Conjugis adventu pernix Saturnus, et altum
Pelion hinnitu fugiens implevit acuto.
All these legendary stories arose from this antient term being obsolete, and misapplied. Homer makes mention of the mares of Apollo, which the God was supposed to have bred in Pieria:
[[702]]Τας εν Πιεριῃ θρεψ' αργυροτοξος Απολλων.
And he has accordingly put them in harness, and given them to the hero Eumelus. Callimachus takes notice of the same mares in his hymn to the Shepherd God Apollo.
[[703]]Φοιβον και Νομιον κικλησκομεν, εξετ' εκεινου,
Εξετ' επ' Αμφρυσῳ ζευγητιδας ετρεφεν ἱππας,
Ηιθεου ὑπ' ερωτι κεκαυμενος Αδμητοιο.
These Hippai, misconstrued mares, were priestesses of the Goddess Hippa, who was of old worshipped in Thessaly, and Thrace, and in many different regions. They chanted hymns in her temples, and performed the rites of fire: but the worship growing obsolete, the very terms were at last mistaken. How far this worship once prevailed may be known from the many places denominated from Hippa. It was a title of Apollo, or the Sun, and often compounded Hippa On, and contracted Hippon: of which name places occur in Africa near Carthage[[704]]. Ἡτε δη Κιρτα πολις ενταυθα και ὁι δυο Ἱππωνες. Argos was of old called Hippeion; not from the animal Ἱππος, but [[705]]απο Ἱππης του Δαναου, from Hippa the daughter of Danaus. That is from a priestess, who founded there a temple, and introduced the rites of the Goddess whom she served. As it was a title of the Sun, it was sometimes expressed in the masculine gender Hippos: and Pausanias takes notice of a most curious, and remarkable piece of antiquity, though he almost ruins the purport of it by referring it to an horse. It stood near mount Taygetus in Laconia, and was called the monument of Hippos. The author tells us, [[706]]that at particular intervals from this monument stood seven pillars, κατα τροπον οιμαι αρχαιον, placed, says he, as I imagine, according to some antient rule and method; which pillars were supposed to represent the seven planets. If then these exterior stones related to the [[707]]seven erratic bodies in our sphere, the central monument of Hippos must necessarily have been designed for the Sun. And however rude the whole may possibly have appeared, it is the most antient representation upon record, and consequently the most curious, of the planetary system.
It is from hence, I think, manifest, that the titles Hippa, and Hippos, related to the luminary Osiris; and betokened some particular department of that Deity, who was the same as Dionusus. He was undoubtedly worshipped under this appellation in various regions: hence we read of Hippici Montes in Colchis: Ἱππου κωμη in Lycia: Ἱππου ακρα in Libya: Ἱππου ορος in Egypt: and a town Hippos in Arabia Felix. There occur also in composition[[708]], Hippon, Hipporum, Hippouris, Hippana, Hipponesus, Hippocrene. This last was a sacred fountain, denominated from the God of light, who was the patron of verse, and science: but by the Greeks it was referred to an animal, and supposed to have been produced by the hoof of an horse. The rites of Dionusus Hippius were carried into Thrace, where the horses of Diomedes were said to have been fed with human flesh. Deianira is introduced by Ovid, as asking Hercules, if he did not well remember this practice.