theus was first recorded, led thofe, who framed the Mythos of him, to say he gave Fire to his Men; but not in that low and vulgar Senfe, in which fome Writers of later Ages imagined (x). But let us fee what the Greek Writers fay of him. They tell us, that having made Men of Water and Earth, he gave them Fire, without Jupiter's Knowledge; that Jupiter for this Fact ordered Vulcan to nail him down upon Mount Caucafus, where an Eagle for many Years preyed upon his Liver, until at length Hercules delivered him (y): This is their Account of him: Let us now examine, what they could defign to intimate by it. Lucian indeed tells us, that the Athenians called the Potters, who made earthen Veffels and hardned them with Fire, Prometheus's (x); but then he owns them to be the Wits that talked thus (a), and this is indeed making a Jeft of, but not explaining the ancient Fables: The Philofophers treated these Matters in a more ferious Way (b): We have in Eufebius what one of them would have faid upon the Subject (c): Prometheus, he fays, was fabulously reported to have made Men, because being a wife Man, he reformed by his Inftructions Men, who were in a State of the (x) Nec vero Atlas fuftinere cœlum, nec Prometheus affixus Caucafo- traderetur, nifi cœleftium divina cognitio nomen eorum ad Errorem Fabulæ traduxiffet. Cic. Tufc. Difput. 1. 5. c. 3. (y) Apollod. Bibl. 1. 1. c. 7. (z) Lucian. in Prometheo. (a) They were the Jeflers upon Prometheus's Materials, the imoκώπλοντες ἐς τὸν πηλὸν, καὶ τὴν ἐν πυρὶ ἔπλεσιν. ibid. (b) Vid.. Platon. in Protag. Cic. ubi fup. (ε) Προμήθευς ὅς πλάζειν ἀνθρώπες ἐμυθάετο σεφὸς νὰ εἴ εἰς παιδείαν αυτὲς ἀπὸ ε ἄγαν ¡SINTHUS METEλaTler. Eufeb. in Can. Chronic. an. 332. H 2 groffeft groffeft Ignorance, and Plato tells us, what the Fire was, which he ftole and added to them; namely the Arts, which Vulcan and Minerva taught the People (d). Science is the Fire, the Life of Man, tho' none but God did ever form Man of the Duft of the Earth, and breathed into him the Breath of Life, fo as to cause Man to become a living Soul (e); yet, what is said of Prometheus, taking it in the Sense we have now offered, is not inelegant; tho' Fables and Similitudes are not to be too ftrictly taken; nor can inftructing Men be abfolutely said to be making and giving Life to them. And now we may fee how Prometheus offended Jupiter, and why Jupiter put a stop to him: Jupiter had appointed proper Perfons to in ftruct his Cretans, and agreeably to what was the Senfe of Joshua, who attended upon Mofes (f), he thought it politically unfafe to permit any to be their Teachers, but those who derived their Authority from him, and therefore Prometheus, who had no fuch Authority, was treated by him as a Corrupter and Seducer of the People. It is not fo eafy to fay, what the Punishment was, which Jupiter inflicted on him: What is told of the Eagle preying upon his Heart or Liver, is indeed a mere Fable, and we have Hints, that lead to the Rife of it: Herodotus remarks, that - (α) Ανθρωπος σοφίαν των πολιτικών ἐκ είχεν εἰς ὃ τὸ Αθηνᾶς καὶ Ηφαίςε οικημα τὸ κοινὸν ἐν ᾧ ἐφιλοτεχνείτην, [Προμύθευς] λαθὼν ἐσέρχεται, καὶ κλέψας τωτε ἔμπυειν τέχνην τω το Ηφαίσε, καὶ τί ἄλλην τω τῆς ̓Αθηνᾶς, δίδωσιν ανθε paw. Plat. in Protag. p. 224. (e) Gen. ii. 7. (f) Num bers xi. 28. the the Greeks had the Names of almost all their Gods out of Egypt (g), and Diodorus obferves, that there had been Men in Egypt of all the feveral Names, which the illuftrious Greeks were afterwards diftinguished by: Sol, Saturn, Rhea, Jupiter, Juno, Vulcanus, Vefta and Mercurius were Names, that had been given to famous Egyptians (b), and thus the Egyptians had their Prometheus (i), and he was one of their Kings (k): In his Time the River Nile was called the Eagle (1), and great Inundations happened in his Reign from the overflowing of the River, and the Concern he had for his Country threw him into the deepest Melancholy (m). But Hercules, an Egyptian fo called; for there were three Hercules's, and the first and most ancient was an Egyptian (n); Hercules, I fay, embanked the River, retrieved the Country, and hereby (0) relieved the King from the Grief and Concern that preyed upon him; and from what (g) Herod. 1. 2. c. 50. (b) Diod. Sic. 1. 1. p. 8. We must not understand either Herodotus to mean, that the Greeks took the Egyptians Words for the Names of their Gods, or Diodorus, that the Egyptians had called their Heroes by the Greek Names; the Fact was this, the Greeks formed Names for their Gods and Heroes of the fame Import in their Language, as the Egyptian Names were in the Egyptian, as Homo the Latin Word for Man expresses in Latin, what Adam the Hebrew Word does in Hebrew, both being of a like Analogy to the Word, which in each Language fignifies the Ground, and this is what Herodotus and Diodorus intended of the Greek and Egyptian Names; viz. that, as Diodorus expresses it, μεθερμηνευομένων αυτῶν ὁμωνύμος υπάρχειν, they were analo gous to one another. (i) Diodor. ibid. (k) Diodor. ibid.. (η-Διὰ τὰ ὀξύτητα, καὶ τω βίαν το κατενεχθέντος ῥώματος τὸν μὲν ποταμὸν ̓Αετὸν ὄνομαπται. Diodor. p. 11. (m) Tor Ο Προμηθέα, διὰ τω λύπωω κινδυνεύειν, ἐκλιπᾶν τὸν βίον Exxoias Id. ibid. (n) Diodor. 1. 3. p. 145. (0) Lib. 1. P. II. was mentioned in the Egyptian Records of this Fact, the Greek Fabulifts took occasion to say, that an Eagle preyed upon the Heart or Liver of Prometheus, until Hercules delivered him (p). And thus this Part of the Mythos was not originally intended of the Greek Prometheus; nor does it at all belong to him. However, he was bound down to Mount Caucafus: I imagine Jupiter banished him to fome uncultivated Mountain called by that Name (g), where he was obliged to confine himself to live, until after fome Years Jupiter recalled him again (r). The hints we have in the ancient Writers, are too short to enable us to pretend to give a large Account of the refpective Lives of the feveral Perfons, that engaged with Jupiter in the Scenes of Action, that made him and them confpicuous to the Age they lived in, and created them that Fame, which has come down to all Posterity: Fable has told us many Particulars of all of them; but a deal of this may be (β) Διὸ καὶ τῶν παρ' Έλλησι ποιητῶν τινὰς εἰς μῦθον ἀγαγεῖν τὸ πραχθε, ὡς Ἡρακλέος τὸν Αετὸν ἀνηρηκότος τὸν τὸ τὸ Προμηθέως παρ ἐσθίοντα. Diodor. p. 11. (9) The Mountain Caucafus is generally placed by Geographers between the Euxine and Cafpian Seas: Apollodorus calls it a Mountain of Scythia; but we cannot conceive Jupiter fhould dispatch Prometheus to fuch a Distance from Crete: Ifhould rather think some Mountain of Crete was called by this Name. As in After-ages very diftant Nations received the Names of their Deities from this Ifland, fo they might the Names of Mountains, Cities and Rivers alfo. We find, the Fable of Prometheus travelled all the World over. In Alexander's Time, Mount Caucafus, the Scene of his War, was faid to be in India. See Strabo 1. 15. p. 688. as before it had been placed in Afia. The Fable of one Age perhaps removed it from Crete into Pontus, a fill later, with as much Truth, might carry it thence into India. (r) Apollod. 1. 2. c. 4. § 11. fet fet afide, by confidering what can, and what cannot belong to the Age they lived in. I imagine they did not all fettle in Crete for their whole Lives. Apollo was a great Traveller, he vifited divers Parts of Greece, endeavouring to form all he converfed with to an orderly and focial Life (s). Whether he began his Travels before or at the Death of Jupiter, I cannot determine: He came to Athens (t), went thence to Panopaus a City of Phocis (u), where he killed Tityus, a Man of huge Stature and Strength (w), and who oppreffed and domineer'd over that Neighbourhood (x). From hence he went to Delphos, where Themis then lived (y): She was the Oracle of that Place (z), being probably a very wife Woman, capable of inftructing the common People, in many useful Arts of Life. Python governed here with Violence and Cruelty (a), and would not have had Apollo admitted amongst his People: but Apollo prevailed against him and killed him (b): Python was alfo furnamed Draco (c), and hence the Fabulous Writers might take occafion to invent what they offer to us of Apollo's killing the huge Serpent called Python (d). Apollo feems to have lived the reft of his Life chiefly at Delphos ; to have formed and inftructed the People here; (1) Καθ' όν χρόνον τὸν ̓Απόλλωνα τω γὰ ἐπιόντα ἡμερῶν τις ανθρώπες Σπό τε τῶν ἀνημέρων καρπῶν καὶ τῶν βίων. Strabo Geog. 1. 9. p. 422. (t) Id. ibid. (u) Id. ibid. (w) Apoll. (*) Τίτυον ἔχον]α τον τόπον, βίαιον άνδρα και (y) Apollod. ubi fup. Strabo (a) Id. ibid. (b) Id. ibid, (c) Strabo ubi. fup, (d) Ovid. Metamorph, Strabo p. 423. 1. 1. c. 4. H 4 and |