A complete dictionary of the Greek and Roman antiquities explaining the obscure places in classic authors and ancient historians relating to the religion, mythology, history, geography and chronology of the ancient Greeks and Romans, their ... rites and customs, laws, polity, arts and engines of war : also an account of their navigations, arts and sciences and the inventors of them : with the lives and opinions of their philosophers / compiled originally in French ... by Monsieur Danet ; made English, with the addition of very useful mapps.

IDOLOLATRIA, IDOLOLATRAE, and IDOLA,

Idolatry, service and wor∣ship tender'd to Idols or false Gods.

Some Writers refer the beginning of Ido∣latry to Ages more remote than we do our selves. St Epiphanius ascribes the beginning of Idolatry to the time of Serug, Rehu genuit Se∣rug, caepitque inter homines Idololatria, and says, that Tharah the Son of Nachor made the first Statues, which were worshipped. Nachor ge∣nuit Tharam. Tunc simulacra ficta sunt figlino opere ex argillâ. Nachor begat Tharah: Then Statues were made of Potter's Clay.

Abraham's Ancestors were Idolaters, as Joshua says to the Israelites: Our Fathers dwels on the other side of the Flood in old time, even Tha∣rah the Father of Abraham, and the Father of Na∣chor; and they served other Gods. Idolatry was common in Chaldea, and began not long after the Deluge, and from the Chaldeans it pass'd into Egypt, where they ador'd Beasts and their Images, as Mola tells us; and Juvenal reports, that they worshipp'd the Plants of their Gar∣dens, as Leeks and Onions.

Porrum & caepe nefas violare aut rodera morsu: O sanctas Gentes, quibus haec nascuntur in hortis Numina.

Eusebius assures us, that the Phaenicians and Egyptians taught Idolatry first, and began to render divine honours to the Sun, Moon and Stars: and that having forsaken the true God, to follow shining and luminous Bo∣dies, they ador'd also reasonable Beings, which are to be preferr'd to Bodies meerly an∣imated. Wherefore the Phaenicians and Aegyp∣tians communicated to other Nations not only the worship of the Stars, but also the adoration of other Gods, which were at first but emblems of Stars under the figures of Animals, as it appears by the Constellations; then they worshipp'd the Animals them∣selves, as living symbols of the Stars; and from thence they easily came to adore Men and their Images.

Tertullian says, that there were formerly Idolaters without Idols, and that in his time there were still Temples without Idols, where false Divinities were ador'd. For it must be observ'd, that although Idolatry has preceded Idols, because Idolatry was invent∣ed before Painting and Carving; yet it was much increas'd since these Arts have been improv'd. This Father takes also notice in another place, that in Numa's time, there were neither Idols nor Temples at Rome, but only Altars made with earth and green turfs, erected for prefent occasions, as it was pra∣ctised before Moses's time, as we learn in the Scripture. Silius Italicus speaks thus of Jupi∣ter Ammon,

Inrestincta focis servant altaria flammae; Sed nulla effigies, simulacrave nota Deorum, Majestate locum & sacro implevere timore.

By which he means, that the Temple of Jupiter Ammon was without Idols, and conse∣quently

more venerable, because the eternal fire represented better the Divinity than any other Image whatsoever.

Clemens Alexandrinus, a Greek Author, says the same thing concerning unform'd matter; that was ador'd, before the art of perfect re∣presentations was found out, which led Men into a new abyss of Errors, and that that kind of worship is an adoration of Art and Mat∣ter, not of Gods or Devils; and tells us, that according to Berosus's opinion, Artax∣erxes the Son of Darius, Ochus's Son, was the first who propos'd the Image of Ve∣nus to be ador'd. Epiphanius assures us, that painted Images were invented before Statues, and that Thara the Son of Nachor ordered first the worship of Statues.

Sanchuniaathon repores, that the first Statues of stone that were ador'd, were but unpolish∣ed and unformed, which he calls Baetylia. 'Tis very like that this word come from Be∣thel, which is the name given by Jacob, to the stone whereupon he laid his head during night, and erected it the next morning in the form of a Statue, and consecrated it to God, by pouting Oyl or some rich perfume upon it, in remembrance of the mysterious Ladder he had seen in that place, and this action of Jacob was afterwards imitated. Therefore 'tis no wonder, that the first Sta∣tues of Idolaters were but Pillars or Stones without form. Pausanias speaks of Statues of Hercules and Cupid, which were but unpolish∣ed Stones: And Clemins Alexandrinus tells us, that before carving was found out, Idols were but Columns: Antequum statuae esseut affabre formatae, veteres erexerunt columnas eas∣que colebant ut Dei simulacra. And still after Carving was brought to perfection, the old Statues made of rough stone were yet ador'd. The God Heliogabalus, who very likely was the Sun, was nothing else but a great round stone, broad below and ending in a Cone, as Herodian tells us, in the description he has gi∣ven thereof, Lapis est maximus, ab imo rotundus, & sensius fastigiatus.

The worship of Idols is very ancient, at least in the East. The Precepts of the Deca∣logue, which forbids Idols is an argument thereof.

But if we come out of Phaenicia, Syria and Egypt, we shall find a great number of Na∣tions who had no Idols. Herodotus reports, that the Persians had neither Temples, nor Altars, nor Idols, and that they rallied the Greeks, who chose Men for their Gods. This Historian relates somewhere else, that in the famous Temple of Bell at Babylon, there was two distinct Chappels; one below, wherein a great Golden Statue of Jupiter was erected, and in the highest part of the Tower, but without any Statue, but only a Bed and a golden Table, and here (as the Priests af∣firmed) this God came down by night. Herc∣dotus says again, that he heard in Egypt, that the Egyptians were the first who erected Al∣tars and Statues to the Gods, and made re∣presentations of Animals in stones. And if Idols were first set up in Egypt, Phaenicia and Syria, the reason thereof is, that Carving and other like Arts, were first invented and im∣proved in those Countries.

This same Historian in another place, gi∣ving an account of what he had learn'd of the Egyptian Priests, says after them, that du∣ring ten thousand three hundred and forty years, no God had been represented by any shape of a Man, even without excepting the Kings of Egypt. And this shews us, that Men pass'd from the worship of the true God, to that of the Stars and Nature, as seeming to be his most perfect Images, then they came to worship Animals as emblems of the Stars; and when Carving was found our, they substituted the figures of Animals in∣stead of the Animals themselves; but came to the worship of Men and Images thereof but very lately.

In fine, Herodotus-speaking of the Scythians Religion, having mentioned the Earth, Jupi∣ter, Venus, Apollo, Mars, he tell us, that this worship was perform'd without either Al∣tars, or Temples, or Statues, only they erected a kind of a Statue to Mars, which was only a Sword of Steel. And the Scythi∣ans had only an Idol of Mars, but none of other Gods; because the Idol of Mars was but a Sword, and this warlike Nation was not ignorant of the art of making Swords; but being Barbarians, they had no skill to carve true Statues. Justin affirms, that Antiquity ador'd Spears instead of Statues, and that in remembrance of that practice, the Gods were always represented in their Statues with Spears.

But if the Scythians represented Mars by a Sword, the other Nations represented com∣monly their Gods by Stones. Pausanias re∣ports, that in a place of Greece, near a Statue of Mercury, there was thirty square stones, called by the name of several Gods. Then this Another tells us, that formerly all the whole Nation of Greeks, used unpolished Stone instead of Statues to represent their Gods; for the art of melting Metals came very late to the Greeks and other remote Na∣tions. Wherefore at first they used Stones without form for Idols, then they polished Stones, and made Figures of them; at last the art of melting Metals was found out, and then they made Statues thereof.

In short, we learn of this Author, that the Inhabitants of Chaeronea had a very particular veneration for a Scepter or Spear that Vulcan had forg'd for Jupiter, as it is reported by Homer.

Straba tells us, that Moses blamed the cu∣stom of the Egyptians, who represented their Gods by the figures of Beasts, and condemned the Greeks, who ascrib'd them the figure of Men; shewing that the Divine Nature can't be represented by corporal Images, but that they should build him a Temple without Idols.

The Author of the Dea Syria says plain∣ly, that the ancient Temples of the E∣gyptians had no Statues, that the first Statues were of their invention, and that they had communicated all this superstitions policy to the Syrians and the Greeks. He adds still, that it was not allowed to make any Statue either of the Son or the Moon, because they may always be seen in the brightness of their own light.

Plutarch assures us, that Numa settled Religi∣on at Rome upon the same Maxims, that were afterwards put forth by Pythagoras, viz. that God was invisible and immaterial, that it was impossible to represent him by any Image: and for that reason, the Temples of the City of Rome were one hundred and therescore years and more without any Sta∣tues.

Varro the most learned of the Romans tells us, that the ancient Romans ador'd the Gods near two hundred years, without making any Images to them: And if this, says he, was still observ'd, the Service of the Gods would be more pure; and brings the exam∣ple of the Jews, and says, that those who first taught Men to represent the Gods by Images, have taken away reverence, and increased error, fancying that it was easie to be incli∣ned to despise the Gods, by the consideration of the impotency of their Statues.