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.

SILENUS,

a Phrygian living in the Reign of Midas, who, as Tertuliian says, gave him his great Ears: Silenum Phrygem, cui a pastoribus per∣ducto, ingentes aures suas tradidit: It's also likely he might have been one of the Princes of Caria,

who was famous for his Wisdom and Learning: Diodorus Siculus speaks of him in this manner: Primum enim omnium Nysae aiunt imperasse Sile∣num, cujus genus ignoratur ob temporis longinqui∣tatem: The Fable of Midas his lending him his long Ears only denoted the great Knowledge he had in all Things, Cicero in his Quaestiones Tuscu∣lanae, says, that Midas having seized upon the Person of Silenus, he paid his Ransom, and bought his Liberty with this excellent Sentence;

That it was best not to be born, but the second Degree of Happiness to die betimes.

And now we may believe, that the Drunkenness in which Midas surprized Silenus, was a mysterious Drun∣kenness of superabounding Wisdom: So Bochart following the Steps of Justin Martyr, thinks, that the Name and Fable of Silenus, imported the Prophecy of Jacob under a Disguise, when he promised the Messias to Judah. Bochart will have the Name of Silenus to come from Silo, which is the Messias Name in the said Prophesy: And whereas Diodorus Siculus makes Silenus to be the Director of Bacchus his Studies and his Guide, this is because the Doctrine of the Messias in the same Prophecy ought to be admired and attend∣ed to by all Nations; again, the Poets making Silenus to ride upon an Ass, to be tied to Bac∣chus, with their seeming to drown him in Wine tend only to express these Words of the Prophe∣cy concerning the Messias; Ligans ad vinam pul∣lum suum, & ad vitem asinam suam. Lavabit in vino stolam suam, & in sanguine uvae pallium suum. pulchriores sunt oculi ejus vino. Diodorus Siculus made Silenus to be Bacchus his Master, in respect to the Whole of his Education and Exercises: Virgil makes Silenus make a very serious and learned Discourse concerning the Creation of the World, when he was scarce recovered out of his Drunkenness. Pausanias says, they shew'd the Stone in Attica where Silenus rested, when he accompanied Bacchus thither; that in short, they gave Silenus his Name to all the Satyrs when they began to grow a little-old. They used to represent Silenus with a bald Pate, large Forehead, and flat Nose, which denoted the Physiognomy of a Man given to Wine and in∣solent, as Silenus was said to be: He was also known by a Pot which he carried in one Hand, and a Basket of Fruits in the other. Pausanias says, Silenus had Temples built him, wherein Drunkenness presented him with a Cup full of Wine.