p. 12. BOOK thirdly, that their best historians either discover or con1. fess abundance of ignorance as to the history of ancient times. First, that their first writers were poetical, and apparently fabulous. Strabo undertakes to prove that ⚫ prose is only an imitation of poetry; and so poetry must Strabo, 1. i. needs be first written. For, saith he, at first poetry only was in request; afterwards, in imitation of that, Cadmus, Pherecydes, and Hecateus writ their histories, observing all other laws of poetry but only the measures of it; but by degrees writers began to take greater liberty, and so brought it down from that lofty strain it was then in, to the form now in use: as the comic strain is nothing else but a depressing the sublimer ftyle of tragedy. This he proves, because ἄδειν did anciently signify the same with φράζειν ; for poems were only λόγοι μεμελισμένοι, lessons fit to be sung among them: thence, saith he, is the original of the Papadia, &c. for these were those poems which were sung El pády, when they held a branch of laurel in their hands, as Plutarch tells us they were wont to sing HoPlutarch. mer's Ilias; others were sung to the harp, as Hesiod's Sympos. "Epya; besides, saith Strabo, that prose is called egos Aoyos, argues that it is only a bringing down of the higher strain in use before. But however this were in general; as to the Grecians, it is evident that poetry was first in use among them; for in their elder times, when they first began to creep out of barbarism, all the philosophy and instruction they had was from their poets, and was all couched in verse; which Plutarch not only conPlutarch. firms, but particularly instanceth in Orpheus, Hesiod, Parmenides, Xenophanes, Empedocles, and Thales; and hence Horace de Arte Poetica says of the ancient poets before Homer, de Pyth. Orac. p. 402. Ed. Xyl. in Hes. -fuit hæc sapientia quondam Publica privatis secernere, sacra prophanis: Sic honor et nomen divinis vatibus atque Carminibus venit. Heins.Diss. From hence, as Heinsius observes, the poets were anciently called Aidάoxaño; and the ancient speeches of the сар. 6. philosophers, containing matters of morality, were called Ασματα καὶ ̓Αδόμενα ; of which many are mentioned in their lives by Diogenes Laertius. In the same sense were carmina anciently used among the Latins, for precepts of morality; as in that collection of them which Boxhorn. goes under the name of Cato, (which some think to be CHAP. an ancient piece, but with a false inscription; but Box- IV. hornius thinks it to be of some Christian's doing, in the decay of the Roman empire) Si Deus est animus, nobis ut Qu. Rom. carmina dicunt. Carmina, saith Heinsius, i. e. dicta phi- c. 14. losophorum; causa est, quia dicta illa brevia, quibus sententias suas de Deo deque reliquis includebant, adóμsva di cebant, i. e. carmina. μυ II. When poetry came first into request among the Grecians, is somewhat uncertain; but this is plain and evident, that the intention of it was not merely for instruction, but, as Strabo expresseth it, δημαγωγεῖν καὶ ςρατηγεῖν Tà Ann, the more gently to draw the people on to idolatry. For, as he saith, it is impossible to persuade women, and the promiscuous multitude, to religion, by mere dry reason or philosophy, ἀλλὰ δεῖ καὶ διὰ δεισιδαιμονίας, τῦτο δ ̓ ἐκ ἄνευ Sonoitas nai Tepaτelas; but for this, saith he, there is need of Strabo, 1. i. superstition, and this cannot be advanced without some fa- P. 13. bles and wonders. For, saith he, the thunderbolts, shields, tridents, serpents, spears, attributed to the Gods, are mere fables, and so is all the ancient theology; but the governors of the commonwealth made use of these things, the better to awe the silly multitude, and to bring them into better order. I cannot tell how far this might be their end, since these things were not brought in so much by the several magistrates, as by the endeavour of particular men, who thought to raise up their own esteem among the vulgar by such things, and were employed by the great deceiver of the world, as his grand instruments to advance idolatry in it. For which we are to consider, that, although there were gross ignorance, and consequently superstition enough in Greece before the poetic age of it, yet their superstitious and idolatrous worship was not so licked and brought into form, as about the time of Orpheus, from whom the poetic age commenceth, who was as great an instrument of setting up idolatry, as Apollonius was afterwards of restoring it; being both persons of the highest esteem and veneration among the heathen. Much about the same time did those live in the world who were the first great promoters of superstition and poetry; as Melampus, Musæus, Arion Methymnæus, Amphion of Thebes, and Eumolpus Thrax; none of whom were very distant from the time of Orpheus, of whom Clemens Alexandrinus thus speaks, porxhuari Clem. Al. μουσικῆς λυμηνάμενοι τὸν βίον ἐν τέχνῳ τινὶ γοητεία τὲς ἀν- Protreptic. θρώπες ἐπὶ τὰ εἴδωλα χειραγωγίαι πρώτοι. These, under a pre- P. 4. Ed. Oxon. BOOK tence of music and poetry, corrupting the lives of men, did, 1. by a kind of artificial magic, first draw them on to the practice of idolatry. For the novelty and pleasingness of music and poetry did presently insinuate itself into the minds of men, and thereby drew them to a venerable esteem both of the persons and practices of those who Phot. Bibl. were the authors of them. So Conon in Photius tells us, Cod. 186. that Orpheus was exceedingly acceptable to the people for his skill in music, which the Thracians and Macedonians were much delighted with; from which arose the fable of his drawing trees and wild beasts after him; because his music had so great an influence upon the civilizing that people, who were almost grown rude through ignorance and barbarism: and so Horace explains it, sect. 45. Horat. Ep. ad Pison. 8. Sylvestres homines sacer interpresque Deorum Dictus ob hoc lenire tigres rabidosque leones. This Orpheus by mythologists is usually called the son of Calliope; but may with better reason be called the father of the whole chorus of Muses, than the son of one of them; since Pindar calls him Πατέρα ἀοιδᾶς: and John Schol. in Tzetzes tells us he was called the son of Calliope, ws naλHesiod. p. λιλογίας ποιητικῆς εὑρετὴς καὶ ὕμνων τῶν εἰς τὸς θεὸς, as the inventor of poetical elegancy, and the sacred hymns which were Parænes. 1. made to the Gods, (which the old Romans called Assamenta;) and Justin Martyr calls him τῆς πολυθεότητος πρώ Tov didáσxanov, the first teacher of polytheism and idolatry. For this Orpheus having been in Egypt, as Pausanias, Paus. Eliac. Diodorus, and Artapanus in Eusebius, all confess, he Ed. Xyl. brought from thence most of the magical rites and superDiod. Bibl. stitious customs in use there, and set them up among the lib. i. Eus. Grecians; so Diodorus acknowledgeth in the same place; Præp. 1. ix. and it is likewise evident by what Aristophanes saith in his Βάτραχοι, III. 2. p. 383. p. 432. Aristoph. Ran. Act. iv. sc. 2. Τ Ορφεὺς μὲν γὰρ τελετάς θ ̓ ἡμῖν κατέδειξε, φόνων τ' ἀπέχεσθαι. Orpheus first instructed them in the sacred mysteries, and to abstain from slaughter: which is to be understood of the Beurial, the killing of beasts in sacrifice; which probably was in use among them before, as a remainder of ancient tradition, till Orpheus brought his Egyptian doctrine into request among them. The mysteries of Osiris, saith Diodorus, were transplanted into Greece, under the name of Dionysus or Bacchus, and Isis under Ceres or Magna Mater, and the punishment and pleasures after this life IV. Corinth. p. 140. Vide 1. from the rites of sepulture among them; Charon's waft- CHAP. ing of souls from the lake Acherusia, in Egypt, over which they were wont to send the dead bodies. Pausa- Paus. Lac. nias tells us, that the Spartans derived the worship of p. 186. Ceres Chthonia from Orpheus; and the Æginetæ the Ed. Xyl. worship of Hecate: besides which he instituted new rites and mysteries of his own, in which the initiated were Cal. Rhod. called "Oppewτeλesaì, and required a most solemn oath Ant. Lect. from all of them never to divulge them; which was after 1. XV. P. 9. observed in all those profane mysteries, which, in imitation of these, were set up among the Greeks. Strabo Strabo, l. x. thinks the mysteries of Orpheus were in imitation of the P. 324. old Cotyttian and Bendidian mysteries among the Thracians; but Herodotus, with more probability, parallels Herod. Euthem and the Dionysian with the Egyptian, from which terp. we have already seen that Orpheus derived his, who is conceived by Georgius Cedrenus, and Timotheus in Eusebius, to have lived about the time of Gideon, the judge of Israel; but there is too great confusion concerning his age, to define any thing certainly about it. Which ariseth most from the several persons going under this name; of which, besides this, were in all probability two more; the one an heroic poet, called by Suidas, Ciconæ- Suid. in us, or Arcas, who lived two ages before Homer; and he that goes under the name of Orpheus, whose hymns are still extant, but are truly ascribed to Onomacritus the Athenian, by Clemens Álexandrinus, Tatianus Assyrius, Suidas, and others, who flourished in the times of the Pisistratidæ at Athens. We are like then to have little relief for finding out of truth in the poetic age of Greece, when the main design of the learning then used was only to insinuate the belief of fables into the people, and by that to awe them into idolatry. If we come lower down to the succeeding poets, we may find fables increasing still in the times of Homer, Hesiod, and the rest; which made Eratosthenes, a person of great judgment and learning, (whence he was called alter Plato, and Пévrados, and to Bra, because he carried, if not the first, yet the second place in all kind of literature,) condemn the ancient poetry as γραώδη μυθολογίαν, α company of old wives' tales, which were invented for nothing but to please silly people, and had no real learning or truth at all in them. For this, though he be sharply censured by Strabo in his first book, who undertakes to vindicate the geography of Homer from the exceptions of Eratosthenes, yet himself cannot but confess that there is IV. BOOK a very great mixture of old fables in all their poets, which I. is, saith he, partly to delight the people, and partly to awe them. For the minds of men being always desirous of novelties, such things do hugely please the natural humours of weak people; especially if there be something in them that is Javμasov xal TepaTubes, very strange and wonderful, it increaseth the delight in hearing it; ὅπερ ἐςὶ τῷ μανθάνειν pixTpov, which draws them on to a desire of hearing more of it. And by this means, saith he, are children first brought on to learning, and all ignorant persons are kept in awe; nay, and the more learned themselves (partly for want of reason and judgment, and partly from the remainder of those impressions which these things made upon them when they were children) cannot shake off that former credulity which they had as to these things. By which discourse of Strabo, though intended wholly by him in vindication of poetic fables, it is plain and evident what great disservice hath been done to truth by them, by reason they had no other records to preserve their ancient history but these fabulous writers. And therefore supposing a mixture of truth and falsehood together, which Strabo contends for, yet what way should be taken to distinguish the true from the false, when they had no other certain records? And besides, he himself acknowledgeth how hard a matter it is even for wise men to excuss those fabulous narrations out of their minds, which were insinuated into them by all the advantages which prejudice, custom, and education, could work upon them. Granting then there may be some truth at the bottom of their fabulous narrations, Homer. Odyss. 23. v. 159. Ὣς δ ̓ ὅτε τὶς χρυσὸν περιχεύεται ἀργύρῳ ἀνὴς, which may be gilded over with some pleasant tales, as himself compares it, yet how shall those come to know that it is only gilded that never saw any pure metal, and did always believe that it was what it seemed to be? Had there been any xgiripov, or touchstone, to have differenced between the one and the other, there might have been some way for a separation of them; but there being none such, we must conclude that the fabulous narrations of poets, instead of making truth more pleasant by their fictions, have so adulterated it, that we cannot find any credibility at all in their narrations of elder times, where the truth of the story hath had no other way of conveyance but through their fictions. V. But though poets may be allowed their liberty for re |