APPENDIX. No. I. ON THE DISCOVERY, BY COLONEL CAPPER, OF THE EXISTENCE OF ANTIENT PAGAN SUPERSTITIONS IN MOUNT LIBANUS, PARTICULARLY THOSE WHICH RELATE TO THE WORSHIP OF venus. THE superstition discovered by Colonel CAPPER can be considered as nothing less than the expiring embers of those holocausts which once blazed in honour of Sidonian Astarté1. The Venus of Libanus was called Asthoreth, from the (1) Astarte, Astaroth, Ashtaroth, Asthoreth, ASTARA, (See the Inscriptions communicated to Part I. of these Travels, by CHARLES KELSALL, Esq. from the Cimmerian Bosporus, p. 402. Second Edition.) AESTAR, (whence our word AESTER: See chap. X. p. 317. Note 2, of the former Volume: also GALE's Court of the Gentiles, B. ii. c. 2.) Nothing tends more to elucidate and simplify Heathen mythology, than the constantly bearing in recollection the identity of all those Pagan idols which were distinguished by these several names; (to which may be added the other less similar appellations of the same Phænician Goddess;) viz. Atergatis, Juno, Isis, Hecate, Proserpine, Ceres, Diana, Europa, (Cicer. de Natur. Deor. lib. iii.) Venus, Urania, Dercetis, (Ovid. Metam. lib. iv.) and Luna. The Arabians called her Alilat, and still preserve their Aliluia. Among the Chaldeans she was called Militta. number of sacrifices offered to her. Eusebius mentions this situation of her temple: it was built in the most secluded solitude of that mountain'. Constantine overthrew the temple, and, according to Augustine, abolished its detestable rites; but these, however, have in some measure survived, and remain at the present day among those wretched superstitions which degrade a multitude of human beings, to whom the Holy Scriptures have been hitherto denied. However impious and abominable these superstitions at last became, they were, in their origin, of a purer nature; having resulted solely from the veneration paid by a grateful people to those luminaries of heaven, whence they supposed all their blessing to be derived. Before the coming of the Jews into the Promised Land, it is evident, from Scripture, that the worship of the Moon' was cultivated by the original inhabitants (1) Eusebius de Laudib. Constant. Orat. et de Præp. lib. iv. cap. 7. (2) Augustin. de Civitate Dei. lib. iv. cap. 10. (3) It was from the Phanicians and Canaanites that the Israelites learned this worship. "The children gather wood, and the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead their dough, to make cakes to the Queen of Heaven." (Jerem. vii. 8.) The Canaanites and Phonicians called the moon Ashteroth, Astarté, Baaltis. Lucian expressly says, that Astarté, that is to say, the Venus of Libanus, or Queen of Heaven, was the moon; and Herodotus (lib. 5.) calls Astarté, 'Aorgoágxn; as it is said by Herodian that the Carthaginians did, who affirmed her to of the country; and there cannot be pointed out a truth connected with their history more capable of demonstration, than that the DEA SYRIA Who obtained, by her ten thousand appellations, the epithet of Myrionymus, with all the fabulous history of her favourite Adonis, or the Earth, was, under all its modifications, but so many testimonies of this antient worship'. The numerous instances of popular Pagan superstitions retained in the Greek and Roman churches have been often before noticed; these were made subservient to the propagation of a more enlightened system of faith and as, in our reformed religion, a part of the Liturgy of the Roman Church has been preserved, so it may be said that certain of the external forms, and even of the prayers, in use among the This deity was worshipped by the to be the same with the moon. Philistines in the shape of a fish. in Phœnicia; the upper part resembling a woman; the lower, a fish. And to this Horace has been supposed to allude, in the following line: "Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè." (4) Macrob. Saturn. lib.i. cap. 21. (5) See particularly the Harpocrates of Cuper, (p. 108. Utrecht, 1687,) and the figure of Isis, as engraved by him. (6) The Ghospody Pomilui of the Russians, and Lord have mercy upon us!" as it stands in our Liturgy, was a part of the Pagan Litany. (See Young's Diss. &c. Vol. II. p.7. Lond. 1734.) Vossius says, that Kuge incov was an usual form of prayer among the Gentiles as well as Jews, Heathens, are still retained. A Roman-catholic, however, who prostrates himself before à wooden crucifix, or a member of the Greek Church making the sign of the cross, will not readily admit that the figure of a cross was used, as a symbol of resurrection from the dead, long before the sufferings of our SAVIOUR. Like Albericus examining the writings of Abelard', either of them reading such an assertion would deem it pregnant with the most noxious heresy; and yet, exactly after the manner in which Abelard refuted the charge of Albericus, we have only to open a volume of one of their own Fathers, to prove that this is indisputably true3. Jews. So Arrian (Epict. lib. ii. c. 7.) Toy iòv iwixaλoúμevos dióμeta mur Kúgu iλśnoos "Culling upon God, we pray, Lord have mercy upon us!" (1) See that most entertaining History of the Lives of Abelard and Heloise, as compiled from original documents, by the Rev. Joseph Berrington, printed at Birmingham in 1787. The passage alluded to is in page 136, and contains a salutary lesson for bigots of every sect and denomination. Mr. Berrington's Work perhaps comprises the most able survey extant, and certainly the most amusing, of the state of literature in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. (2) See Berrington's Hist. of the Lives of Abelard and Heloise, p. 137. (3) Socrates Scholasticus, lib. v. cap. 17. Camb. 1720.-See “Greek Marbles," p. 78. The learned author of "An Historical Dissertation on Idolatrous Corruptions," (Vol. II. p. 58, Nole. Lond. 1734) says, The Cross in Egyptian Hieroglyphics denoted Life Eternal; and that upon The enemies of Christianity long ago endeavoured to vilify and blaspheme its rites, by pointing out a resemblance between the history of our SAVIOUR's death and resurrection, and the annual lamentations for Adonis, followed by the joy expressed for his supposed resuscitation*. But the fable of Adonis, although afterwards the foundation of detestable and degrading superstition, originally typified nothing more than the vicissitudes of winter and summer',-the seeming death and revival of Nature; whence a doubtful hope was occasionally excited of the soul's existence in a future state. This expectation so naturally results from the contemplation of such phænomena, that traces of it may be discerned among the most barbarous nations". Some glimmering, therefore, of a brighter light, which was afterwards fully manifested in the upon this extraordinary coincidence between a Pagan symbol and the instrument of our SAVIOUR's death, many of the Gentiles were converted to Christianity. See Ruffinus, lib. ii. c. 29. Sozomen. Hist. Eccles. lib. vii. c. 15. (4) Julius Firmicus de Errore Profan. Relig. &c. (5) Macrob. Saturn. lib. i. cap. 21. L. Bat. 1670. (6) Beattie enables his Minstrel to derive a hope of the soul's immortality, from observing the vicissitude of the Seasons : 66 Shall I be left abandon'd in the dust, When Fate, relenting, lets the flower revive?" Minst. xxvii. p. 16. Edin. 1807. |