We may perceive, that this is a mixed description, wherein, under the character of a gigantic personage, a towering edifice is alluded to; which was situated upon the summit of a mountain, and in the vicinity of the sea.
OB, OUB, PYTHO,
SIVE DE
OPHIOLATRIA.
Παρα παντι των νομιζομενων παρ' ὑμιν Θεων Οφις συμβολον μεγα και μυστηριον αναγραφεται. Justin. Martyr. Apolog. l. 1. p. 60.
It may seem extraordinary, that the worship of the serpent should have ever been introduced into the world: and it must appear still more remarkable, that it should almost universally have prevailed. As mankind are said to have been ruined through the influence of this being, we could little expect that it would, of all other objects, have been adopted, as the most sacred and salutary symbol; and rendered the chief object of [[451]]adoration. Yet so we find it to have been. In most of the antient rites there is some allusion to the [[452]]serpent. I have taken notice, that in the Orgies of Bacchus, the persons who partook of the ceremony used to carry serpents in their hands, and with horrid screams called upon Eva, Eva. They were often crowned with [[453]]serpents, and still made the same frantic exclamation. One part of the mysterious rites of Jupiter Sabazius was to let a snake slip down the bosom of the person to be initiated, which was taken out below[[454]]. These ceremonies, and this symbolic worship, began among the Magi, who were the sons of Chus: and by them they were propagated in various parts. Epiphanius thinks, that the invocation, Eva, Eva, related to the great [[455]]mother of mankind, who was deceived by the serpent: and Clemens of Alexandria is of the same opinion. He supposes, that by this term was meant [[456]]Ευαν εκεινην, δι' ἡν ἡ πλανη παρηκολουθησε. But I should think, that Eva was the same as Eph, Epha, Opha, which the Greeks rendered Οφις, Ophis, and by it denoted a serpent. Clemens acknowledges, that the term Eva properly aspirated had such a signification. [[457]]Το ονομα το Ευια δασυνομενον ἑρμηνευεται Οφις. Olympias, the mother of [[458]]Alexander, was very fond of these Orgies, in which the serpent was introduced. Plutarch mentions, that rites of this sort were practised by the Edonian women near mount Hæmus in Thrace; and carried on to a degree of madness. Olympias copied them closely in all their frantic manœuvres. She used to be followed with many attendants, who had each a thyrsus with [[459]]serpents twined round it. They had also snakes in their hair, and in the chaplets, which they wore; so that they made a most fearful appearance. Their cries were very shocking: and the whole was attended with a continual repetition of the words, [[460]]Evoe, Saboe, Hues Attes, Attes Hues, which were titles of the God Dionusus. He was peculiarly named Ὑης; and his priests were the Hyades, and Hyantes. He was likewise styled Evas. [[461]]Ευας ὁ Διονυσος.
In Egypt was a serpent named Thermuthis, which was looked upon as very sacred; and the natives are said to have made use of it as a royal tiara, with which they ornamented the statues of [[462]]Isis. We learn from Diodorus Siculus, that the kings of Egypt wore high bonnets, which terminated in a round ball: and the whole was surrounded with figures of [[463]]asps. The priests likewise upon their bonnets had the representation of serpents. The antients had a notion, that when Saturn devoured his own children, his wife Ops deceived him by substituting a large stone in lieu of one of his sons, which stone was called Abadir. But Ops, and Opis, represented here as a feminine, was the serpent Deity, and Abadir is the same personage under a different denomination. [[464]]Abadir Deus est; et hoc nomine lapis ille, quem Saturnus dicitur devorâsse pro Jove, quem Græci βαιτυλον vocant.—Abdir quoque et Abadir βαιτυλος. Abadir seems to be a variation of Ob-Adur, and signifies the serpent God Orus. One of these stones, which Saturn was supposed to have swallowed instead of a child, stood, according to [[465]]Pausanias, at Delphi. It was esteemed very sacred, and used to have libations of wine poured upon it daily; and upon festivals was otherwise honoured. The purport of the above history I imagine to have been this. It was for a long time a custom to offer children at the altar of Saturn: but in process of time they removed it, and in its room erected a στυλος, or stone pillar; before which they made their vows, and offered sacrifices of another nature. This stone, which they thus substituted, was called Ab-Adar, from the Deity represented by it. The term Ab generally signifies a [[466]]father: but, in this instance, it certainly relates to a serpent, which was indifferently styled Ab, Aub, and [[467]]Ob. I take Abadon, or, as it is mentioned in the Revelations, Abaddon, to have been the name of the same Ophite God, with whose worship the world had been so long infected. He is termed by the Evangelist [[468]]Αβαδδων, τον Αγγελον της Αβυσσου, the angel of the bottomless pit; that is, the prince of darkness. In another place he is described as the [[469]]dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and Satan. Hence I think, that the learned Heinsius is very right in the opinion, which he has given upon this passage; when he makes Abaddon the same as the serpent Pytho. Non dubitandum est, quin Pythius Apollo, hoc est spurcus ille spiritus, quem Hebræi Ob, et Abaddon, Hellenistæ ad verbum Απολλυωνα, cæteri Απολλωνα, dixerunt, sub hâc formâ, quâ miseriam humano generi invexit, primo cultus[[470]].
