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.

MINERVA;

of whose Nativity Lucian gives an Account in his Dialogue of the Gods, where he introduces Vulcan and Jupiter speaking of it in this manner:

Vul.

Lo, I bring thee a very sharp Hatchet; What wouldst thou have us do with it?

Jup.

Cleave my Head in two presently.

Vul.

Thou shalt see whether I am such a Fool as to attempt it: Tell me seriously, what thou wouldst imploy me in.

Jup.

To cleave my Head in the middle; I am in earnest; and if thou will not obey, thou shall see how it will be taken; strike only with all thy Might, for my Head is split with Pain, and I endure the same Misery, as if I were in Labour like a Woman.

Vul.

Have a Care that we do not commit some Folly; for I cannot lay thee so easily as a Midwife.

Jup.

Strike thou only, and fear not; leave the rest to me.

Vul.

It must be so in spight of me; But who would do it? I must obey: O ye Great Gods! I do not wonder at thy having a Pain in thy Head, since thou hadst a Woman within it, and even an Amazon, with a Lance and Shield: 'Tis that which made thee so impatient.

Cicero, L. 3. de Nat. Deor. speaks of Five Mi∣nerva's: The 1st, which he says was the Mother of Apollo: The 2d brought forth by the Nile, which the Egyptian Saites worshipped. Plu∣tarch in his Treatise of Osiris, says that the Image of Minerva or Pallas was in the City of Sai, with this Inscription: 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, I am all that was, is, and is to come; and my Vail no Mortal hath hitherto uncovered. 3d, Is she that came'out armed from Jupiter's Brain. 4th, Was the Daughter of Jupiter and Corypha, the Daughter of Oceanus, who invented Chariots with Four Wheels. 5th, Was the Daughter of Pallantis, whom she killed, because he would have ravish'd her: This last they made to have Wings to her Feet, in the same manner as Mercury. Arno∣bius pursues the same Distinction: We may with certainty conclude, that the Second of these Minerva's, is the ancientest and first of any of them. Plato in his Timaeus, speaking of the City of Sai, says, that Minerva was worshipped there, and called by the Name of Neith. Syncellus in∣timates, that the Name of Queen Nitotris, which includes that of Neith, signified as much as Victorious Minerva. Plutarch speaks also of the Minerva of Sai, and says that some made no distinction between her and Isis.

The Phoenicians, according to the Relation given us by Sanchuniathon, had their Minerva also, and they made her to be the Daughter of Saturn, and attributed the Invention of Arts and Arms unto her: This is what Eusebius says of her: Saturnus liberos procreavit, Proserpinam & Minervam; ac prior quidem Virgo diem obiit; Mi∣nerva autem Mercurioque auctoribus falcem exferro hastamque conflavit. It was from the Egyptians or Phoenicians, that the Greeks borrowed their Minerva, and Cecrops was the first who taught the Athenians to worship Minerva and Jupiter, as Eusebius says. The Conveniency of Neigh∣bourhood made Minerva pass from Egypt into Lybia before Cecrops went over into Greece. He∣rodotus assures us, the Lybians made her to be the Daughter of Neptune, and the Lake Triton, tho' afterwards upon the Account of some Misun∣derstanding between her and her Father, she went to Jupiter, who adopted her for his Daugh∣ter. Pausanias assures us, the Athenians were much devoted to the Worship of the Gods, and that they were the first who gave Minerva the Name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, operaria, machinatrix. He says elsewhere, they built a Temple to Minerva, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, Machinatrix, as being the Goddess that had introduced Arts and Inventions into the World: He speaks moreover of a Statue of Minerva that fell from Heaven. He says Mi∣nerva aided Perseus in his Conflict against Gor∣gon, near the Lake Triton, for which Reason that Country was consecrated to her. Lastly, The said Author declares, the Baeotians affected to give the Name of Triton to a Brook that run near Minerva's Temple, from which she had been named Tritonia. As for Minerva, says St. Augustine, L. 18. C. 9. de Civ. Dei,

She is much more ancient than Mars or Hercules, and they said she lived in the Days of Ogyges, near unto the Lake Triton, from whence she was named Tritonia: She was the Inventress of many rare and useful Things; and Men were so much the more inclined to believe she was a Goddess, because her Original was not known;

for, as to their saying that she came out of Jupiter's Brain, 'tis rather a Poetical Fiction, or an Allegory, than Truth of History.

Minerva was worshipped by the Athenians for a Goddess, before Cecrops his Time, in whose Days Athens was founded or rebuilt: 'Tis a Name taken from Minerva, whom the Greeks called 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. An Olive-Tree happening all of a sud∣den, in a certain Place, to spring out of the Ground, and a Spring of Water in another, these Prodigies amazed the King, who presently de∣puted Persons to go to Apollo at Delphos, in or∣der to know what the same meant: The Oracle made answer, that the Olive-Tree signified Mi∣nerva, and the Water, Neptune, and that it lay upon them to chuse, according to which of the two Deities Names they should call their City; hereupon Cecrops calls all the Citizens, both Men and Women together, for the Women were wont to have Votes in their Deliberations: When the Suffrages were taken, all the Men were for Neptune, but all the Women for Miner∣va; and because they exceeded the Men by one Voice, Minerva carried it, and Athens was called according to her Name. Phornutus going about to give the Moral and Allegorical Interpretati∣on of Minerva's proceeding from Jupiter's Brain, says, That the Heathen Philosophers made her to be a Divine Emanation, which they called the Intellect of the great God, that differed no∣thing from his Wisdom, which in him is generated of his Brain, which is the principal Part of the Soul. This St. August. L. 7. C. 28. de Civ. Dei, says, was the Opinion Varro had of the Poets, that according to their Custom in obscuring Phi∣losophy with Fictions, they meant no other than the Idea or Exemplairs of Things, under the Name of Minerva.

Painters and Statuaries represented her like a beautiful Virgin, armed with a Curass, a Sword by her Side, a Helmet on her Head, adorned with Feathers, holding a Javelin in her Right Hand, and a Shield in her Left, whereon Medu∣sa's Head beset with Serpents was represented: This Shield was called Aegis, and was covered with a Goat-skin, or that of the Monster Aegi∣dis, which she killed. The first who erected Temples and offered Sacrifices to her were the Rhodians, whom she taught to make Colossus's: But because that at the very first Sacrifice they offered to her, they forgot to make use of Fire, she left them in Anger, and went to the City, which she called Athens, to whom the Athenians built a stately Temple, under the Name of 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉, wherein they set up her Statute made of Gold and Ivory by the Hands of Phydias, which was 39 Foot high: Upon her Pantoufle was gra∣ven the Fight between the Lapithae and the Cen∣taurs; upon the sides of the Shield, the Battle between the Amazons and the Athenians; and within it the Gods fighting against the Gyants. There were several Temples and Chappels e∣rected for her at Rome; whereof the most An∣cient and Famous of all was that upon Mount Aventine, of which Ovid speaks: The Olive and the Owl were under her Protection, as may be seen by the Athenian Money, on one side of which stood the Head of this Goddess armed, and on the other an Owl with these Greek Cha∣racters AOHNA, and upon the Reverse there was an Owl flying, who held a Lawrel between her Claws, as a Sign of Victory.