ing the inhospitality of Atlas, by turning him into that vast emblem of his own Arkite rites. The innovation therefore on those rites, which Pindar by mistake dates before the arrival of Perseus, was not really effected, till, as Plutarch relates, the companions of Hercules were mixed with the people of Saturn. The companions of Hercules were a party associated under his name, and perhaps under his banner: for so in India the standard, which inspired most courage into the army of Porus, was the image of Hercules; and to desert the bearers of this standard was a grievous crime.2 In consequence of their general success, he is said to have tranquillised the sea and the inaccessible region, and to be the only person who could restore the worship of the gods, which impious men neglected.3 That his exploit of taking Cerberus captive in the regions of darkness was, like that of Geryon, only an invasion of the Caer, or oracle, of the Baris, is pretty plainly admitted in his answer to Amphitryon's inquiry, as to the mode of his success. He attributes it to his good fortune in having seen the Mysteries, which were acted in those oracular caverns, called the Beds of Granny and of Saturn. The very circumstance of their being so denominated, when we look back to the Celtic term, bears testimony to their Arkite origin: that term 1 Plut. de Facie in Orbe Lunæ, c. 26. 2 Quintus Curtius, lib. viii. sect. 14. 4 Eurip. Hercules Furens, 853. Τὰ μυστῶν δ ̓ ὄργι ̓ εὐτύχησ ̓ ἰδών. — Ibid. 614. is Leaba. Now Vallancey elsewhere says, that the Irish used to call their bark vessels Leabhar Naoi': he does not say, indeed, that Leabhar alone bore that sense, but it is highly probable; for the English language has run the same course; and though we no longer make our ships of bark, yet there are vessels which we continue to call barks. That the word is not at present known in that sense is no argument to the contrary; for we are told that the old pagan Irish had become obsolete in the eighth century, and a number of expressions in the ancient poems were not understood." As therefore the Ark was the resting-place of the Patriarch during the long night of his confinement in it, so the imitative cells were turned into places of nightly repose. Thus in Hoy, the island of the Celtic Noah, Hu, the Dwarfy stone is hollowed out within, and at each end is a bed and pillow worked out in the stone. Toland describes it as having a hole in the side about two feet square to admit its inmates; and a square stone lay near it, which had served the purpose of a door. On such a bed3 we may imagine the Archdruid, who acted Saturn, sought a hard repose; and I think it will not be impossible to divine the motive of their assuming that particular title. They were in the habit of watching for the return of the planet Saturn into the constellation of the Bull at the end of every 1 Vallancey mentions many tombs inscribed with Druidic characters, which are called by the natives Leaba na feine, the bed or grave of the learned. Naoi, he says, is in Irish the name of Noah. 2 Collectanea de Reb. Hib. iv. 392. 3 Thus, too, in the rock of Mahabalipoor, there is a platform of stone, called the Bed of Dhermarajah. - As. Res. i. 135. thirty years, which was the period of its revolution round the sun. Now if that was, or was supposed to be, the true position of the planet at the Deluge, no better commemoration of the event could be devised, than that which they practised as often as they witnessed the same conjunction of stars; for on that occasion, they sent forth ships prepared long before', and well provided with stores, to seek an island of safety, -an Ararat in a distant ocean. Hence the cycle of thirty years became their annus magnus; but so much was their astronomy controlled by their religious mysteries, that those periods, as well as their ordinary years and months, took their beginning from the sixth day of the moon2; a practice for which it would be difficult to account upon any other principle than this. It was precisely that age of the moon, which gives her the greatest resemblance to the double-prowed Baris; and for this reason the day was called Allheal, and on this day the sacred misseltoe was gathered, which presents to view a similar emblem at every joint. 1 Παρασκευασαμένους ἐν χρόνῳ πολλῷ τὰ περὶ τὴν θυσίαν καὶ τὸν ἄποπλουν ἐκπέμπειν, &c. Plut. de Facie in Orbe Luna, s. 26. The Ethiopians had a custom appointed by the oracles of the gods 600 years before, of sending two men in a ship, with six months' provisions, to sail to the south in search of a fortunate island, where the people were gentle and kind, and lived happy lives. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. c. 4. Herod. Euterp. c. 39. Parke's Travels, p. 43. Bruce, i. 251. 2 Pliny, Nat. Hist. lib. xvi. c. 44. 189 CHAP. XVIII. THE ARGONAUTIC EXPEDITION. THAT the British Isles should have enjoyed so much credit, and been the subject of so many allusions in the writings of Grecian authors, need not be matter of astonishment, when it is considered that, according to the testimony of Diodorus, a frequent and familiar intercourse was maintained between the two countries,—an intercourse which was founded upon community of religious rites, through the medium of A-baris', and existed even from the earliest times; for their acquaintance began even before that first recorded voyage, beyond which all is darkness in the annals of Greece, the celebrated voyage of the Argonauts, which seemed so great a wonder to succeeding ages, on account of its length and its dangers, and the knowledge which it brought to light, that their indiscriminate admiration confounded it with the voyage of the Patriarchs over the waters of the Deluge, and bestowed upon the ship the name of Argo, or the Ark. Homer calls it the ship in which all have an interest2; and Virgil mentions 1 Τοὺς ὑπερβορέους πρὸς τοὺς Ἕλληνας οἰκειότατα διακεῖσθαι, καὶ μάλιστα πρὸς τοὺς ̓Αθηναίους καὶ Δηλίους, ἐκ παλαιῶν χρόνων παρεις ληφότας τὴν εὔνοιαν ταύτην· καὶ τῶν Ἑλλήνων τινὰς μυθολογοῦσι παρα βαλεῖν εἰς ὑπερβορέους καὶ ἀναθήματα πολυτελή καταλιπεῖν· ὡσαύτως δὲ καὶ ̓Αβαρὶν, &c. Diod. Sic. lib. ii. p. 130. - 2 Αργὼ πασιμέλουσα. — Odyss. Μ. 70. it as the type of all other ships: but it would be a great mistake to suppose that it was the first, or even the largest, that had ever been constructed, for reasons which will presently appear. An Irish tradition of this voyage claims attention first, not on account of its clearness, for it is very indistinct; but some facts may be gleaned out of the confusion, which, by their coincidence with the statements of the classic authors, tend strongly to corroborate their truth in those points where they agree: for they are wholly independent witnesses, and neither can be supposed to have borrowed from the other, because the subject is history; and therefore, by how much the less the Irish tradition can boast of ornament or regularity, by so much the more it deserves credit, as having a groundwork of truth: for though it is sadly disfigured by the ignorance through which it has passed, yet it has not been perverted by the wantonness of poetry. Keating, then, who collected Irish history out of ancient records, relates that Niul, or rather the children of Niul, were driven from Armenia and passed into the Euxine, where one of them Miless, the lord of the ship, married Scota, the daughter of the 1 2 Alter erit tum Tiphys, et altera quæ vehat Argo 2 The translator of Keating maintains that Frange is Armenia, as well as France; when the king of Frange sent troops to Wexford, it must be the latter; but the history of the voyage necessarily implies the former. 3 Miles and Hercules are the same constellation. Vallancey quotes a line from a poem of Amergin in the book of Leacan. Tuatha mac Mileadh, Mileadh Longe Libearn; and translates it thus: Lords were the sons of Milesius, Milesius of the Libearn ship. Libearn is clearly the same as Liburna, the sacred ship of Isis, iv. 294. |