As many of these terms were titles, they were not always uniformly adapted: nor were the antients consistent in their mythology. But nothing has produced greater confusion in these antient histories than that fatal turn in the Greeks of reducing every unknown term to some word, with which they were better acquainted. In short, they could not rest till they had formed every thing by their own idiom, and made every nation speak the language of Greece. Among the people of the east the true name of the Patriarch was preserved: they called him Noas, Naus, and sometimes contracted Nous: and many places of sanctity, and many rivers were denominated from him. Anaxagoras of Clazomenæ had been in Egypt; and had there obtained some knowledge of this personage. He spoke of him by the name of Noas or Nous; and both he and his disciples were sensible that it was a foreign appellation : yet he has well nigh ruined the whole of a very curious history, which he had been taught, by taking the terms in a wrong acceptation, and then making inferences in consequence of this abuse. * Οι δε Αναξαγοραιοι ἑρμηνεύεσι Nεν μεν τον Δία, την δε Αθηναν τέχνην-Προμηθεα δε Νεν ελεγον Προμηθεια γαρ "Euseb. Hist. Synagoge. p. 374. What is rendered Nes, should be expressed Nos, or Nous. + 12 στην ανθρωποις ο τες δύο και μυθεύονται τις ανθρωπες μετα πεπλάσθαι, δηλονότι απο ιδιωτείας εις γνωσιν. The disciples of Anaxagoras say, that Nous is, by interpretation, the Deity Dis, or Dios: and they call Athena, Art or Science-They likewise esteem Nous the same as " Prometheus. He then proceeds to inform us why they looked upon Nous to have been Prometheus: because he was the renewer of mankind; and was said, μetanendaala to have fashioned them again, after that they had been in a manner extinct. All this is to be inferred from the words above. But the author, while he is giving this, curious account, starts aside, and, forgetting that he is confessedly treating of a foreign term, recurs to his own language, and from thence frames a solution of the story. He tells us that Nous, which he had been speaking of as a proper name, was, after all, a Grecian term, us, the mind: that the mind was Prometheia; and Prometheus was said to renew mankind from new forming their minds, and leading them by cultivation from ignorance to " knowledge.— 13 * Eusebius in another place mentions Προμηθευς, ὃς πλαττειν avdgwπes eμudeveto. Chron. Can. p. 103. Alovuσor, Alos Nev. Macrob. Saturn. 1. 1. c. 18. Nas, ψυχή, ποταμος, και η μονας. Hesych. 13 Fulgentius says the same from Apollophanes, c. 2. p. 628. Thus have the Greeks, by their affectation, continually ruined history: and the reader may judge how difficult it is to see the truth through the mist, with which it is environed. One would imagine that Homer had an eye to this fatality in his countrymen, when he made the following pathetic exclamation : 14 Α δειλοι, τι κακον τοδε πάσχετε ; νυκτι μεν ύμων Near the temple of Eleusinian Damater, in Arcadia, were two vast stones, called Petroma, one of which was erect, and the other was laid over, and inserted into the former. There was a hollow place in the upper stone, with a lid to it. In this, among other things, was kept a kind of mask, which was thought to represent the countenance of Damater, to whom these stones were sacred. I mention this circumstance because there was a notion among the Pheneatæ, who were the inhabitants of this district, that the Goddess came into these parts in an age very re Apollophanes in sacro carmine scribit Saturnum quasi sacrum Nov; Nas enim Græcè sensus dicitur: aut satorem Ngv. 14 Hom. Odyss. Y. V. 351. mote, even before the days of Naos, or Noah, 15 Φενεατων δε εςι λόγος, και πριν η Ναον άφικεσθαι γαρ και ενταυθα Δημητρα πλανωμένην. 16 1. Suidas has preserved, from some antient author, a curious memorial of this wonderful personage; whom he affects to distinguish from Deucalion, and styles Ναννακος, Nannacus. Ναννακος, παλαιος ανηρ προ Δευκαλίωνος. Τετον φασι Βασιλεα γενεσθαι,— ὃς προειδως τον μελλοντα κατακλυσμον, συναγαγων παντας εις το Ίερον μετα δακρυων ἱκέτευσε. - Και παροιμία επι Ναννακά, επι των σφόδρα παλαίων και αρχαίων. Nannacus was a person of great antiquity, prior to the time of Deucalion. He is said to have been a king, who foreseeing the approaching deluge, collected every body together, and led them to a temple, where he offered up his prayers for them, accompanied with many tears. There is likewise a proverbial expression about Nannacus; which is applied to people of great antiquity. Suidas' has done great injury to this curious tradition by a misapplication of the proverb at the close. What he alludes to was τα Navans κλαίω, vel οδυρομαι; .. .. 15 Pausan. l. 8. p. 630. Naos is certainly a transposition for Noας, Noah. 16 There is some mistake in this name. Ναννακος may have been a variation for Navanos, Noacus: or it may be for Nαυ-Νακος, Noah Rex. proverb, which had no relation to time, nor to antient persons; but was made use of in a general calamity, whenever it could with propriety be said, I suffer as Noah suffered; or, the calamities of Noah are renewed in me. Stephanus gives great light to this history, and supplies many de-, ficiencies. He calls the person Annacus; and like Suidas, makes him of great antiquity, even prior to the reputed æra of Deucalion. He supposes him to have lived above three hundred years; at which period, according to an oracle, all mankind were to be destroyed. This event happened by a deluge; which this author calls the deluge of Deucalion, instead of Annacus. In consequence of this unfortunate distinction between two characters, which were one and the same, he makes the aged person to be destroyed in the general calamity, and Deucalion to be saved. He takes notice of the proverb, and mentions the renewal of the world. 17 Φασι δε ότι την τις Αννακος, ὃς εζησεν ύπερ τα τριακοσια ετη τες δε περιξ μαντευσασθαι έως τινος βιωσεσθαι. Εδόθη δε χρησμος, ὅτι τετε τελευτησαντος παντες διαφθαρησονται. Οι δε Φρυγες ακέσαντες εθρηνεν σφοδρώς αφ' ε παροιμία, το επι Αννακε κλαύσειν, επι των λιαν οικτιζομενων. Γενομενε δε τε κατακλυσμε επι Δευκαλίωνος, παντες διεφθαρησαν. Αναξηραν 17 Stephan. Byzant, Ixovior. |