ANTIENT WORSHIP,

AND OF

ETYMOLOGICAL TRUTHS

THENCE DEDUCIBLE:

EXEMPLIFIED IN THE NAMES OF CITIES, LAKES, AND RIVERS.

Εστι που και ποταμοις τιμη, η κατ' ωφελειαν, ὡσπερ Αιγυπτιοις προς τον Νειλον, η κατα καλλος, ὡς Θετταλοις προς Πηνειον, η κατα μεγεθος, ὡς Σκυθαις προς τον Ιστρον, η κατα μυθον, ὡς Αιτωλοις προς τον Αχελωον.——Max. Tyrius. Dissert. viii. p. 81.

As the divine honours paid to the Sun, and the adoration of fire, were at one time almost universal, there will be found in most places a similitude in the terms of worship. And though this mode of idolatry took its rise in one particular part of the world, yet, as it was propagated to others far remote, the stream, however widely diffused, will still savour of the fountain. Moreover, as people were determined in the choice of their holy places by those preternatural phænomena, of which I have before taken notice; if there be any truth in my system, there will be uniformly found some analogy between the name of the temple, and its rites and situation: so that the etymology may be ascertained by the history of the place. The like will appear in respect to rivers and mountains; especially to those which were esteemed at all sacred, and which were denominated from the Sun and fire. I therefore flatter myself that the etymologies which I shall lay before the reader will not stand single and unsupported; but there will be an apparent analogy throughout the whole. The allusion will not be casual and remote, nor be obtained by undue inflexions and distortions: but, however complicated the name may appear, it will resolve itself easily into the original terms; and, when resolved, the truth of the etymology will be ascertained by the concomitant history. If it be a Deity, or other personage, the truth will appear from his office and department; or with the attributes imputed to him. To begin, then, with antient Latium. If I should have occasion to speak of the Goddess Feronia, and of the city denominated from her, I should deduce the from Fer-On, ignis Dei Solis; and suppose the place to have been addicted to the worship of the Sun, and the rites of fire. I accordingly find, from Strabo and Pliny, that rites of this sort were practised here: and one custom, which remained even to the time of Augustus, consisted in a ceremony of the priests, who used to walk barefoot over burning coals: [^[569]]Γυμνοις γαρ ποσι διεξιασιν ανθρακιαν, και σποδιαν μεγαλην. The priests, with their feet naked, walked over a large quantity of live coals and cinders. The town stood at the bottom of Mount Soracte, sacred to Apollo; and the priests were styled Hirpi. Aruns, in Virgil, in his address to Apollo, takes notice of this custom: