k: Puthoi men oun ho Drakon ho Puthios threskeuetai, kai tou
Opheos he paneguris katangelletai Puthia.] It is said, moreover, that the
seventh day was appointed for a festival in the temple, and celebrated with
a Paean to the [332]serpent.

We often read of virgins, who were exposed to dragons and sea-monsters; and
of dragons which laid waste whole provinces, till they were at length, by
some person of prowess, encountered and slain. These histories relate to
women, who were immured in towers by the sea-side; and to banditti, who got
possession of these places, whence they infested the adjacent country. The
[333]author of the Chronicon Paschale supposes, that Andromeda, whom the
poets describe as chained to a rock, and exposed to a sea-monster, was in
reality confined in a temple of Neptune, a Petra of another sort. These
dragons are represented as sleepless; because, in such places there were
commonly lamps burning, and a watch maintained. In those more particularly
set apart for religious service there was a fire, which never went out.

[334]Irrestincta focis servant altaria flammas.

The dragon of Apollonius is ever watchful.

[Greek: Oude hoi emar,]
[Greek: Ou knephas hedumos hupnos anaidea damnatai osse.]

What the Poet styles the eyes of the Dragon, were undoubtedly windows in
the upper part of the building, through which the fire appeared. Plutarch
takes notice, that in the temple of Amon there was a [335]light continually
burning. The like was observable in other temples of the [336]Egyptians.
Pausanias mentions the lamp of Minerva [337]Polias at Athens, which never
went out: the same custom was kept up in most of the [338]Prutaneia. The
Chaldeans and Persians had sacred hearths; on which they preserved a
[339]perpetual fire. In the temple of [340]Apollo Carneus at Cyrene, the
fire upon the altar was never suffered to be extinguished. A like account
is given by Said Ebn Batrick of the sacred fire, which was preserved in the
great temple at [341]Aderbain in Armenia. The Nubian Geographer mentions a
nation in India, called [342]Caimachitae, who had large Puratheia, and
maintained a perpetual fire. According to the Levitical law, a constant
fire was to be kept up upon the altar of God. [343]_The fire shall be ever
burning upon the altar: it shall never go out._

From what has preceded, we may perceive, that many personages have been
formed out of places. And I cannot help suspecting much m