sulted
by Cyrus, the Persian. That the Babylonians had a great veneration for a
temple named Orphi, I make no doubt: but it certainly could not be the
temple at Lesbos. During the Babylonish empire, Greece, and its islands,
were scarcely known to people of that country. And when the Persians
succeeded, it is not credible, that they should apply to an oracle at
Lesbos, or to an oracle of Greece. They were too refined in their religious
notions to make any such application. It is notorious, that, when Cambyses,
and Ochus, invaded Egypt, and when Xerxes made his inroad into Greece, they
burnt and ruined the temples in each nation, out of abomination to the
worship. It was another place of this name, an oracle of their own, to
which the Babylonians, and Persians, applied. For it cannot be supposed, in
the times spoken of, that they had a correspondence with the western world.
It was Ur, in Chaldea, the seat of the antient Magi, which was styled
Urphi, and Orphi, on account of its being the seat of an oracle. That there
was such a temple is plain from Stephanus Byzantinus, who tells us,
[1052][Greek: Manteion echein autous (Chaldaious) para barbarois, hos
Delphoi par' Hellesi.] _The Chaldeans had an oracle as famous among the
people of those parts, as Delphi was among the Grecians_. This temple was
undoubtedly styled Urphi. I do not mean, that this was necessarily a proper
name; but an appellative, by which oracular places were in general
distinguished. The city Edessa in Mesopotamia seems likewise to have had
the name of Urphi, which was given on account of the like rites, and
worship. That it was so named, we may fairly presume from its being by the
natives called [1053]Urpha, at this day. It was the former temple, to which
the Babylonians, and Persians had recourse: and it was from the Magi of
these parts, that the Orphic rites and mysteries were originally derived.
They came from Babylonia to Egypt, and from thence to Greece. We
accordingly find this particular in the character of Orpheus, [1054][Greek:
einai de ton Orphea mageusai deinon], _that he was great in all the
mysteries of the Magi_. We moreover learn from Stephanus Monachius, that
Orphon, a term of the same purport as Orpheus, was one of the appellations,
by which the Magi were called. [1055]Orphon, quod Arabibus Magum sonat. In
short, under the character of Orpheus, we have the history both of the
Deity, and of his votaries. The head of Orpheus was said to have