[74] The author gives a singular reason for this incest: μισουσι δε τας (συνουσιας) προς τους αρσενας. δια τουτο και οι πλειςοι αυτων εκ των μητερων τεκνοποιουσι·
[75] The epithet is remarkable, not only as being, in the opinion of a Gentile, merited by the Jews, among other nations, but also at a period scarcely exceeding a century after their most heinous crime had been committed, expressly under the cloak of religion. It seems, however, that the Jews were charged with atheism by other writers also, and on account of their neglect of the false gods of the heathens; viz. “falsorium deorum neglectus: quam candem causam etiam Judæis maledicendi Tacitus habuit, et Plinius Major, cui Judæi dicuntur gens contumeliâ numinum insignis.” See Clark’s Notes on Grotius de Verit. Relig. Christ. Lib. 2, §2.
[76] Other editions say “Saturn.”
[77] It is usually understood that the male deity, coupled by the Phrygians with Cybele, “the mother of the Gods,” was called by them Atys; and that Adonis was the name used by the Phœnicians in addressing the associate of Venus. It has been said that these divinities were identical with the Isis and Osiris of the Ægyptians.
[78] The name of Africa was, in Ptolemy’s time, limited to those parts of the coast on the Mediterranean which contained the ancient Utica, and in which Tunis now stands. Josephus says the name is derived from Afer (one of the posterity of Abraham by Cethurah), who is stated to have led an army into Libya, and to have established himself in the country. This Afer is, of course, the same with Epher, mentioned in the fourth verse of the 25th chapter of Genesis, as a son of Midian, one of the sons of Abraham by his concubine Keturah.
[79] It does not appear why this practice should have been remarked as a national peculiarity, unless in distinction from the custom of burning the dead among the Greeks and Romans. Interment is recorded as having been usual among the Jews, and it is known to have been common among many ancient barbarous nations.
A conjecture may perhaps be allowed, that the author, when he wrote this passage, had in his mind the magnificent subterranean palaces, constructed for the dead, in parts of the region in question; some of which have been recently made known to the modern world by the sagacity and enterprise of the celebrated Belzoni.
[80] Τινες δε και καταφρονουσι των γεννητικων μελων.—The “contempt” here expressed by καταφρονουσι has been taken by all translators (except Whalley) to signify “mutilation.”
[81] History warrants the high enconium here given to the natives of these countries. Ægypt was the acknowledged mother of the arts and sciences, and at one time the great depot of all the learning of the world: her school of astronomy (a science which our author may be supposed to have placed in the first rank), founded at Alexandria by Ptol. Philadelphus, maintained its superior reputation for a thousand years. Cyrenaica gave birth to many illustrious philosophers, and, among them, to Eratosthenes, who is said to have invented the armillary sphere. This great man measured the obliquity of the ecliptic, and, though he erroneously reckoned it at only 20½ degrees, it should be recollected that he lived 200 years before the Christian æra. He also measured a degree of the meridian, and determined the extent of the earth, by means similar to those adopted by the moderns.
[82] Whalley remarks on this passage, that the gradual progress of the fixed stars “from one sign to another, is in an especial manner to be regarded in considering the mutations, manners, customs, laws, government, and fortune of a kingdom.”