more
than a list of titles, by which the Deity in different places was
addressed. But these titles are of great antiquity: and though the hymns
are transmitted in a modern garb, the person, through whom we receive them,
being as late as [1058]Pisistratus, yet they deserve our notice. They must
necessarily be of consequence, as they refer to the worship of the first
ages, and afford us a great insight into the Theology of the antients.
Those specimens also, which have been preserved by Proclus, in his
dissertations upon Plato, afford matter of great curiosity. They are all
imitations, rather than translations of the antient Orphic poetry,
accompanied with a short comment. This poetry was in the original Amonian
language, which grew obsolete among the Helladians, and was no longer
intelligible: but was for a long time preserved in [1059]Samothracia, and
used in their sacred rites.

CADMUS.

Although I have said so much about Dionusus, Sesostris, and other great
travellers, I cannot quit the subject till I have taken notice of Cadmus:
for his expeditions, though not so extensive as some, which I have been
mentioning, are yet esteemed of great consequence in the histories of
antient nations. The time of his arrival in Greece is looked up to as a
fixed aera: and many circumstances in chronology are thereby determined. He
is commonly reputed to have been a Phenician by birth; the son of Agenor,
who was the king of that country. He was sent by his father's order in
quest of his sister Europa; and after wandering about a long time to little
purpose, he at last settled in Greece. In this country were many traditions
concerning him; especially in Attica, and Boeotia. The particular spot,
where he is supposed to have taken up his residence, was in the latter
province at Tanagra upon the river Ismenus. He afterwards built Thebes: and
wherever he came, he introduced the religion of his country. This consisted
in the worship of [1060]Dionusus; and in the rites, which by the later
Greeks were termed the Dionusiaca. They seem to have been much the same as
the Cabyritic mysteries, which he is said to have established in
Samothracia. He fought with a mighty dragon; whose teeth he afterwards
sowed, and produced an army of men. To him Greece is supposed to have been
indebted for the first introduction of [1061]letters; which are said to
have been the letters of his country Phenicia, and in number sixteen. He
married Harmonia, the daughte