IV. whence they called one particular hill, CHAP. where this tranfaction was fuppofed to take place, Baris and Lubar, terms equivalent to the Greek word apobaterion, and fignifying the place of defcent. The modern Armenians, as we are informed by Cartwright", ftill preserve the fame opinion. An abbey of Gregorian monks is fituated at the foot of the hill, who pretend, that fome portion of the ark is yet in being, though angels prevent any perfon from obtaining a fight of it. The foundations of many buildings are ftill vifible upon the mountain, supposed to have been erected in that fituation by the first inhabitants of the postdiluvian world, from a fear, if they ventured lower down, of experiencing a calamity, fimilar to that from which their immediate ancestors had fo recently escaped. Traditions the dove bow. X. The Pagans had a variety of tra- X. ditions refpecting the dove, which they refpecting generally connected either with fome fable and rainconcerning the fea, or with fome story relative to the prophetic powers of that bird. Both these prevailing notions are easily accounted for, if we confider the hiftory of Cited in Purch. Pilgrim. b. i. c. 8. the SECT. the dove of Noah. It flew back to him I. from off the face of the waters, and thus acted as a kind of augur, by fhewing that the earth was not yet habitable. It is well known, that the dove is affigned to Venus, as a constant attendant upon her, and it feems to have been done in confideration of her character as Venus Marina, Venus rifing from the waves of the troubled ocean. This Venus is ufually reprefented encompaffed with dolphins, and other aquatic animals; and is even faid, in a time of great danger when pursued by Typhon, or the fea, to have affumed the shape of a fish. That this deity was diftinguished from others, who bore the fame name, appears from Cicero, who enumerates four different goddeffes, each worshipped under the title of Venus, one of whom fprung from the foam of the fea". Upon the whole, it is fufficiently manifeft, that the marine deity in queftion forms a part rather of the eastern than of the western mythology, being in reality no other than the Syrian Atargatis, or Derceto. A mafculine idol, with much the fame appear • Ovid. Faft. lib. ii. v. 461. - Cicero de Nat. Deor. lib. iii. c. 23. ance, IV. ance, terminating in a fimilar manner in the CHAP. tail of a fifh, was worshipped by the Philiftines under the name of Dagon; who, if a late ingenious difquifition refpecting the origin of that people be admiffible 9, is in all probability the fame with the Indian Vishnu incarnate under the form of a fish. This laft fable is univerfally allowed to relate to the deluge; confequently, it is not improbable, that Dagon and Atargatis may likewise have the fame allufion. The goddess of beauty rifing from out of the waves of the fea, furrounded with marine animals, and attended by her dove, feems to be no inappofite emblem of the world emerging, in renovated beauty, from the midft of the waters of the deluge, and having the aufpicious dove for its harbinger. Lucian, in his account of the Syrian goddess, mentions, that there were three statues placed in the adytum of the temple, one of Jupiter, another of Juno, and a third made of gold, and placed between them, diffimilar to both the others. The Affyrians called it a fign, or emblem, though they gave no account of its origin. Some 9 Wilford on Egypt, Afiat. Ref. vol. iii. I. SECT. indeed fuppofed it to be an image of Dionyfus, others of Deucalion, and others again of Semiramis. From a circumstance connected with it, and which appears to explain the reason of its being called a fign, or emblem, it was in all probability a reprefentation of Deucalion, the Noah of Scripture. Upon the top of its head was perched a golden figure of a dove, which twice in the year was brought to the fea fide, to be present at the carrying of that water, which in memory of the deluge was poured down the chaẩm in the midst of the temple'. 66 Plutarch, in his treatise upon the fagacity of animals, fays, that "the mythologifts maintain, that a dove was sent by "Deucalion out of the ark, which, when "it returned to him, fhewed that the ftorm was not yet abated; but when he faw it f Ev μεσω δε αμφοτέρων, έςηκε ξόανον αλλο χρυσεον, εδαμα τοισε άλλοισι ξοανοισι είκελον καλέεται δε σημηΐον και ὑπ ̓ αυτων Ασσυ εδε τι όνομα ριων ιδιον αυτώ εθεντο, αλλ' εδε γενεσιος αυτε περί και είδεος λεγεσι· και μιν οἱ μεν ες Διονυσον, αλλοι δὲ ἐς Δευκαλίωνα, οἱ δε ες Σεμιράμιν αγεσι' και γαρ δη ων επι τη κορυφή αυτε, περιτερη χρυσέη εφετηκε αποδημεει δε δις έκασε εσεος ες θάλασσαν, ες κομι SAY TY ATOV idalos. LUCIAN. de Dea Syr. c. xxxiii. Vide fupra p. 135. no no more, he concluded that the fky was CHAP. become ferene again." The Sicilian medals of Janus, who from this, as well as from other circumstances, feems to have been a copy of the scriptural Noah, had on one fide the double countenance of the deity, and on the reverse a dove bearing a branch in its mouth. With regard to the oracular powers of the dove, there is a curious narrative given by Herodotus, of two black pigeons having taken their flight from Egyptian Thebes, one of which went to Libya, and the other to Dodona. As foon as the latter arrived at the place of its deftination, it perched upon a beech tree, and pronounced with a human voice, that an oracle of Jupiter ought to be there established". The Egyptian account of the fame circumstance explains these doves to be two priesteffes, who were the founders of thofe two ora • Οι μεν εν μυθολογος τῷ Δευκαλίωνι φασι περιτεραν εκ λαρνακος αφιεμένην δηλωμα γενεσθαι χειμωνος μεν εσω παλιν δυομενην, ευοδίας de a onaσav. PLUT. de Solert. Anim. p. 968. See a print in Bryant's Anal. vol. ii. p. 260. I'V. cles. |