This is a very curious piece of antient history: and it will be found to be in great measure true, if taken with this allowance, that what is here said to have been achieved by one person, was the work of many. Osiris was a title conferred upon more persons than one; by which means the history of the first ages has been in some degree confounded. In this description the Cuthites are alluded to, who carried on the expeditions here mentioned. They were one branch of the posterity of Ham; who is here spoken of as the eldest son of Cronus. How justly they conferred upon him this rank of primogeniture, I will not determine. By [[786]]Cronus we are here to understand the same person, as is also represented under the name of Soüs. This would be more truly expressed Σωον, Soön; by which is meant the Sun: All the Amonian families affected to be styled Heliadæ, or the offspring of the Sun: and under this title they alluded to their great ancestor the father of all: as by Osiris they generally meant Ham. Σωον, Soön, is the same as [[787]]Zoon, and Zoan, the fountain of day. The land of Zoan in Egypt was the nome of Heliopolis: and the city Zoan the place of the Sun. The person then styled here Soüs can be no other than the great Patriarch under a title of the Sun. He is accordingly by Philo Biblius called Ousoüs in an extract from Sanchoniathon. He makes him indeed reside, where Tyre was afterwards built; but supposes him to have lived at a time, when there were great rains and storms; and to have been the first constructor of a ship, and the first who ventured upon the [[788]]seas. In respect to the travels of Osiris we shall find that the posterity of Ham did traverse at different times the regions above-mentioned: and in many of them took up their abode. They built the city Memphis in Egypt; also Hecatompulos, which they denominated Theba, after the name of their reputed mother. They also built Zoan, the city of the Sun.
Osiris is a title often conferred upon the great patriarch himself: and there is no way to find out the person meant but by observing the history, which is subjoined. When we read of Osiris being exposed in an ark, and being afterward restored to day; of his planting the vine, and teaching mankind agriculture; and inculcating religion, and justice; the person alluded to stands too manifest to need any farther elucidation. And when it is said of Osiris, that he went over most parts of the habitable globe, and built cities in various regions; this too may be easily understood. It can allude to nothing else, but a people called Osirians, who traversed the regions mentioned. They were principally the Cuthites, who went abroad under various denominations: and the histories of all the great heroes, and heroïnes of the first ages will be found of the same purport, as the foregoing. Osiris is supposed to have been succeeded in Egypt by Orus. After Orus came Thoules; who was succeeded by [[789]]Sesostris.
PERSEUS.
Perseus was one of the most antient heroes in the mythology of Greece: the merit of whose supposed achievements the Helladians took to themselves; and gave out that he was a native of Argos. He travelled to the temple of [[790]]Ammon; and from thence traversed the whole extent of Africa. He subdued the [[791]]Gorgons, who lived in Mauritania, and at Tartessus in Bœtica; and defeated the Ethiopians upon the western ocean, and the nations about mount Atlas: which [[792]]mountain he only and Hercules are said to have passed. Being arrived at the extremity of the continent, he found means to pass over, and to get possession of all the western islands. He warred in the East; where he freed [[793]]Andromeda, the daughter of Cepheus king of the eastern Ethiopia, who was exposed to a sea-monster. Some imagine this to have happened at [[794]]Joppa in Palestine, where the [[795]]bones of this monster of an extraordinary size are supposed to have been for a long time preserved. He is said to have built [[796]]Tarsus in Cilicia, reputed the most antient city in the world; and to have planted the peach tree at [[797]]Memphis. The Persians were supposed to have been his descendants. He travelled through Asia Minor, to the country of the [[798]]Hyperboreans upon the Ister, and the lake Mæotis; and from thence descended to Greece. Here he built Mycene, and Tiryns, said by many to have been the work of the Cyclopians. He established a seminary at Helicon: and was the founder of those families, which were styled Dorian, and Herculean. It is a doubt among writers, whether he came into Italy. Some of his family were there; who defeated the giant race in Campania, and who afterwards built Argiletum, and Ardea in Latium. Virgil supposes it to have been effected by Danae, the mother of this Hero:
[[799]]Ardea —— quam dicitur olim
Acrisioneïs Danäe fundâsse colonis.
But [[800]]Servius says, that Perseus himself in his childhood was driven to the coast of Daunia. He is represented as the ancestor of the Grecian Hercules, supposed to have been born at Thebes in Bœotia. In reality neither [[801]]Hercules, nor Perseus, was of Grecian original; notwithstanding the genealogies framed in that country. The history of the latter came apparently from Egypt, as we may learn from Diodorus[[802]]: Φασι δε και τον Περσεα γεγονεναι κατ' Αιγυπτον. Herodotus more truly represents him as an [[803]]Assyrian; by which is meant a Babylonian: and agreeably to this he is said to have married [[804]]Asterie, the daughter of Belus, the same as Astaroth and Astarte of Canaan; by whom he had a daughter Hecate. This, though taken from an idle system of theology, yet plainly shews, that the history of Perseus had been greatly misapplied and lowered, by being inserted among the fables of Greece. Writers speak of him as a great [[805]]Astronomer, and a person of uncommon knowledge. He instructed mariners to direct their way in the sea by the lights of heaven; and particularly by the polar constellation. This he first observed, and gave it the name of Helice. Though he was represented as a Babylonian; yet he resided in Egypt, and is said to have reigned at Memphis. To say the truth, he was worshipped at that place: for Perseus was a title of the Deity; [[806]]Περσευς, ὁ Ἡλιος; Perseus was no other than the Sun, the chief God of the Gentile world. On this account he had a temple of great repute at [[807]]Chemmis, as well as at Memphis, and in other parts of Egypt. Upon the Heracleotic branch of the Nile, near the sea, was a celebrated watch-tower, denominated from him. His true name was Perez, or Parez, rendered Peresis, Perses, and Perseus: and in the account given of this personage we have the history of the Peresians, Parrhasians, and Perezites, in their several peregrinations; who were no other than the Heliadæ, and Osirians abovementioned. It is a mixed history, in which their forefathers are alluded to; particularly their great progenitor, the father of mankind. He was supposed to have had a renewal of life: they therefore described Perseus as inclosed in an [[808]]ark, and exposed in a state of childhood upon the waters, after having been conceived in a shower of gold.
Bochart thinks that the name both of Persis and Perseus was from
פרס
, Paras, an Horse: because the Persians were celebrated horsemen, and took great delight in that animal. But it must be considered that the name is very antient, and prior to this use of horses. P'aras, P'arez, and P'erez, however diversified, signify the Sun; and are of the same analogy as P'ur, P'urrhos, P'oros, which betoken fire. Every animal, which was in any degree appropriated to a Deity, was called by some sacred [[809]]title. Hence an horse was called P'arez: and the same name, but without the prefix, was given to a lion by many nations in the east. It was at first only a mark of reference, and betokened a solar animal, specifying the particular Deity to whom it was sacred. There were many nations, which were distinguished in the same manner; some of whom the Greeks styled Parrhasians. Hence the antient Arcadians, those Selenitæ, who were undoubtedly an Amonian colony, had this appellation. A people in Elis had the same. The Poets described the constellation of Helice, or the Bear, by the title of Parrhasis, Arctos, and Parrhasis Ursa. This asterism was confessedly first taken notice of by Perez or Perseus, by which is meant the Persians.