n, axiagaston theama.] _Near which city was the
Corycian cavern, sacred to the nymphs, which afforded a sight the most
astonishing_. There was a place of this sort at [670]Samacon, in Elis; and,
like the above, consecrated to the nymphs. There were likewise medicinal
waters, from which people troubled with cutaneous and scrofulous disorders
found great benefit. I have mentioned the temple at Hierapolis in
[671]Phrygia; and the chasm within its precincts, out of which there issued
a pestilential vapour. There was a city of the same name in [672]Syria,
where stood a temple of the highest antiquity; and in this temple was a
fissure, through which, according to the tradition of the natives, the
waters at the deluge retired. Innumerable instances might be produced to
this purpose from Pausanias, Strabo, Pliny, and other writers.

It has been observed, that the Greek term [Greek: koilos], hollow, was
often substituted for Coelus, heaven: and, I think, it will appear to have
been thus used from the subsequent history, wherein the worship of the
Atlantians is described. The mythologists gave out, that Atlas supported
heaven: one reason for this notion was, that upon mount Atlas stood a
temple to Coelus. It is mentioned by Maximus Tyrius in one of his
dissertations, and is here, as in many other instances, changed to [Greek:
koilos], hollow. The temple was undoubtedly a cavern: but the name is to be
understood in its original acceptation, as Coel, the house of God; to which
the natives paid their adoration. This mode of worship among the Atlantian
betrays a great antiquity; as the temple seems to have been merely a vast
hollow in the side of the mountain; and to have had in it neither image,
nor pillar, nor stone, nor any material object of adoration: [673][Greek:
Esti de Atlas oros koilon, epieikos hupselon.--Touto Libuon kai hieron, kai
theos, kai horkos, kai agalma.] _This Atlas (of which I have been speaking)
is a mountain with a cavity, and of a tolerable height, which the natives
esteem both as a temple and a Deity: and it is the great object by which
they swear; and to which they pay their devotions_. The cave in the
mountain was certainly named Co-el, the house of God; equivalent to Coelus
of the Romans. To this the people made their offerings: and this was the
heaven which Atlas was supposed to support. It seems to have been no
uncommon term among the Africans. There was a city in Libya named Coel,
which the Romans render