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.

ANIMALIA,

Animals, which are di∣vided into Terrestrial, Aquatic, Birds, amphi∣bious Creatures, and Insects. The Pagans ado∣red Beasts, and creeping things, as Deities; and the most superstitious, as well as the most an∣tient Worshippers of this kind, were the Egyp∣tians. Thus, when Caesar made himself Ma∣ster of Egypt, Lucian tellus us, That he made a magnificent Treat of many of the Egyptian Deities;

Non mandante fame, multas volucresque fe∣rasque Aegipti posuere Deos.

Ovid, Lib. V. of his Metamorphos. relates the Flight of the Gods into Egypt from the War of the Gyants, and when Typhoeus pursu'd them, they concealed themselves under the shape of divers Animals, to avoid his Fury.

Herodotus assures us, that the Egyptians were the first that made Statues, and engraved Ani∣mals in Stone: They represented Jupiter with a Rams Head, because Heracles being earnestly de∣sirous to see him, Jupiter appeared to him with a Ram's head. He says also, That Pan was one of their greatest Gods, and they represen∣ted him as a Goat, tho' they knew very well, that he was like the other Gods. Lucian declares, that the Signs of the Zodiack, and the other Constellations, were first painted by the Egyptians in the Heavens, or in the Coelestial Spheres, whose Images they would have afterwards to be upon the Earth in the same Animals, whose Nature, they affirmed, depended upon the Nature of those Constellations, and upon their Impressions on sublunary beings. It is also probable, that this Fable of the Flight of the Gods into Egypt, and their Transformation in∣to Animals, was taken from the Opinion of the Astronomers, who attributed the shape of these Creatures to the Constellations, and of the Constellations to the Gods, that is to say, to the Coelestial Intelligences.

'Tis certain that they distinguish'd the Gods from the Animals that were consecrated to 'em, and that they did not give any Honour to those Beasts, but with relation to those Gods to whom they put up their Prayers, and not to Animals. Herodotus has given us the reason, why the Egyptians gave so much Honour to the Ibis, or the Hawk; 'twas because, in the Spring, a vast number of flying Serpents came out of Arabia, to build Nests in Egypt, but were dri∣ven back by these Birds. 'Twas without doubt to the God, who had sent them these Helps, that the Egyptians intended to give Honour, by worshiping the Animals which was consecrated to him. Diodorus Siculus afferts, after Herodotus, That the Egyptians affirm'd, That they wor∣shiped those Animal which were consecrated to the Gods, in Honour to those Gods; and he assures us, that the Egyption Priests had se∣cret and mysterious Reasons for their Worship; but the People had only three Reasons for it,

of which the two former seem to be something fabulous, viz. That the Gods, at the beginning, being assaulted by a rout of wicked Men, con∣ceal'd themselves under the Form of these Ani∣mals, and ever since they had honour'd them. Secondly, That the Egyptians having been often vanquish'd by their Enemies, at length became victorious, after they set up the Figures of these Animals for their Standards. Thirdly, That all these Animals were extremely useful for the preservation of their Goods and Lives.

Plutarch tells us, That we ought to interpret all these Fables in a pious and philosophical sense, piè & philosophicè: That if the Egyptians did honour Mercury under the Name of a Dog, 'twas because of the Watchfulness of that Creature.

There was nothing so lewd as the Worship of the Goat, which they call'd Mendes; the Greeks, Pan; and the Latines, Faunus and Silva∣nus. The Sileni and Satyrs related to this. The Figures of these Deities were yet more immodest and impure than the Animals them∣selves; for they were the original, as I may say, of the Priapus of the Greeks. All these Idolaters protested nevertheless, That their in∣tention was by these Symbols, to honour the Fruitfulness of Nature, that continually pro∣duced an infinite number of Beasts, many of which are Masterpieces of the Fecundity of the divine Power.

Some think that the greatest part of these Transformations of the Egyptian Gods into A∣nimals, or the divers ways of representing 'em under the Figures of these several Animals, arose from nothing else but some Allusions of the Names to a more antient Language; for Bochartus observes, that if Isis were changed into a Swallow, as Plutarch says, 'twas because that Sis in the Hebrew. Tongue signifies a Swal∣low: If Anubis were painted with a Dog's Head, 'twas because Nobach signifies to bark: If Apis was worshipped in the shape of an Ox, 'twas because Abbir signifies an Ox: If Jupiter chang'd himself into a Ram, 'twas because El, which is the Name of God, signifies also a Ram: If Osiris, or Bacchus be changed into a Goat, 'tis because Seir signifies a Goat: If Diana be changed into a Cat, 'tis because, in the Egyp∣tian Language, Bubastis signifies a Cat, and that's the Name of Diana: Venus is chang'd in∣to a Fish, because Atergatis come near to Dag, a Fish: Lastly, Juno, or Astarte, takes the figure of a Cow, because Hastaroth signifies Herds of Oxen.

'Tis not to be doubted, but from the time of Moses, the Egyptians worshipped their Gods under the figure of Animals, since Moses him∣self answers, That the Israelites could not of∣fer a solemn Sacrifice in Egypt, lest they should expose themselves to be stoned by the Egyptians, whose Gods they must sacrifice to the true God.