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A New System; or, an Analysis of Ancient Mythology. Volume II

By Jacob Bryant

OF MEED or ΜΗΤΙΣ, AND THE Goddess HIPPA.

One of the most antient Deities of the Amonians was named Meed, or Meet; by which was signified divine wisdom. It was rendered by the Grecians Μητις in the masculine: but seems to have been a feminine Deity; and represented under the symbol of a beautiful female countenance surrounded with serpents. The author of the Orphic Poetry makes Metis the origin of all ^[687]things: which Proclus expresses ^[688]την δημιουργικην αιτιαν: and supposes this personage to be the same as Phanes, and Dionusus, from whom all things proceeded. By Timotheus Chronographus, in his account of the creation, this divinity was described as that vivifying light, which first broke forth upon the infant world, and produced life and motion. His notion is said to have been borrowed from Orpheus: Εφρασε δε (ὁ ^[689] Ορφευς) ὁτι το φως ῥηξαν τον αιθερα εφωτισε πασαν την κτισιν· ειπων, εκεινο ειναι το φως το ῥηξαν τον αιθερα το προειρημενον, το ὑπερτατον παντων, ὁυ ονομα ὁ αυτος Ορφευς ακουσας εκ Μαντειας εξειπε ΜΗΤΙΣ, ὁπερ ἑρμηνευεται ΒΟΥΛΗ, ΦΩΣ, ΖΩΟΔΟΤΗΡ. Ειπεν εν τῃ αυτου εκθεσει ταυτας τας τρεις θειας των ονοματων δυναμεις μιαν ειναι δυναμιν, και ἑν κρατος τουτων Θεον, ὁν ουδεις ὁρᾳ. The account is remarkable. Hippa was another Goddess, of the like antiquity, and equally obsolete. Some traces however are to be still found in the Orphic verses above-mentioned, by which we may discover her original character and department. She is there represented as the nurse of ^[690]Dionusus, and seems to have been the same as Cybele, who was worshipped in the mountains of ^[691]Phrygia, and by the Lydians upon Tmolus. She is said to have been the soul of the ^[692]world: and the person who received and fostered Dionusus, when he came from the thigh of his father. This history relates to his second birth, when he returned to a second state of childhood. Dionusus was the chief God of the Gentile world, and worshipped under various titles; which at length came to be looked upon as different Deities. Most of these secondary Divinities had the title of Hippius, and Hippia: and as they had female attendants in their temples, these too had the name of Hippai. What may have been the original of the term Hippa, and Hippus, will be matter of future disquisition. Thus much is certain, that the Greeks, who were but little acquainted with the purport of their antient theology, uniformly referred it to ^[693]horses. Hence it was often prefixed to the names of Gods, and of Goddesses, when it had no relation to their department; and seemed inconsistent with their character. We have not only an account of Αρης Ἱππιος, Mars the horseman; but of Poseidon Hippius, though a God of the sea. He is accordingly complimented upon this title by the Poet Aristophanes.

Ceres had the title of Hippia: and the Goddess of wisdom, Minerva, had the same. We read also of Juno Hippia, who at Olympia partook of joint rites and worship, with those equestrian Deities Neptune, and Mars. Pausanias mentions ^[695]Ποσειδωνος Ἱππιου, μαι Ἡρας Ἱππιου βωμοι: and hard-by τῃ μεν Αρεως Ἱππιου, τῃ δε Αθηνας Ἱππιου βωμος. In Arcadia, and Elis, the most antient rites were preserved: and the Grecians might have known, that the terms Hippa and Hippia were of foreign purport from the other titles given to Juno at Olympia. For they sacrificed here to ^[696]Amonian Juno, and to Juno Paramonian; which were also titles of Hermes. Hippa was a sacred Egyptian term, and as such was conferred upon Arsinoë, the wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus: for the princes of Egypt always assumed to themselves sacred appellations. ^[697]Ἱππια Αρσινοη, ἡ του Φιλαδελφου γυνη. As the Grecians did not inquire into the hidden purport of antient names, they have continually misrepresented the histories of which they treated. As Ceres was styled Hippa, they have imagined her to have been turned into a ^[698]mare: and Hippius Poseidon was in like manner changed to a horse, and supposed in that shape to have had an intimate acquaintance with the Goddess. Of this Ovid takes notice.

The like is mentioned of the nymph ^[700]Ocuroë: also of Philyra, who was so changed by Saturn. He is said to have taken upon himself the same shape, and to have followed her neighing over the mountains of Thessaly.

All these legendary stories arose from this antient term being obsolete, and misapplied. Homer makes mention of the mares of Apollo, which the God was supposed to have bred in Pieria:

And he has accordingly put them in harness, and given them to the hero Eumelus. Callimachus takes notice of the same mares in his hymn to the Shepherd God Apollo.

These Hippai, misconstrued mares, were priestesses of the Goddess Hippa, who was of old worshipped in Thessaly, and Thrace, and in many different regions. They chanted hymns in her temples, and performed the rites of fire: but the worship growing obsolete, the very terms were at last mistaken. How far this worship once prevailed may be known from the many places denominated from Hippa. It was a title of Apollo, or the Sun, and often compounded Hippa On, and contracted Hippon: of which name places occur in Africa near Carthage^[704]. Ἡτε δη Κιρτα πολις ενταυθα και ὁι δυο Ἱππωνες. Argos was of old called Hippeion; not from the animal Ἱππος, but ^[705]απο Ἱππης του Δαναου, from Hippa the daughter of Danaus. That is from a priestess, who founded there a temple, and introduced the rites of the Goddess whom she served. As it was a title of the Sun, it was sometimes expressed in the masculine gender Hippos: and Pausanias takes notice of a most curious, and remarkable piece of antiquity, though he almost ruins the purport of it by referring it to an horse. It stood near mount Taygetus in Laconia, and was called the monument of Hippos. The author tells us, ^[706]that at particular intervals from this monument stood seven pillars, κατα τροπον οιμαι αρχαιον, placed, says he, as I imagine, according to some antient rule and method; which pillars were supposed to represent the seven planets. If then these exterior stones related to the ^[707]seven erratic bodies in our sphere, the central monument of Hippos must necessarily have been designed for the Sun. And however rude the whole may possibly have appeared, it is the most antient representation upon record, and consequently the most curious, of the planetary system.

It is from hence, I think, manifest, that the titles Hippa, and Hippos, related to the luminary Osiris; and betokened some particular department of that Deity, who was the same as Dionusus. He was undoubtedly worshipped under this appellation in various regions: hence we read of Hippici Montes in Colchis: Ἱππου κωμη in Lycia: Ἱππου ακρα in Libya: Ἱππου ορος in Egypt: and a town Hippos in Arabia Felix. There occur also in composition^[708], Hippon, Hipporum, Hippouris, Hippana, Hipponesus, Hippocrene. This last was a sacred fountain, denominated from the God of light, who was the patron of verse, and science: but by the Greeks it was referred to an animal, and supposed to have been produced by the hoof of an horse. The rites of Dionusus Hippius were carried into Thrace, where the horses of Diomedes were said to have been fed with human flesh. Deianira is introduced by Ovid, as asking Hercules, if he did not well remember this practice.

Abderus, the founder of Abdera, is supposed to have been a victim to these animals: of which Scymnus Chius gives the following account.

These horses, ξενοκτονοι, which fed upon the flesh of strangers, were the priests of Hippa, and of Dionusus, styled Hippus, or more properly Hippius. They seem to have resided in an island, and probably in the Thracian Chersonese: which they denominated ^[711]Diu-Medes, or the island of the Egyptian Deity Medes. From hence the Grecian Poets have formed a personage Diomedes, whom they have made king of the country. There were opposite to Apulia islands of the same name, where similar rites prevailed. The priests were here Cycneans, and described as a species of swans, who were kind to people of their own race, but cruel to ^[712]strangers. A Diomedes is supposed to have been a king in these parts, and to have given name to these islands. It is said by Scymnus Chios above, that Abderus, who was devoured by the horses of Diomedes in Thrace, built the city, which bore his name. The Grecians continually supposed the personage, in whose honour a city was built, to have been the founder. I have mentioned, that Abderus signifies the place of Abdir, which is a contraction of Abadir, the serpent Deity Ad-Ur, or Adorus. And it is plain from many passages in antient writers, that human sacrifices were common at his shrine; and particularly those of infants. By Abdera being a victim to the horses of Diomedes is meant that the natives of that place, which stood in the vicinity of the Chersonesus, were obliged to submit to the cruel rites of the Diomedean ^[713]priests. The very name must have come from them; for they worshipped the Deity under the titles of Meed, Hippa, and Abadir; and various other appellations.

There is an account given by ^[714]Palæphatus of one Metra, who in the more authentic manuscripts is called Μηστρα, Meestra. It is said of her, that she could change herself into various forms, particularly εκ κορης γενεσθαι βουν, και αυθις κυνα, και ορνεον, that she would instead of a young woman appear an ox, or a cow; or else be in the shape of a dog, or of a bird. She is represented as the daughter of Eresicthon: and these uncommon properties are mentioned by Ovid^[715], who sets them off with much embellishment. The story at bottom is very plain. Egypt, the land of the Mizraim, was by the Greeks often styled ^[716]Mestra and ^[717]Mestraia: and by the person here called Mestra we are certainly to understand a woman of that country. She was sometimes mentioned simply as a Cahen, or priestess, which the Grecians have rendered κυνα, a dog. Women in this sacred capacity attended at the shrine of Apis, and Mneuis; and of the sacred heifer at Onuphis. Some of them in different countries were styled Cygneans, and also Peleiadæ, of whom the principal were the women at ^[718]Dodona. Many of them were priestesses of Hippa, and upon that account styled Hippai, as I have shewn. Hence the mythologists under the character of Meestra have represented an Egyptian priestess, who could assume many departments, which were misconstrued different shapes. She could become, if we may credit Ovid,

or according to Palæphatus, βουν, κυνα, και ορνεον: a cow, a dog, and a bird. The whole of this related to the particular service of the priestess; and to the emblem under which the Deity was worshipped.

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[687] He makes Metis the same as Athena. H. 31. l. 10.

In another place Metis is styled πρωτος γενετωρ. Frag. 6. v. 19. p. 366.

[688] Ibid. Fragm. 8. p. 373.

[689] Eusebii. Chron. Log. p. 4. l. 42.

[690] Ἱππαν κικλησκω Βακχου τροφον. Hymn. 48.

[691] Hymn. 47. v. 4.

[692] Orphic Frag. 43. Ἡ μεν γαρ Ἱππα του παντος ουσα ψυχη κτλ. Proclus. ibid. p. 401.

[693] Among the Egyptians, the emblems of which they made use were arbitrary, and very different from the things to which they referred. An eagle, an ox, and a horse, were all used as symbols, but had no real connexion with the things alluded to, nor any the least likeness. The Grecians not considering this were always misled by the type; and never regarded the true history, which was veiled under it.

[694] Ἱππεις. v. 548.

[695] Pausan. l. 5. p. 414.

[696] Ibid. l. 5. p. 416.

[697] Hesych. Ἱππια.

[698] Pausan. l. 8. p. 649.

[699] Metam. l. 6. v. 117.

[700] Ibid. l. 2. v. 668.

[701] Virg. Georg. l. 3. v. 92.

[702] Iliad. Β. v. 766. He also mentions the mares of Eresicthon, with which Boreas was supposed to have been enamoured.

[703] H. to Apollo. v. 47.

[704] Strabo. l. 17. p. 1188.

[705] Hesych. Ἱππειον.

[706] Προϊουσι δε Ἱππου καλουμενον μνημα εστιν.—Κιονες δε ἑπτα, ὁι του μνηματος τουτου διεχουσιν ου πολυ, κατα τροπον οιμαι τον αρχαιον, ὁυς αστερων των Πλανητων φασιν αγαλματα. Pausan. l. 3. p. 262.

[707] They included the moon among the primary planets; not being acquainted with any secondary.

[708] See Steph. Byzant. and Cellarius.

[709] Ovid. Deianira ad Hero. Epist.

[710] Geog. Vet. vol. 2. v. 665. See also Diodorus. l. 4. p. 223. also Strabo Epitome. l. 7. p. 511.

[711] See Radicals. p. 119.

[712] The birds at the lake Stymphalus are described as feeding upon human flesh. Λογος Ορνιθας ποτε ανδροφαγους επ' αυτῳ τραφηναι. Pausan. l. 8. p. 610. The real history of the place was, that the birds called Stymphalides were a set of Canibal priests.

[713] Glaucus, the son of Sisiphus is said to have been eaten by horses. Palæphatus. p. 58.

[714] P. 54.

[715] Metamorph. l. 8. v. 873.

[716] Josephus calls Egypt Mestra. Antiq. l. 1. c. 6. §. 2. See Radicals, p. 8. Notes.

[717] Ὁ πρωτος οικησας την Μεστραιαν χωραν, ητοι Αιγυπτον, Μεστραιμ. Euseb. Chron. p. 17.

[718] Herodotus. l. 2 c. 55.

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