Classical Theology.—Xix.

the translated Osiris , wherefore they worshipped it and called it Apis . " He was called Sorcqm , because his body was supposed to have been found enclosed in a chest * ( aopbs ) and afterwards by the changing of a letter , Sevapis . The name of Osiris comes from Os , which means in the Egyptian tongue , much , and iris , an eye : whence signify ing the same as iroXv ^ flaX ^ oc , that

is to say , " many eyed , " as in allusion to the sun ' s rays and sight . Isis , in like manner is said to be the Minerva of the Athenians , the Cybele of the Phrygians , the Ceres of Eleusis , the Proserpine of the Sicilians , the Roman Bellona , and so on to the Venus of the Cyprians , called Cypria , Cypris , and Cyprigenaas Ceres was called Cypre among the Cnidiansand

, , as Cyprus obtained the name of Macaria , or the happy isle . There was in Cnidus an image of Venus , by Praxiteles of great beauty and most excellent workmanship—in this place she was worshipped as Cypre . Although the festivals of the Isia , in honour of Isis , were abolished by the Roman senate because of their great

licentiousness , and the statues of Serapis ( otherwise Osiris ) , Isis , Harpocrates , and Ilermanubis , were overthrown and cast out of the capitol , they were again celebrated and wholly restored in less than one hundred and ninety years after Christ by the semi-savage emperor , Commodus Antoninus , the ladiatorwho boasted of being a priest of Isis—well

g , mig ht she be traduced under the name of " Cyprian . " But it should not be forgotten that the divine Venus of the classics , and of heathen relig ious reverence , was styled Gfenetyllis ( as Ovput'ior , Jupiter , was named Genethlius ) so called from presiding over nativities and generations ; this was the mother of the gods , or Ovauvia , the heavenly Venus .

According to Pausanias and Meursius there was not far from the Geramicus of ancient Athens a temple of Vulcan , or as some say , of Vulcan and Minerva , which seems to have been some kind of prison , for frequent mention is made of evil doers having been tortured there . Near this dreaded place was the temple of the heavenly Venus , called Qb pavia ,

and another which was allotted to the other Venus called n . avdefj . o £ . The former reigned over chaste and tender love , the latter patronized wontonness and debauchery : and as their characters were dissimilar , so were the ceremonies observed in their worship . Those who worshipped Urania , conducted themselves with all circumspection , modesty , and

propriety ; but Pandemos was only pleased with licentiousness , depravity , and incontinence . Besides these there were other temples erected to Venus ; such , wo mean , as those of Venus Lamia , and Lemna , named in honour of two mistresses of Demetrius Poliorcetes . That luxurious king having passed the Euphrates and taken possession of Babylon , in his war with Seleucus , being afterwards taken prisoner , was allowed so much liberty , that through his

excesses ho fell into a distemper of which he died . Moreover so grossly adulatory became the degenerate Athenians that they admitted the parasites and strumpets of their princes and potentates into the vocabulary of their deities , and raised to their memory splendid temples and altars . We may here as well , perhaps , as not remark that some

French fabulists , doubtless without positively intending irreverence to most Jioly things , have almost parodied the doctrine of the Trinity in their mythological tales of Urania and Adonis . First comes , for example , a somewhat abridged account of the creation , and garden of Eden . " Before thc ^ ibundations of the elements or the heavens and the earth

, a perpetual silence pervaded all the ethereal regions . The great god Belus dwelt in inaccessible light with the goddess Urania ( or Wisdom ) , and with the god Adonis , whom he had engendered like unto himself ; Belus taking delight in the beauty of his son , desired that there might be living images of him . Adonis being animated by the power of his father , they moulded together rays of light , and made planets and stars , and the spheres invisible to us , —or the globe he placed , as it were in the centrj

Classical Theology.—Xix.

of the universe . But there were no beings of a nature suitable to inhabit it ; Adonis looked inquiringly at his mother , and on a sudden a flower of unimaginably loveliness , sprung up out of the void . Adonis hastened and breathed upon it , wherewith it became a beautiful young creature , nay , an aerial , embodied , youthful and smiling goddess , whom lie named after his mother , Urania . : My sweet Urania' said Adonis' I intend to bless as the mother

, , you of a happy race that shall people the heavens and to conduct you at last with all your children into that sublime and everlastingabode above the stars where my father dwells . The only restriction required of you is , that you never seek after nor request to know , more than the knowledge of your present state : such is our will—the immutable decree of my father Belus and myself . '"

This we think is a close enough resemblance to the story of Eve ; and if Adonis is not exactly represented as Adam , but rather as the Son All Holy , still we shall afterwards find he is likewise made to appear not much unlike him . " A vain curiosity and an increasing and excessive desire of that knowledge which was debarred her , now more completely possessed

the thoughts of the goddess . She became insensible to the love and fondness of her attached Adonis , too delicate in his love , for the gods cannot suffer a divided heart . With such abstracted coldness and repulsive indifference did she treat him , that at last he was forced unwillingly to leave her to her misguided self . She imagined evil , and sought to satisfy her wicked imaginations ; she invented impure sacrifices and profaned the simplicity of faithful

worship ; she ate of exciting fruits , stimulating herbs , and meats sacrificed to herself : she next devised means to gratify her sensuality , for her subtile idiosyncrasy , or spirit , had enveloped itself in a mortal bodv .

" Ihe inhabitants of the stars now spoke together . 'Vice , ' they said , ' must be something agreeable to Belus , since he docs not punish it . True , Urania is no longer like one of us ; but still she is a goddess , and she is happy . What shall it matter , provided we enjoy pleasure , how we obtain it ? ' Belus now went to Adonis , and said , ' I repent of having produced Urania from the flower of her origin . In vindication of the justness of my laws , she must be

destroyed with all her disobedient children . ' But Adonis reasoned with his father : ' Take not such vengeance on her ; I love Urania ; her faults are not hers alone . Her children are ours , since they are mine . Punish them as you will . Curse the ground they inhabit ; wither its growth and their beauty ; expose them to sickness and death . But , to annihilate . No ! Think not of it for ever . Let your punishments , my father , be remediesSuddenl

. ' y the poles of the heavens changed their positions ; the sun receded to a greater distance ; the elements were shaken ; the earth in her beauty and plenitude faded , and the trees let fall their leaves . The Venus of paradise , or of the heaven whence she sprung , and whence she had descended , lost her name of Urania , and became the Venus of earth . But eventually she induced her children to adore her under the signification

of Ashtoreth , as in the holy scriptures commemorated ' the queen of heaven . ' The terrestrial race underwent the same change as herself ; she saw them stricken by intemperance , day by day expiring ; or , in the vain hope of circumventing their doom , heaping mountains upon mountains , and stones upon stones , to endeavour to scale the heavens ; but being routed and their vast labours struck down by thunderbolts , they dug an abyss far within the depths of the earth , to seek a passage through it , or to rob ' I'luto of his kingdom , into which many of them were at last driven .

" In the fall of Urania not all the inhabitants of the planets were doomed to follow her . She seduced but a few of them , and these became men , or demigods , the fathers of giants . " Venus now became dejected and melancholy ; she wandered about the mountains and valleys , lamenting the loss other children and her worshippers . Adonis , hearing and knowing the cause of her grief , left his glorious regions aud came down upon the earth .

The fallen goddess would have fled from him , but he prevented her and sat down by her . After a considerable silence , he said' You bewail your own condition , regardless of my sufferings . I come from heaven to repair the manifold mischiets your imprudence and offences have caused , and to overcome the evil creation and monsters your crimes have generated . I have driven them into belland I am going there to establish conquest and

, my release the souls , confined b y Uragus , that suffer in those-dismal habitations . ' Adonis here himself suffered a mortal agony in man ' s estate , and yielded up his spirit ; a stream of blood " gushed from his heart and crimsoned the waters of Tammi . "For nine days and nights Venus watched disconsolate near the d «; ad body of Adorns , " Being at length oyer whelmed br .