first king of Argos, brought this worship into Greece, one hundred and twenty years before Mofes (r). "The cow is there," fays Euftathius (S), "the fymbol of Io, or "the Moon; for, in the Argive tongue, the "Moon is called Io."-" The Greeks now call the Moon Io, in a hidden and myftical fenfe (t).” After the Grecian language had prevailed over the Egyptian, this forgotten name appeared mystical, and was only used within the temples, where they preserved the origin of ancient religions; therefore Malala calls it mystical. Attached to the obfervation of the phanomena of nature, the priests of Egypt, remarking the Moon had an immediate înfiuence on the atmosphere, wind, and rain, held her, as well as the Sun, to be the fource of the inundation, and, feeking a characteristic epithet, named her Ifis, which, in Egyptian, fignifies the caufe of abundance (u). This happened three hundred and twenty years (r) Jablonski ubi fupra. Comment. in Dionyf. Perieget. (t) Chronolog. Johannis Malalæ. (u) Jablonski, Pantheon Ægyptiacum, tom. II. after the departure of the Ifraelites, at which time they gave the Sun and Moon furnames proper to fix their discoveries, and present a new theology to the people. The origin of the Grecian fable must be attributed to this change, which makes lo cross the fea, metamorphofed into, a cow, and conducts her to Egypt, where the receives the name of Ifis. Lucian, perfectly inftructed in ancient mythology, makes Jupiter speak thus. "Conduct Io to the banks of the Nile, "across the fea; let her become Ifis, the goddess of the Egyptians, augment the " 1 "waters of the river, and let loose the "winds." The most important event of the country being the increase of the Nile, on which the existence of the nation depended, they most carefully fought its caufe. The priefts, initiated in the mysteries, that is to fay, inftructed in the natural sense of allegories with which they amufed vulgar credulity, knew all that related to the inundation, and the figns by which they might judge whether it would be more or lefs favourable. Their intimate connection with the Ethiopians had procured them most valuable information, 3 which which they kept among themselves. "The heavy rains, which fall in Summer, swell "the Nile, as Ariftotle and Eudoxus affirm, "who say they received this information " from the Egyptian priests (x)." They also knew these rains were occafioned by the north winds. "The rains of Abyffinia are "attributed to the Etefian winds, which "drive the northern clouds thither (y).” The learned were not ignorant of these merely phyfical effects; but, that they might hold the people in fubjection, they involved them in mystery, which they themselves only understood. The vulture, the fymbol of Ifis, denoted she had the power to engender, and let loose, the winds. The Nile began to increase at the new Moon after the folftice, wherefore, the priests, holding this planet to be the mother of the winds, decreed her the honour (x). "Ifis is the genius of the Nile (a). The "fiftrum fhe holds in her right hand fignified (x) Euftath. in Odyfs. IV. (y) Pliny, lib. 5. Pomp. Mela, lib. 1. (z) Eufeb. Præp. Evan. lib. 3. (a) Servius in Æneid, lib. 8. "the increase and flooding of the waters, "the vafe in her left their abundance in the "canals." Temples were erected to her, in various provinces, and she had every where altars, and priests. Euftathius, the grammarian, fays Cophtos is a city of the Thebais, where Io is adored by the name of Ifis; they celebrate the increase of the Nile with the fiftrum in these festivals. The people, according to the allegoric language of the priests, think they owe this benefit to the tears of the deity. According to Paufanius, the Egyptians were perfuaded the tears of Ifis augmented the Nile, and made it over-, flow the fields, of which fuperftition the Copts are not yet cured; they still say a dew falls at the folftice, which ferments the water of the river, and produces the flood. Is not this dew the tears of the goddefs, fo famous among their forefathers? They intended to establish an analogy between the phænomena attending the course of the Moon and thofe of the inundation. "They fay "the degrees of the elevation of the waters "answer to the phases of the Moon; that at Elephantina they rife to twenty-eight cubits, "bits, corresponding to the days of her "revolution; that at Mendes, where the in"crease is leaft, they approach seven cubits, equal to the days of the first quarter; and "that the mean point of the increase at Memphis is fourteen cubits, correfponding "to the full Moon (b)." Here we see with what attention they fought for caufes which had any relation to an event fo interefting to public felicity. Having named the Moon Ifis, or the cause of abundance, the Egyptians bestowed this epithet on the earth, as the mother of fruits. Macrobius fays, It is known that Ofiris is the Sun, and Ifis (c) the Earth. "Ifis, in the Egyptian tongue, denotes the Earth (d).” Thus confidered, fhe has great affinity with the Ceres of the Greeks. Herodotus declares her to be the fame deity (e). But, not to wander from the Egyptian theology, this denomination must not be extended to the globe in general. Plutarch, perfectly in (b) Plutarch de Ifide et Ofiride. (d) Servius in Æneid, lib. 8. formed, |