Jocafta. Are then my Blessings turn'd into a Curse? Thought Me his Bleffing! be thou like my Laïus. Qedipus. What yet again! the third time haft thou curs'd Me: Mr. Dryden. Which Verfes I have here tranfcrib'd, because they fully reprefent the antient Custom of catching Ominous Expreffions. There are other remarkable Examples in Cicero (a). Some Words and Proper Names imported Succefs, answerably to their Natural Signification: Leotychides being defired by a Samian to wage War against the Perfians, enquired his Name; the Samian reply'd that it was Hynse, i. e. the Leader of an Army. Then Leatychides anfwer'd Hynoised to sexual oiavov, I embrace the Omen of Hegefiftratus (b); Seda olavov, amongst the Greeks importing the fame with arripere Omen amongst the Latins, which fignifies the accepting of an Omen, and applying it to the Bufinefs in hand: For it was thought to lie very much in the Power of the Hearer, whether he would receive the Omen, or not. Oftentorum vires in eorum erant poteftate quibus oftendebantur, faith Pliny: The Force and Efficacy of Omens depended upon the Perfons to whom they appear'd. For if the Omen was immediately taken by the Hearer, or ftruck upon his Imagination, it was efficacious; but if neglected, or not taken notice of, it was of no Force. Hence it is obferved, that Julius Cafar, who paid no Deference to thofe Predictions, was never deterr'd by them from any Undertaking, whereas Auguftus frequently defifted from his Designs on this Account (c). Virgil introduces Eneas, catching Afcanius's Words from his Mouth; for the Harpyes, and Anchifes also, having foretold that the Trojans fhould be forc'd to gnaw their very Tables for want of other Frovifions. (d) Sed non ante datam cingetis manibus Urbem, With Walls the City fhall not bulwark'd be, H. H. After this they landed in Italy; and happening to dine upon the Grafs, inftead of Tables, or Trenchers, which their prefent Circumftances did not afford, they laid their Meat upon pieces of Bread, which afterwards they eat up; whereupon (e) Heus! etiam menfas confumimus, inquit Iülus. (a) Lib. I. de Divinat. (b) Herodotus Euterpes cap. XC. (c) Conf. Salisberienfis, Lib. II. cap. I. (d) Æneid. III. v. 255. (e) Eneid. VII. V. 116. See See, fays Iiilus, we our Tables eat. Eneas prefently caught the Omen, as the Poet fubjoyns, -ea vox audita laborum Prima tulit finem; primamque loquentis ab ore The lucky Sound no fooner reach'd their Ears, H. H. This Custom of catching Omens was very antient, and deriv'd from the Eastern Countries: That it was practis'd by the Jews, is by fome inferr'd from the Story of Jonathan, the Son of King Saul, who going to encounter a Philiftine Garifon, thus fpoke to his Armour-bearer (a): If they fay unto us, Tarry until we come unto you; then we will fand fill in our Place, and will not go up unto them. But if they fay thus, Come up unto us; then we will go up for the Lord hath deliver'd them into our Hand, and this fhall be a Sign unto us. EU For Good Luck's fake, whenever they apply'd themfelves to any fe rious Bufinefs, they began with fuch a Preface as this, Oeds, eds, or Es do, or, "Esai w eu, "Esau ajan rum, like to Perfius's Hoc bene fit and that Saying of the Romans, Quod bonum, felix, fortunatumque fit. And all their Works and Speeches were begun in the Name of fome God; whence Aratus, Εκ Διός αρχώμεθα Let us with Jove begin. Which Theocritus has borrow'd from him in his feventeenth Eclogue, and Virgil in his third. (b) Xenophon gives the Reafon of this Practice, viz. That things undertaken in the Name of the Gods, were like to have the most profperous Events. 1 It will not be improper to add in this Place, that certain Times alfo were Ominous, fome Days being accounted Fortunate, and Caufes of Succefs; others Unfortunate, and Caufes of the Mifcarriage of Things undertaken upon them, as Hefied in his Days obferves, Αλλοτε μητρυὴ πέλει ἡμέρα, ἄλλοτε μήτηρ. Some Days, like Step-Dames, adverse prove, (a) I Sam. XIV. 9, 10. (b) Lib. de Ration. redit. H. H. Some Some Days were proper for one bufinefs, others for another, and fome for none at all, as that Author relates in the fore-mention'd Poem; where he runs thro' all the Days of the Month, declaring the Vertue and Efficacy of them. Thus to obferve Days was term'd aidat Ta's nucas. This Practice was common in other Nations, and parti cularly at Rome. Auguftus Cæfar never went abroad upon the day following the Nundina, nor began any ferious Undertaking on the None, and this he did on no other Account, as he affirm'd in one of his Letters to Tiberius, than to avoid duoenu'av Ominis, the unlucky Omen, which attended things begun on those Days, as we find in Suetonius (a). And it was a general Opinion among the Romans, the next days after the Nona, Idus, or Kalenda, were unfortunate; as appears both from the antient Grammarians, and from Livy, Ovid, and Plutarch. The like Obfervation of Days was practis'd by many Chriftians, when they had lately been converted from Heathenifm, and hath been remark'd by St. Ambrofe, in his Comment on that Paffage of St. Paul, where he reproves the Galatians, for obferving Days, and Months, and Times, and Tears (b). The way to avert an Omen, was either to throw a Stone at the Thing, or to kill it out-right, if it was an ominous Animal, and so the Evil portended by it, might fall upon its one Head: If it was an unlucky Speech, to retort to it upon the Speaker with an ei's xepal ool, Tibi in caput redeat, i. e. Let it fall upon thy own Head: Which perhaps is an Expreffion borrow'd from the leggono, who when they efpy'd any thing in the Victim, that feem'd to portend any Misfortune to themfelves, or their Country, ufed to pray, that it might eis xxalw TaÚTLW TEжDa, be turned upon the Victim's Head. The like Expreffions are fometimes made ufe of in Holy Scripture, as in the fif teenth Verfe of Obadiah's Prophecy, Τὸ ἀνταπόδομα σε ανταποδοθήσεται eis xequλйv 1: Or, as our English Tranflators have render'd it, Thy Reward fhall return upon thine own Head. And again, in the third Chapter of Kings (c) Καὶ ἀνταπέδωκε ΚύριΘ τίω κακίαν σε εἰς κεφαλίω σε, in English thus, And the Lord hath returned thy wickedness upon thine own Head. (d) Herodotus reports, that it was an Ægyptian Custom, from which its probable the Grecians derived theirs: "They curfe (faith he) the Head of the Victim in this manner, that if any Misfortune impend"ed over themselves, or the Country of Egypt, it might be turned up* on that Head." Inftead of thefe Imprecations, fometimes they us'd to fay, Eis dzabór μos, or My évoto, Dii meliora, i. e. God forbid. It was cuftomary to fpit three times into their Bofoms, at the fight of a Mad man, or one troubled with an Epilepsy; of which Custom Thes critus hath taken Notice (e). - τεὶς εἰς τὸν ἔπεσε κόλπον. Into his Bofom thrice he fpit. This they did in Defiance, as it were, of the Omen; for Spitting being a Sign of the greateft Contempt and Averfation: Whence lue, i. e. (a) Augufti, cap. XCII. (d) Euterpe cap. XXXIX. (e) Idylì. XX. ver. 11. (b) Galat. IV. 10. (c) Lib. III. ver. 44 to to fpit, is put for καταφρονεῖν, ἐν ἐδενὶ λογίζειν, i. e. to contemn, as the Scholiaft of Sophocles obferves upon thefe Words in Antigone (a). Αλλὰ πλύσεις ὡσεὶ θυσί Spit on him, as an Enemy. Sometimes they pray'd that the ominous Thing might in ultimas terras deportari, be carried away to the fartheft part of the World; or in mare deferri, be caft into the Sea. This laft was done to certain monftrous Birds, particularly to Hermaphrodites, which were accounted Prodigia. Hence that faying of Tibullus : Prodigia indomitis merge fub aquoribus. Sometimes the Thing was burn'd with ligna infelicia, that is, fuch fort of Wood as was in tutela inferum Deorum, avertentiumq; facred to the Gods of Hell, and thole which averted evil Omens (6), being chiefly Thorns, and fuch other Trees which were fit for no other Use than to be burn'd. Sometimes the Prodigy, when burnt, was caft into the Water, and particularly into the Sea, if it was not too far diftant. The feveral Circumstances of this Custom, Theocritus has thus defcribed (c), where he speaks of the Serpents which affaulted Hercules in his Cradle. Αλλά, γύναι, πως μας τοι ὑπὸ σποδῷ ἔυ]υκον ἔσω, af Laftly, Upon the Meeting an unlucky Omen, they often defifted from what they were doing, and began it a-fresh, as appears from Euripides, in whom a Perfon, upon the Hearing of an ominous Word, immedi ately threw his Cup upon the Ground, and call'd for another (d): Οἰωνὸν ἔθετο κακόλασ ̓ ἄλλον νέον Κρατηρό πληρῶν τὰς ἢ πρὶν σπονδας Θεῖ (α) Verf. 666. (b) Macrobius Saturnal, lib, ΙΙΙ, cap. ΧΧ. (c) Idyll. XXIV. Verf. 86. (d) Jon. v. 1191. CHAP. CHA P. XVIII. Of Magick, and Incantations. ESIDES the Methods of foretelling future Events already men Btioned, and that Divination which is commonly called Physical, because it makes Predictions without any Supernatural Assistance, by the mere Knowledge of Phyfical, or Natural Caufes; there are feveral others, most of which are comprehended under the Names of Mariae, and Edai, i. e. Magick and Incantations; between which, tho fome make a nice Diftinction, yet they bear a near Relation to each other, and therefore I fhall treat of them conjunctly in this Place. And tho fome of the Species of thefe Divinations might be invented in later Ages, and never practifed in old Greece, whofe Customs alone it is my chief Defign to describe, not meddling with those Innovations that were introduc'd in later Times, after the Grecians were fubjected to the Roman Empire; yet fince it is very difficult to determine exactly of all, which were truly Antient, and which were truly Modern; fince alfo there is frequent mention of them in Writers of the middle Ages, especially those that lived towards the Declination of the Roman Greatness, I fhall beg the Reader's Leave to give a brief Account of the moft remarkable of them: For to enumerate all, would be an endless, as well as unreasonable Undertaking; and a great many of them (fuch as those wherein the Incubi and Succubi were concern'd) contain in them too much of Profanenefs and Horror, to be entertained by any civilized Ear. Magical Arts are faid by the Grecians to have been invented in Perfia, where at the first they were had in great Honour and Reputation; for the Mao were thofe that apply'd themselves to the Study of Philofophy, and the strict Search after the most curious Works and My. fteries of Nature: They were ufually chofen to fuperintend the Divine Worship, and all Religious Rites and Ceremonies, they continually attended upon the Kings, to advise them in all Affairs of Moment, and were preferred to the highest Honours, and Places of the greatest Truft. But afterwards the Cafe was altered; for when they left off the Contemplation of Nature, and betook themfelves to the Invocation of D& mons, and other mean Arts, their former Credit and Esteem was very much diminished. This Art is faid to have been introduced among the Grecians by Ge thanes, who came into Greece with Xerxes, and difperfed the Rudiments of it wherever he had Opportunity. It was afterwards much improved, and brought to fome Perfection by Democritus, who is said to have learned it out of the Writings of certain Phoenicians. But I fhall not trouble you with any more Stories concerning its Original, or Progrefs, it being more pertinent to my Defign, to give you a fhort Ac count of the various Species thereof. First then, Nexguavría, was a Divination, in which Answers were given by deceased Perfons. It was fometimes performed by the Magi cal ufe of a Bone, or Vein of a dead Body, especially by the Theffali ans: |