WITH A PORTRAIT AND SOME ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR; A VINDICATION OF THE APAMEAN MEDAL; Observations and Inquiries relating to various A COMPLETE INDEX, AND FORTY-ONE PLATES, NEATLY ENGRAVED. PRINTED FOR J. WALKER; W. J. AND J. RICHARDSON ; A NEW SYSTEM; - OR, AN ANALYSIS OF ANTIENT MYTHOLOGY. OF THE PROGRESS OF THE IONIC WORSHIP; AND OF THE IONAH-HELLENIC COLONIES. I HAVE repeatedly taken notice, that the worship of the Dove, and the circumstances of the Deluge, were very early interwoven among the various rites, and ceremonies of the eastern world. This worship, and all other memorials of that great event, were represented in hieroglyphical characters in Babylonia: and from these symbolical marks, ill under stood, was that mythology framed, which through the Greeks has been derived to us. The people, by whom these rites were kept up, were styled Seinarim, Iönim, and Dercetidae; according to the particular symbol, which they venerated and some allusions to these names will continually occur in their history, wheresoever they may have settled. The Capthorim brought these rites with them. into Palestine; where they were kept up in Gaza, Ascalon, and Azotus. They worshipped Dagon; and held the Dove in high veneration. Hence it was thought, that Semiramis was born in these parts, and nourished by pigeons. Their coast seems to have been called the coast of the Iönim for the sea, with which it was bounded, was named the Iönian sea quite to the Nile. Λεγεσι δε τινες και το απο Γάζης μέχρις Αιγυπτε πελαγος ΙΟΝΙΟΝ λεγεσθαι. Indeed Gaza was itself styled Iönah: Iwvn yaş Γαζα εκαλείτο : which name Stephanus supposes it to have received from the flight of Iö. 3 Tagaгаза εκληθη δε και ΙΩΝΗ εκ της Ιες προσπλεύσασης, και μείνασης αυτης εκεί, Εκληθη δε και Μινωα. notice of the same circumstance: 2 Eustathius takes μέχρις Αιγύπτε πέλαγος Ιονιον λεγεσθαι To ano Fagns το απο Γάζης απο της Ιες 3 Ibid. Tala. Menoïs oppidum juxta Gazam. Hieron. in ήτοι της Σελήνης" Ιω γαρ ἡ Σέληνη κατα την των Αργείων SiaλEXTOV. If the title of Ionian came from Iö, that διάλεκτον. name must have been originally Iön or Iönah: and so it will hereafter appear. What one writer terms Minoa, the other renders Eeλnvn; which is a true interpretation of 5 May, the Moon, the name of the deified person, Meen-Noah. I have mentioned, that the like terms, and worship, and allusions to the same history, prevailed at Sidon, and in Syria. The city Antioch upon the Orontes was called Iönah. 6 Ιωνη έτως εκαλείτο ἡ Αντιοχεία, ἡ επι Δαφνῃ, ἦν ῳκισαν Agyao. Who these Argeans were, that founded this city Iönah, needs not, I believe, any explanation. It was mentioned above, that Iö, among her various peregrinations, arrived at last at Gaza in Palestine, which from her was called Iönah. Under the notion of the flight of Iö, as well as of Osiris, Damater, Astarte, Rhea, Isis, Dionusus, the poets alluded to the journeying of mankind from Mount Ararat; but more particularly the retreat of the Iönim, upon their dispersion from the 5 Hence lö, or lönah, by being the representative of Meen, came to be esteemed the Moon. Ιω γαρ ή Σεληνη κατα την των ΑρYear diarexTor. Scholia in Dionys. Perieg. v. 94. Oi Agyeios μusiπως το ονομα της Σελήνης το αποκρυφον Ιω λεγεσιν, έως αρτο. Joan, Antiochenus. p. 31. See Chron. Pasch. p. 41. 6 Steph. Byzant. Ian. 7 Ibid. Taka. |