I. BOOK yet this was the foundation of that sort of religion which came out of Phoenicia and Egypt into Greece. For they pretend to give an account of Uranus and Cronus, or Saturn, and his sons, and of Minerva at Athens, to whom Sanchoniathon saith, Saturn gave the dominion of it; but the Greeks, as Philo Byblius complains, confounded all with their fables and allegories: but this, he saith, is the true foundation which they raised their mythology upon. C. II. It is evident, by what is said by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and others, that there were several colonies that went out of Egypt into Greece, in the times of Cecrops, Cadmus, Danaus, and Erechtheus; and it is very probable that they carried the Egyptian superstitions along with them: but the person who is pretended to have settled religion among the Greeks was Orpheus; who is said to have reduced them first from barbarism, and then to have modelled religion among them, and to have brought out of Egypt the doctrine of the immortality of the soul, and the rewards and punishments of a future state. This must therefore be more particularly inquired into. Orpheus is reported to have been a man of quality in his own country of Thrace; his father having a command over a small territory there, called Sithonia, Plin. l. iv. saith Pliny, near the mountain Rhodope, whence he had his title Rhodopeïus Orpheus. But Diodorus SiDiod. Sic. culus saith, That when he had accomplished himself at home, he went into Egypt; and from thence brought the greatest part of the Egyptian mysteries into Greece, only changing the names from Osiris and· Isis to Bacchus and Ceres; and so he did as to the state of the good and bad after death: for, saith he, The Elysian fields for the good, and the torments of Hades for the bad, were both of Egyptian original. 1. i. et iv. Euseb. Pr. c. 1. l. x. c. 8. I. I do not question but the Egyptian superstition was in CHAP. great measure the foundation of the Greek; but it is hard to determine any thing concerning Orpheus, since Aristotle, who was born in Macedonia, knew nothing of De Nat. him, as Cicero informs us, and that the verses under Deor. 1. i. his name were written by a Pythagorean: which is not at all improbable. But not only Diodorus speaks positively about him, but Strabo and Pausanias seem not at all to question him; and Diogenes Laertius mentions an epitaph upon him at Dios in Macedonia. But I lay no weight on the verses under his name; for Suidas mentions several ancient poets of that name: and it is allowed on all hands that there have been at least great additions and interpolations in the verses that bear the name of Orpheus. The Argonautics, Suidas saith, were written by one Orpheus of Crotone; one well acquainted with Pisistratus. Others say, the true author of the Orphic Poems was Onomacritus, who lived about that time; and the Descent into Hades was written by one Orpheus of Camarine, saith Suidas. The most probable opinion is that of Aristotle, that his sacred poems were written by a Pythagorean; and therefore the Platonists, Syrianus and Proclus, might well boast of the agreement of the Orphic and Pythagorean doctrines. It is no objection, that there is no such thing now to be found in Aristotle; for I think Cicero may be trusted, who saw more of Aristotle than we now have. But I confess, if Diodorus were not deceived by the Egyptian priests, their mentioning him with Pythagoras, Plato, Eudoxus, and Democritus, who were certainly in Egypt, makes it very credible that Orpheus had been there too, and carried many of the Egyptian superstitions with him: and he might the easier settle them in Greece, because, as Diodorus Siculus observes, he had a particular interest I. BOOK in the colony which Cadmus brought, and was much esteemed by them; and Cadmus himself was originally of Thebes or Diospolis; although Cadmus himself might call it after his own name, or at least the castle, which long continued it, when the city was called Thebes. But that Orpheus did not find those parts so barbarous, as to be destitute of all religion before, will apDiod. Sic. pear from the account Diodorus Siculus himself gives Live 25 of him: Καὶ τὰ περὶ τῆς θεολογίας μυθολογούμενα μαθὼν, ed. Wess. ἀπεδήμησε μὲν εἰς Αἴγυπτον, That he was very well instructed in the theology of his country before he went into Egypt. How could this be, if they were a wild and barbarous people, without any sense of God and religion, till he returned and planted it among them? It is true, he calls it a mythology; and what else were the Egyptian doctrines about Osiris and Isis, or about Bacchus and Ceres, as Orpheus changed them? But whether it were a mythology or not, he calls it a theology; such as was then known and thought to be true doctrine, and, I am apt to think, more decent and agreeable to their natural notions of religion, than the mysteries which Orpheus brought among them from the Egyptians. Some have observed, that the very name of religion among the Greeks was derived from the Thracians (Opnσkeía); and such religion they had among them before Orpheus was born, as Diodorus himself confesses. Whether Zamolxis had instructed them in religion before the time of Orpheus, we cannot determine, unless his time had been better fixed. The Greeks, who write Pythagoras's life in favour to themselves, make Zamolxis his servant; and that he went from them to instruct the Getæ, among whom he was honoured as a god. But Herodotus, who ex1. iv. c. 93. tols them as the most valiant and just of the Thracians, Herodot. ed. Wess. C. 2. 96. I. after he hath told the Greek story about Zamolxis being CHAP. servant to Pythagoras, he concludes, That he thought. him long before Pythagoras. And he saith, that the Thracians had that opinion of his doctrine, that they despised death; saying, they only went to Zamolxis. From whence it is plain, that the Thracians then believed the immortality of the soul: and Pomponius Mela saith, That belief continued among them to his Mela, l. ii. time. But whereas Diodorus Siculus affirms, that Diod. Sic. Orpheus brought all the mythology about Hades and 1. i. c. 92, the state of the dead out of Egypt, and the customs of ed. Wess, burial there. For the body was to be conveyed over the lake Acheron by Charon, where on one side were pleasant fields, and not far off the temple of Hecate, and Cocytus, and Lethe. I do not deny that Orpheus might add particular circumstances from what he had observed in Egypt; but that the whole tradition concerning a future state came from thence, is so far from being true, that the Thracians, the Getæ, and Hyperborei, had the like tradition among them, as appears by the Gothic Eddas, where we read of the judgment Edda Myof another world; and that the good shall dwell with Odin in a happy state, and the bad go to Hellen and Thiffulheim: and a large account is given of the manner of judicature in the other world, from the brass tables of the Hyperborei in the island of Delos; which arementioned in the dialogue Axiochus, in Plato's works. And however it be not genuine, it is sufficient to our purpose, that all this tradition came not out of Egypt. One would think, by the account given by Diodorus, that neither Orpheus nor the Egyptians believed any thing at all concerning a future state, but that only some ceremonies were used about burials, wherein the lives of men were inquired into, and judgment passed upon them; which the historian thinks more effectual thol. c. 3. I. Abstin. 1. i. c. 10. BOOK for reforming mankind, than the Greek or poetical fables. But that the Egyptians had a real belief of another state, appears from Diodorus himself. For if any person were accused before the solemn judicature which sat upon him, if the matter were not proved, the accuser was severely punished; if it were, the body was deprived of burial; if there were no accusation, then the person's virtues were remembered, his piety, justice, chastity, &c. and they concluded with a prayer, that he might be admitted to the blessed society of the good; and the people applauded his happiness in that respect. Porphyr. de But Porphyry, who cannot be suspected of forgery in this matter, gives a more particular account of this prayer; which he saith Euphantus translated out of the Egyptian language; and the substance of it is this. They first take out the bowels, and put them into a chest on purpose, and then lift it up towards heaven; and the person to whom it belongs makes a prayer in the name of the deceased, to the sun and all the gods, which give life to men, that they would receive him into the society of the immortal gods. For he had piously worshipped the gods his parents had taught him, as long as he lived; he had honoured those from whom he came into the world; he had not killed, nor injured or defrauded any one, nor had committed any horrible wickedness; but if he had offended in eating and drinking, it was for the sake of that which was in that chest; and so they took that, and threw it into the river, and entombed the rest of the body. By this we see a distinction is to be made between the general sense of another life, and some particular superstitions, such as those Orpheus carried into Greece; where they had a notion of another world before, as well as in Egypt for it is not reasonable to presume that the Greeks should be worse in this respect than the most |