A New System; or, an Analysis of Antient Mythology....

The Scholiast upon Lycophron informs us farther, that the river had three names; and imagines that upon this account it was called Triton. [221]Τριτων ὁ Νειλος, ὁτι τρις μετωνομασθη· προτερον γαρ Ωκεανος αν εκαλειτο, δευτερον Αετος·—το δε Νειλος νεον εστι. I shall not at present controvert his etymology. Let it suffice, that we are assured, both by this author and by others, that the Nile was called Oceanus: and what is alluded to by Pherecydes is certainly a large map or chart. The robe of which he speaks was indeed a Pharos, Φαρος; but a Pharus of a different nature from that which he describes. It was a building, a temple, which was not constructed by the Deity, but dedicated to him. It was one of those towers of which I have before treated; in which were described upon the walls, and otherwise delineated, Ωγηνος και Ωγηνου δωματα, the course of the Gehon, or Nile; and the towns and houses upon that river.

I imagine that the shield of Achilles, in Homer, was copied from something of this sort which the poet had seen in Egypt: for Homer is continually alluding to the customs, as well as to the history, of that kingdom. And, it is evident, that what he describes on the central part of the shield, is a map of the earth, and of the celestial appearances.

The garment of Thetis, which the poets mention as given her upon her supposed marriage with Peleus, was a Pharos of the same kind as that described above. We may learn, from Catullus, who copied the story, that the whole alluded to an historical picture preserved in some tower; and that it referred to matters of great antiquity, though applied by the Greeks to later times, and ascribed to people of their own nation.

It contained a description of some notable achievements in the first ages; and a particular account of the Apotheosis of Ariadne, who is described, whatever may be the meaning of it, as carried by Bacchus to heaven. The story is said to have been painted on a robe, or coverlet; because it was delineated upon a Pharos: that word being equivocal, and to be taken in either sense. And here I cannot but take notice of the inconsistency of the Greeks, who make Theseus a partaker in this history; and suppose him to have been acquainted with Ariadne. If we may credit Plutarch[225], Theseus, as soon as he was advanced towards manhood, went, by the advice of his mother Æthra, from Trœzen, in quest of his father Ægeus at Athens. This was some years after the Argonautic expedition; when Medea had left Jason, and put herself under the protection of this same Ægeus. After having been acknowledged by his father, Theseus went upon his expedition to Crete; where he is said to have first seen Ariadne, and to have carried her away. All this, I say, was done after Jason had married Medea, and had children by her; and after she had left him and was come to Athens. But the story of Ariadne, in the above specimen, is mentioned as a fact of far older date. It was prior to the arrival of Medea in Greece, and even to the Argonautic expedition. It is spoken of as a circumstance of the highest antiquity: consequently, [226]Theseus could not any ways be concerned in it.

There, is an account in Nonnus of a robe, or Pharos, which Harmonia is supposed to have worn when she was visited by the Goddess of beauty. There was delineated here, as in some above mentioned, the earth, and the heavens, with all the stars. The sea, too, and the rivers, were represented; and the whole was, at the bottom, surrounded by the ocean.