ve been a feminine Deity; and
represented under the symbol of a beautiful female countenance surrounded
with serpents. The author of the Orphic Poetry makes Metis the origin of
all [687]things: which Proclus expresses [688][Greek: ten demiourgiken
aitian]: and supposes this personage to be the same as Phanes, and
Dionusus, from whom all things proceeded. By Timotheus Chronographus, in
his account of the creation, this divinity was described as that vivifying
light, which first broke forth upon the infant world, and produced life and
motion. His notion is said to have been borrowed from Orpheus: [Greek:
Ephrase de (ho] [689] [Greek: Orpheus) hoti to phos rhexan ton aithera
ephotise pasan ten ktisin; eipon, ekeino einai to phos to rhexan ton
aithera to proeiremenon, to hupertaton panton, hou onoma ho autos Orpheus
akousas ek Manteias exeipe METIS, hoper hermeneuetai BOULE, PHOS, ZOODOTER.
Eipen en tei autou ekthesei tautas tas treis theias ton onomaton dunameis
mian einai dunamin, kai hen kratos touton Theon, hon oudeis horai.] The
account is remarkable. Hippa was another Goddess, of the like antiquity,
and equally obsolete. Some traces however are to be still found in the
Orphic verses above-mentioned, by which we may discover her original
character and department. She is there represented as the nurse of
[690]Dionusus, and seems to have been the same as Cybele, who was
worshipped in the mountains of [691]Phrygia, and by the Lydians upon
Tmolus. She is said to have been the soul of the [692]world: and the person
who received and fostered Dionusus, when he came from the thigh of his
father. This history relates to his second birth, when he returned to a
second state of childhood. Dionusus was the chief God of the Gentile world,
and worshipped under various titles; which at length came to be looked upon
as different Deities. Most of these secondary Divinities had the title of
Hippius, and Hippia: and as they had female attendants in their temples,
these too had the name of Hippai. What may have been the original of the
term Hippa, and Hippus, will be matter of future disquisition. Thus much is
certain, that the Greeks, who were but little acquainted with the purport
of their antient theology, uniformly referred it to [693]horses. Hence it
was often prefixed to the names of Gods, and of Goddesses, when it had no
relation to their department; and seemed inconsistent with their character.
We have not only an account of [Greek: A