when they were to be first prostituted: for, all, before marriage, were obliged to yield themselves up to some stranger to be deflowered. It was the custom for all the young women, when they arrived towards maturity, to sit in the avenue of the temple, with a girdle, or rope, round their middle; and whatever passenger laid hold of it was entitled to lead them away. This practice is taken notice of, as subsisting among the Babylonians, in the epistle ascribed to the prophet Jeremiah; which he is supposed to have written to Baruch. v. 43. Ἁιδε γυναικες περιθεμεναι σχοινια εν ταις ὁδοις εγκαθηνται θυμιωσαι τα ΠΙΤYΡΑ· ὁταν δε τις αυτων αφελκοθεισα ὑπο τινος των παραπορευομενων κοιμηθῃ, την πλησιον ονειδιζει, ὁτι ουκ ηξιωται, ὡσπερ αυτη, ουτε το σχοινιον αυτης διεῤῥαγη. This is a translation from an Hebrew or Chaldäic original; and, I should think, not quite accurate. What is here rendered γυναικες, should, I imagine, be παρθενοι; and the purport will be nearly this: The virgins of Babylonia put girdles about their waist; and in this habit sit by the way side, holding their Pitura, or sacred offerings, over an urn of incense: and when any one of them is taken notice of by a stranger, and led away by her girdle to a place of privacy; upon her return she upbraids her next neighbour for not being thought worthy of the like honour; and for having her zone not yet broken or [[909]]loosed. It was likewise a Persian custom, and seems to have been universally kept up wherever their religion prevailed. Strabo gives a particular account of this practice, as it was observed in the temple of Anait in Armenia. This was a Persian Deity, who had many places of worship in that part of the world. Not only the men and maid servants, says the author, are in this manner prostituted at the shrine of the Goddess; for in this there would be nothing extraordinary: [[910]]Αλλα και θυγατερας ὁι επιφανεστατοι του εθνους ανιερουσι παρθενους, ἁις νομος εστι, καταπορνευθεισαις πολυν χρονον παρα τῃ Θεῳ μετα ταυτα δεδοσθαι προς γαμον· ουκ απαξιουντος τῃ τοιαυτῃ συνοικειν ουδενος. But people of the first fashion in the nation used to devote their own daughters in the same manner: it being a religious institution, that all young virgins shall, in honour of the Deity, be prostituted, and detained for some time in her temple: after which they are permitted to be given in marriage. Nor is any body at all scrupulous about cohabiting with a young woman afterwards, though she has been in this manner abused.
The Patrica were not only rites of Mithras, but also of Osiris, who was in reality the same Deity.
We have a curious inscription to this purpose, and a representation, which was first exhibited by the learned John Price in his observations upon Apuleius. It is copied from an original, which he saw at Venice: and there is an engraving from it in the Edition of Herodotus by [[911]]Gronovius, as well as in that by [[912]]Wesselinge: but about the purport of it they are strangely mistaken. They suppose it to relate to a daughter of Mycerinus, the son of Cheops. She died, it seems: and her father was so affected with her death, that he made a bull of wood, which he gilt, and in it interred his daughter. Herodotus says, that he saw the bull of Mycerinus; and that it alluded to this history. But, notwithstanding the authority of this great author, we may be assured that it was an emblematical representation, and an image of the sacred bull Apis and Mneuis. And, in respect to the sculpture above mentioned, and the characters therein expressed, the whole is a religious ceremony, and relates to an event of great antiquity, which was commemorated in the rites of Osiris. Of this I shall treat hereafter: at present, it is sufficient to observe, that the sacred process is carried on before a temple; on which is a Greek inscription, but in the provincial characters: Ενδον Πατρικην Ἑορτην Φερω. How can Ἑορτη Πατρικη relate to a funeral? It denotes a festival in honour of the Sun, who was styled, as I have shewn, Pator; and his temple was called Patra: whence these rites were denominated Patrica. Plutarch alludes to this Egyptian ceremony, and supposes it to relate to Isis, and to her mourning for the loss of her son. Speaking of the month Athyr, he mentions [[913]]Βουν διαχρυσον ἱματιῳ μελανι βυσσινῳ περιβαλοντες επι πενθει της Θεου δεικνυουσιν (ὁι Αιγυπτιοι). The Egyptians have a custom in the month Athyr of ornamenting a golden image of a bull; which they cover with a black robe of the finest linen. This they do in commemoration of Isis, and her grief for the loss of Orus. In every figure, as they are represented in the sculpture, there appears deep silence and reverential awe: but nothing that betrays any sorrow in the agents. They may commemorate the grief of Isis; but they certainly do not allude to any misfortune of their own: nor is there any thing the least funereal in the process. The Egyptians of all nations were the most extravagant in their [[914]]grief. If any died in a family of consequence, the women used by way of shewing their concern to soil their heads with the mud of the river; and to disfigure their faces with filth. In this manner they would run up and down the streets half naked, whipping themselves as they ran: and the men likewise whipped themselves. They cut off their hair upon the death of a dog; and shaved their eyebrows for a dead cat. We may therefore judge, that some very strong symptoms of grief would have been expressed, had this picture any way related to the sepulture of a king's daughter. Herodotus had his account from different people: one half he confessedly [[915]]disbelieved; and the remainder was equally incredible. For no king of Egypt, if he had made a representation of the sacred [[916]]bull, durst have prostituted it for a tomb: and, as I have before said, Ἑορτη Πατρικη can never relate to a funeral.
AN
ACCOUNT
OF THE
GODS OF GREECE;
To shew that they were all originally one GOD,
the SUN.
As I shall have a great deal to say concerning the Grecian Theology in the course of this work, it will be necessary to take some previous notice of their Gods; both in respect to their original, and to their purport. Many learned men have been at infinite pains to class the particular Deities of different countries, and to point out which were the same. But they would have saved themselves much labour, if, before they had bewildered themselves in these fruitless inquiries, they had considered whether all the Deities of which they treat, were not originally the same: all from one source; branched out and diversified in different parts of the world. I have mentioned that the nations of the east acknowledged originally but one Deity, the Sun: but when they came to give the titles of Orus, Osiris, and Cham, to some of the heads of their family; they too in time were looked up to as Gods, and severally worshipped as the Sun. This was practised by the Egyptians: but this nation being much addicted to refinement in their worship, made many subtile distinctions: and supposing that there were certain emanations of divinity, they affected to particularize each by some title; and to worship the Deity by his attributes. This gave rise to a multiplicity of Gods: for the more curious they were in their disquisitions, the greater was the number of these substitutes. Many of them at first were designed for mere titles: others, as I before mentioned, were αποῤῥοιαι, derivatives, and emanations: all which in time were esteemed distinct beings, and gave rise to a most inconsistent system of Polytheism. The Grecians, who received their religion from Egypt and the east, misconstrued every thing which was imported; and added to these absurdities largely. They adopted Deities, to whose pretended attributes they were totally strangers; whose names they could not articulate, or spell. They did not know how to arrange the elements, of which the words were composed. Hence it was, that Solon the Wise could not escape the bitter, but just censure of the priest in Egypt, who accused both him, and the Grecians in general, of the grossest puerility and ignorance. [[917]]Ω Σολων, Σολων, Ἑλληνες εστε παιδες αει, γερων δε Ἑλλην ουκ εστι, νεοι τε ψυχας ἁπαντες· ουδεμιαν γαρ εν ἑαυτοις εχετε παλαιαν δοξαν, ουδε μαθημα χρονῳ πολιον ουδεν. The truth of this allegation may be proved both from the uncertainty, and inconsistency of the antients in the accounts of their Deities. Of this uncertainty Herodotus takes notice. [[918]]Ενθενδε εγενετο ἑκαστος των θεων, ειτε δ' αει ησαν παντες, ὁκοιοι δε τινες τα ειδεα, ουκ ηπιστεατο μεχρι ὁυ πρωην τε και χθες, ὡς ειπειν λογῳ. He attributes to Homer, and to Hesiod, the various names and distinctions of the Gods, and that endless polytheism which prevailed. [[919]]Ουτοι δε εισι, ὁι ποιησαντες θεογονιαν Ἑλλησι, και τοισι Θεοισι τας επωνυμιας δοντες, και τιμας τε και τεχνας διελοντες, και ειδεα αυτων σημῃναντες. This blindness in regard to their own theology, and to that of the countries, whence they borrowed, led them to misapply the terms, which they had received, and to make a God out of every title. But however they may have separated, and distinguished them under different personages, they are all plainly resolvable into one Deity, the Sun. The same is to be observed in the Gods of the Romans. This may in great measure be proved from the current accounts of their own writers; if we attend a little closely to what they say: but it will appear more manifest from those who had been in Egypt, and copied their accounts from that country. There are few characters, which at first sight appear more distinct than those of Apollo and Bacchus. Yet the department, which is generally appropriated to Apollo, as the Sun, I mean the conduct of the year, is by Virgil given to Bacchus, or Liber. He joins him with Ceres, and calls them both the bright luminaries of the world.