sacrifices, both to Saturn, and Pluto or Hades. This last rite is decidedly derived from paradisaical tradition, as will be shewn in the sequel. The island which floated' in the lake of Cotyle was esteemed the navel of Italy; and the heathen writers give the same designation to various other oracles. The idea seems to have originated from a misconception of the sacred term Om-phi-al, "the oracle of the god Ham," which, in process of time, came to be perverted by the Greeks into Omphalos, and by the Latins into Umbilicus.† It is said, that they were persuaded, afterwards, by Hercules, to discontinue these, and offer sacrifices without shedding of blood; the same account is mentioned as to a famous altar in the paradisaical island of Delos, and we know it was also the custom among the disciples of Pytha-. goras, who, with some others, may perhaps be termed "heathen deists," inasmuch as they rejected the idea of a propitiatory atonement (indistinct as that idea often was,) which tradition afforded them. + Bryant. Omp. vol. i. pp. 291, 307. Anal. Anc. Myth. Thus Delphi, the grove of Jupiter Ammon, Enna, the island of Calypso, and many places of a similar nature, had all of them the title of Omphalos, or Umbilicus, and were absurdly supposed by the poets to be the centre of the earth, as the navel, they thought, was in the midst of the human body. To the multitude of authorities cited by Bryant, may be added some mountains in Germany, which appear to have been an Omphalian region. See Epist. Marc. Aur. Imp. apud Justin Martyr, p. 102. To the sacred islands already mentioned, may be added those of Rhodes and Anaphe,* which were both once looked upon as having floated; and the latter of which, more especially, presents us with similar memorials. At Anaphe, most solemn rites were instituted in honour of the victorious Apollo, who had a grove, temple, and altar surrounded with shady treest (a paradise) in the centre of the island. One of its ancient names is also worthy of remark: it was called Baia,‡ like the town of the same name in Italy, from the term BAI, being the Egyptian and Phoenician title for the palm tree, which memorialized the Tree of Life. From these emblematical representations of paradise being thus frequently formed of islands, (whether they floated, or otherwise,) came the idea of the "Fortunate Islands," or "Islands *Plin. Nat. Hist. lib. ii. 87. Bochart. Canaan. P. 461. lib. i. 15. τοι δ' αγλαον Απολλωνι Αλσει ενα σκιερω τεμενος σκιόεντα τε βωμον † Τοισι δε τις Σποράδων ΒΑΙΗ απο τοφρ' εφαανθη ΒΑΙΗ νήσος, η Ανάφη κληθεῖσα πλησιον Θήρας. Phavorin. schol. Baie eadem (Anaphe) vocatur in Phavorini lexico. Ortelius. "of the Blessed," so famous in classical, and indeed all other mythology. To these blissful abodes the heathen supposed the souls of the virtuous were conveyed, and the Νησοι Μακαρων, were in fact one and the same with the Elysian fields of Egypt and Campania. Both, as has been observed before, grew out of traditions of that paradise which once existed upon earth, and to which they conceived the state of blessedness hereafter would be analogous. These Insulæ Beatæ, therefore, were always considered as the gardens in which "a god was "born," whether it was Apollo or Jove. Some supposed them to exist at Thebes, in Boeotia; where there was an inscription to the following effect: Αι δ' εισι Μακαρων Νησοι τοθιπερ τον αριστον This remarkable tradition, derived to the Boeotians from the great Thebes in Egypt, celebrated for its arkite memorials mingled with those which were relative to Paradise, no doubt, like many others, had its original source in the promise first promulgated in Eden, of the Deliverer, who was to be the Son of the Highest, and who, by his mysterious birth into this lower world, was to become the Saviour and Redeemer of mankind. The Insula Beatæ, however, were not only at Thebes, but, according to many writers, in the vast Atlantic Ocean, and even some of the British Isles were deemed worthy of this honourable distinction. Upon consulting the passages named in the note,* it will be seen what singular legends were connected with them. Pindar has alluded to the abode of the blessed, and the Naros Maxapwy, in a wonderful manner : Ισον δε νυκτεσσιν αιεί Ισα δ' εν αμέραις, αλι αν έχοντες απονέστερον Εσλοι νέμονται βιο τον ου Χθονα ταρασσον τες αλκ χερῶν Ουδε ποντιον ύδωρ, Κειναν παρα διαιταν αλ λα παρα μεν τιμίοις Θεων, οίτινες εχαι ρον ευορκίαις, Αδακρυν νέμονται Αιωνα. τοι δ' απροςορα τον οκχεοντι πονον * Hesiod. Όσοι δ' ετολμασαν ες τρις εκατέρωθι μείναντες σιν : ενθα ΜΑΚΑΡΩΝ πλεκοντι και στεφάνοις. εργ and ημα 169. Hom. Odyss. xxiv. 11 to 14. Eurip. Helen. 1693. Plut. in Q. Sertorio pp. 571, 572. Dion. Frag. Coll. a Reim. tom ii. p. 1522. Philost. Vit. Apoll. lib. v. cap. 3. Lycophron. Cassand. 1194 and 1204, and particularly the curious accounts given in the Scholia of Isaacius on the places cited from the Cassandra. Pind. Olymp. ii. obs Translali's from 24 Rinda. There, in the blissful fields of light, And gilds the cloudless day; Or tempt the dangers of the billowy main, A frail disastrous being to maintain. But in their joyous calm abodes The recompense of justice they receive, Without a tear, eternal ages live. While banished by the fates from joy and rest, Intolerable woes the impious soul infest. But they, who in their virtue strong, The third purgation can endure, And keep their minds from fraudful wrong, And guilt's contagion, pure. They, thro' the starry paths of Jove, To Saturn's Shechinah remove The Island of the Blest, where vernal airs, Sweet children of the main Purge the sweet climate from corroding cares, |