Asia Minor date from a very high antiquity, but also the Ionian; according to my chronological views, as early as the middle of the second millennium B. C.

A Phoenician writer of the 13th century might, therefore, very well mention such a thing as an ancient tradition, whatever may have been the date and historical meaning of the myth.

ATHENA, i. e. ATHENAID, may probably be ANAITH with a second reduplication at the beginning; and the Egyptian NT, pronounced NE-ITH, may represent the most simple and therefore oldest form of it. But we must also notice the claims of the Arians with their ANAHID, the antiquity of which name we have pointed out in the preceding Book, in our Arian researches (p. 581.). To convert this possibility into reality will require further study. We will here merely mention the remarkable fact, that a festival in honour of Anahid, of three days' duration, is still celebrated by the Armenian Christians, as we know from the authority of Bodenstedt, who witnessed it; with this difference only, that the ancient "Festival of the Flowers" is held on the anniversary of the Transfiguration of Christ.82

82 After Bodenstedt (in his work entitled "the People of the Caucasus, and their Struggles for Freedom against the Russians," 1848, p. 151. seqq.) has related, on the authority of Cirbied, that the Armenians still celebrate every year, on Candlemas-day (Feb. 2nd), the festival of Mikr (Mithra), the primitive Fire, by lighting a fire near the church, and that traces are still extant of sun-worship (Arek, Aren, Ares), he goes on to say (p. 154.):

"The third Goddess, traces of whose worship exist to this day among the Armenians, is Anahid, the Goddess of Wisdom and Strength, to whom the people are indebted for the promotion and maintenance of their prosperity, the protectress of women, and original source of all the well-being of the earth. She had temples at Arisa, Ashdishad, Ardashad, Ani, and Pakawan. At the beginning of summer, the most brilliant and beautiful of all the Armenian religious festivals was held in honour of her, called Warthawar, 'the glorious flower-show.' On these festive days the temples and statues of the Goddess were hung with chaplets and bunches of roses, as emblems of beauty and the renovated youth of

III.

THE CIRCUMCISION OF HIS ONLY-BEGOTTEN SON, BY KRONOSEL, SUBSTITUTED FOR THE SACRIFICE OF CHILDREN.

(§ 3.)

We have already seen that the offering of the children of El, in its purely symbolical shape, was the unintellectual representation of the Man-creating God cutting off his own head. Here, however, we enter upon the domain of history, the introduction of circumcision as a substitute for the sacrifice of the only-begotten son. The act of the sacrifice of the children is a mediatorial one in the Phoenician worship. It is true that the Phoenicians did not practise circumcision, though the other Semitic races, as well as the Jews (not in the case of new-born infants, but of youths), did so from the earliest times. The unhistorical assumption of the earlier writers, that this myth is derived from the undoubtedly historical fact of Abraham, was therefore unnecessary. We may, at the same time, leave it an open question whether Abraham was the first who instituted the custom, or whether he revived an ancient pious ordinance, as a symbol of moral separation and consecration. I consider the date of Abraham to be far too modern for an old Aramæan myth to be derived from him. The insertion, indeed, of this story would have thrown an unfavourable light upon the latter; for the Phoenicians had never discontinued the abomination of sacrificing the eldest son, therefore they cannot have accepted Abraham's interpretation of God's will: but they might leave an ancient myth as they found nature. All those who take part in the ceremonies carry bunches The celebration of this beautiful feast of flowers, which, with slight alteration is continued to this day, under its original name, was, on the introduction of Christianity into Armenia, transferred to the day of our Lord's Transfiguration; and as the Warthawar in honour of Anahid lasted three days, so is the Festival of the Transfiguration always celebrated for three whole days with great pomp and solemnity."

of roses.

it, but did not understand. There is generally no proof of any influence of Abrahamitic tradition upon the mythological Semites. The religion of the spirit was confined to the house of Abraham, which quitted Asia in the fourth generation for many centuries.

IV.

THE SACRIFICE OF ANOTHER SON OF KRONOS, MUTH.

(§ 4.)

MUTH is the word for Death.83 In the previous case it was a daughter, and without doubt the Phoenician Persephone, the Queen of the Lower World. MUTH, in the masculine gender, expresses the same idea: the God become man is the mortal King of the spiritual World. He bore also another name, which, according to the results of Movers' researches, Philo interprets as Pluto.

Now it is stated that the cities of Byblus and Berytus were partitioned, the former to BAALTH-Dione, the latter to the triad of Demarûs-Poseidon, the Kabiric Esculapius, and Adonis, with the waggish remark that the "Agriculturists and Fishermen " had interred the mortal remains of Pontus at Berytus. Here, again, I have no doubt that there has been a corruption of a sacred myth; but I am unable to divine it.

Then comes the most ancient and remarkable of all really historical traditions, that about the first invention of picture-writing.

V.

DIONE (BAALTIS), GODDESS OF BYBLUS, POSEIDON, AND THE

KABIRI OF BERYTUS.

(§ 5.)

ACCORDING to this, Dione is identical with Baaltis; which gives us another of those local land-marks with

83 The Hebrew pronunciation Maveth is of later date: the ancient comes into use again in the status constructus.

out which we could never hope to find a thread for unraveling the labyrinth of Phoenician myths.

No less important is the fact we gather from it, that Poseidon, whom we have no other means of identifying, is connected with the Kabiri at Berytus.

VI.

THE INVENTION, BY TAAUT, OF THE DIVINE ALPHABET OF THE SERPENTS.

(§ 6.)

PHILO had written a special work upon the Phoenician alphabet; and we shall give, in a subsequent page, an extract from it in Eusebius. Unfortunately it treats of hardly anything but the serpents, which Philo clearly only mentions because they were connected with the form of the signs of the letters, and because the old mystics had written a vast deal of ridiculous stuff about them. Yet when we come to explain this passage, we may possibly find a key to it in connexion with the present story. We therefore postpone the details till we examine the passage itself.

VII.

EL ORIGINALLY REPRESENTED WITH FOUR EYES AND SIX

WINGS.

(§ 7.)

THIS unequivocal statement establishes the high antiquity of the representation of the kerubim with four eyes and the seraphim with six wings, emblematical of the ever active Divine power in the universe.

El had two wings on his head and four on his shoulders; two eyes before and two behind: repose and movement, opening and shutting, alternated in the never-ending play of the universe.

But he gave the separate Gods each two wings on their shoulders. It is now admitted that the practice of re

presenting the Gods with wings is most ancient, and not peculiar to the Etruscans exclusively, although it was afterwards adopted by the Greeks in particular instances only, such as those of Hermes and Eros.

VIII.

TAAUT RECEIVES EGYPT AS HIS INHERITANCE, AND THE SEVEN KABIRI RECORD IT.

(§ 8.)

THOTH (TT) and TAAUT are the same name and the same God. Phoenician tradition recorded the introduction into Egypt of the old doctrine which was compiled under Taaut. The fact of the Kabiri recording everything in obedience to the will of Taaut, which he announced to Esculapius (the Eighth), tells us, in the well-known forms, that these Seven, or rather Eight, were the oldest Gods of the religion which was transplanted to Egypt. We have already seen that the Kabiri colonized that country, that is, that the Phoenicians in very early times, taking the Kabiri with them, as they did also at a much later period, landed near Mount Kasion.

We should be driven to the same conclusion from the other authentic information we possess on the subject, even had the above traditions not existed. But we insist that the tradition must be received as historical, on account of its own peculiar subject-matter.

IX.

THABIONOS, THE EARLIEST MYSTIC.

(§ 9.)

IT is singular that the name Thabionos (Thabion's Child is merely an incorrect reading) should have been taken for that of Sankhuniathon. Philo says clearly