[205] Ibid., xv, 12.
[206] The power of healing was a prominent and popular characteristic of the god of the Hebrews. “I am the Lord that healeth thee” (Ex., xv, 26); “I will restore health unto thee and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the Lord” (Jer., xxx, 17); “He healeth the broken in heart and bindeth up their wounds” (Ps. cxlvii, 3); “Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed” (Jer., xvii, 14); and other similar passages are met with in the Bible. Indeed, the curing of diseases has always been largely resorted to when the claim of divinity has been brought forward. It is a deceptive test.
[207] Naia tripudians.
[208] Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible.
[209] Herodotus, ii, 74.
[210] Note to ii, 74, in George Rawlinson’s edition of Herodotus.
[211] The reader may turn with advantage to Dr. J. S. Phené’s interesting illustrated essay on “Prehistoric Traditions and Customs in Connection with Sun and Serpent Worship,” in the Transactions of the Victoria Institute, vol. viii, p. 321. London, 1875.
[212] Hymn to Apollo. Translation by C. C. Conwell, M.D. Philadelphia, 1830.
[213] No doubt the great home of the Indo-Europeans furnishes a closely corresponding myth. But there is good reason to hold that the main features of the great astronomical myths antedated the Vedas. Grecian mythology was largely derived from Egypt and Phœnicia.
[214] Mythology, vol. ii, p. 197.