on, as a title, signified Solaris,
Divinus, Splendidus: but, in a secondary sense, it denoted any thing holy,
good, and praiseworthy. [77][Greek: Alla min Etheion kaleo kai nosphin
eonta], says Eumaeus, of his long absent and much honoured master. _I will
call him good and noble, whether he be dead or alive._ From this antient
term were derived the [Greek: ethos] and [Greek: ethika] of the Greeks.

I have mentioned that it is often compounded, as in Athyr: and that it was
a name conferred on places where the Amonians settled. Some of this family
came, in early times, to Rhodes and Lemnos: of which migrations I shall
hereafter treat. Hence, one of the most antient names of [78]Rhodes was
Aithraia, or the Island of Athyr; so called from the worship of the Sun:
and Lemnos was denominated Aithalia, for the same reason, from Aith-El. It
was particularly devoted to the God of fire; and is hence styled Vulcania
by the Poet:

[79]Sumnmis Vulcania surgit
Lemnos aquis.

Ethiopia itself was named both [80]Aitheria, and Aeria, from Aur, and
Athyr: and Lesbos, which had received a colony of Cuthites, was
reciprocally styled [81]AEthiope. The people of Canaan and Syria paid a
great reverence to the memory of Ham: hence, we read of many places in
those parts named Hamath, Amathus, Amathusia. One of the sons of Canaan
seems to have been thus called: for it is said, that Canaan was the father
of the [82]Hamathite. A city of this name stood to the east of mount
Libanus; whose natives were the Hamathites alluded to here. There was
another Hamath, in Cyprus, by the Greeks expressed [Greek: Amathous], of
the same original as the former. We read of Eth-Baal, a king of [83]Sidon,
who was the father of Jezebel; and of [84]Athaliah, who was her daughter.
For Ath was an oriental term, which came from Babylonia and Chaldea to
Egypt; and from thence to Syria and Canaan. Ovid, though his whole poem be
a fable, yet copies the modes of those countries of which he treats. On
this account, speaking of an Ethiopian, he introduces him by the name of
Eth-Amon, but softened by him to Ethemon.

[85]Instabant parte sinistra
Chaonius Molpeus, dextra Nabathaeus Ethemon.

Ath was sometimes joined to the antient title Herm; which the Grecians,
with a termination, made [Greek: Hermes]. From Ath-Herm came [Greek:
Thermai, Thermos, Thermaino]. These terms were sometimes reversed, and
rendered Herm-athena.

AD.

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