Publisher's Synopsis
This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1833 edition. Excerpt: ... THE WORSHIP OF THE SERPENT. CHAPTER III. SERPENT-WORSHIP IN EUROPE. CHAPTER III. SERPENT-WORSHIP IN EUROPE. I. Greece.--Whether the learned and ingenious Bryant1 be correct or not, in deriving the very name of Europe from 2N"")1N (aur-ab), the solar serpent, it is certain that Ophiolatreia prevailed in this quarter of the globe at the earliest period of idolatryi. Of the countries of Europe, Greece was first colonized by Ophites, but at separate times, both from Egypt and Phoenicia; and it is a question of some doubt, though perhaps of little importance, whether the leader of the first colony, the celebrated Cadmus, was a Phoenician or an Egyptian. Bochart has shown that Cadmus was the leader of the Canaanites who fled before the arms of the victorious Joshua; and Bryant has proved that he was an Egyptian, identical with Thoth. But as mere names of individuals are of no importance, when all agree that the same superstition existed contemporaneously in the two countries, and since Thoth is declared by Sanchoniathon to have been the father of the Phoenician as well as Egyptian Ophiolatreia; we may endeavour, without presumption, to reconcile the opinions of these learned authors, by assuming each to be right in his own line of argument; and by generalizing the name CadMus, instead of appropriating it to individuals. By the word Cadmus, therefore, we may understand the leader of the Cadmonites, whether of Egypt or Phoenicia. There would, consequently, be as many persons of this name, as colonies of this denomination. 1 Faber approves this derivation.--Cabiri, vol. i. 180. 'The first inhabitants of Europe are said to have been the offspring of a woman, partly of the human, and partly of the dracontic figure, a tradition which alludes to...
