certainly taken from hieroglyphics misunderstood, and badly explained.
Prometheus was worshipped by the Colchians as a Deity; and had a temple and
high place, called [313][Greek: Petra Tuphaonia], upon Mount Caucasus: and
the device upon the portal was Egyptian, an eagle over a heart. The
magnitude of these personages was taken from the extent of the temple
inclosures. The words, per tota novem cui jugera corpus Porrigitur, relate
to a garden of so many acres. There were many such inclosures, as I have
before taken notice: some of them were beautifully planted, and ornamented
with pavilions and fountains, and called Paradisi. One of this sort stood
in Syria upon the river [314]Typhon, called afterwards Orontes. Places of
this nature are alluded to under the description of the gardens of the
Hesperides, and Alcinous; and the gardens of Adonis. Such were those at
Phaneas in Palestine; and those beautiful gardens of Daphne upon the
Orontes above mentioned; and in the shady parts of Mount Libanus. Those of
Daphne are described by Strabo, who mentions, [315][Greek: Mega te kai
sunerephes alsos, diarrheomenon pegaiois hudasin; en mesoi de Asulon
temenos, kai neos Apollonoi kai Artemidos.] _There was a fine wide extended
grove, which sheltered the whole place; and which was watered with
numberless fountains. In the centre of the whole was a sanctuary and
asylum, sacred to Artemis and Apollo_. The Groves of Daphne upon the
mountains Heraei in Sicily, and the garden and temple at bottom were very
noble; and are finely described by [316]Diodorus.

I have taken notice that the word [Greek: drakon], draco, was a mistake for
Tarchon, [Greek: Tarchon]: which was sometimes expressed [Greek: Trachon];
as is observable in the Trachones at Damascus. When the Greeks understood
that in these temples people worshipped a serpent Deity, they concluded
that Trachon was a serpent: and hence came the name of Draco to be
appropriated to such an animal. For the Draco was an imaginary being,
however afterwards accepted and understood. This is manifest from Servius,
who distributes the serpentine species into three tribes; and confines the
Draco solely to temples: [317]Angues aquarum sunt, serpentes terrarum,
Dracones templorum. That the notion of such animals took its rise from the
temples of the Syrians and Egyptians, and especially from the Trachones,
[Greek: Trachones], at Damascus, seems highly probable from the accounts
above: and it may be re