the king of the infernal regions, in which instance, the character of Pluto is confounded with that of the serpent. Τλη δ Αιδης εν τοισι πελώριος ωκυν οιστον Hercules it was, according to some, who instituted the Nemean games, respecting the origin of which, there was an obscure story about a serpent. In all these memorials, one leading feature appears discernible, bearing testimony to the blessed promise of a deliverer from the power and influence of the serpent; a promise handed down amongst all generations, and shedding, as it were, through clouds and darkness, a ray upon the most gloomy regions of heathenism. There is yet another circumstance in which Hercules presents a traditionary type of the expected Saviour. It is affirmed of him, that on a certain occasion, he was swallowed by a great * Hom. Iliad v. 395. fish, in whose belly he remained three days and three nights, but at last escaped alive. This piece of legendary history plainly relates, in a primary sense, to the prophet Jonah, who was "a sign to the Ninevites," and who is alluded to by Christ himself, when he says, "For "as Jonas was three days and three nights in "the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be "three days and three nights in the heart of "the earth." Now, Eneas Gazæus calls the fish that devoured Hercules by the very name mentioned both in St. Matthew and the Septuagint: "as Hercules also is reported, when he "was shipwrecked, to have been swallowed 66 by a whale, and yet to have been saved.” Lycophron calls the fish the Canis Carcharias or sea dog, according to Bochart; and particularly alludes to the period he remained in the monster's belly: * Lycoph. Cassand. ver. 33.; and the Scholia of Isaac. p. 20. Rom. ed. 4to. Eneas Gazæus cit. ap. Bochart, vol. iii. 742. Cyrillus et Theophylact. ap. Voss. de Orig. Idol. lib. ii. 15. Grotius de Verit. lib. i. sec. 16. not. 105. Isaacius, the scoliast, observes upon this pas sage, "I am of opinion that Lycophron here calls "Hercules Triesperon, because he continued "in the whale three days, which are termed 66 66 nights by the poet, to denote the gloom and darkness which reigned in the monster's belly." But to return to what is more particularly under consideration, let us see further how the traditions of the primeval promise personified in Hercules, were connected with paradise. It has been mentioned further back, that certain paradisaical tumuli were sometimes consecrated in honour of those divine heroes, who had mythologically been supposed to have combated with the serpent; and that trees were planted upon them. Generally, these were two in number, and stood in the centre of the paradisos. At times, however, there was only one tree, so placed, " in the midst," and on either side of it a sacred Erulos or pillar was set up, while a serpent was coiled around the tree, as we see the whole represented on many ancient coins and medals. These ruλo or pillars were called Petræ Ambrosiæ, or the amber stones, being considered oracular; and, in process of time, they were often set up without the accompaniment of the tree in the midst," though 66 still connected with paradisaic memorials. The heathen called every thing that denoted life and immortality, ambrosial; ambrosial; and hence were derived all their legends about ambrosia, which was considered as the nourishment of their deities, and of which, whosoever tasted, “would "live for ever." The Tree of Life in paradise was herein symbolized; and it is remarkable how Milton, a careful observer of antiquity, has made use of the term "amber." * Immortal amaranth, a flower which once To heaven remov'd, where first it grew, there grows And flowers aloft shading the fount of life; And where the river of bliss thro' midst of heaven Hence the celebrated trees on the banks of the Eridanus, or "the river of Eden," were said to have distilled amber; and these Petræ Ambrosiæt were, in the same manner, in their origin, intimately connected with traditions of paradise. Tyre, one of the oldest cities in the world, * Paradise Lost, book iii. 353. Hom. Iliad II. 678. T. 39. Gale's Court of the Gentiles, lib. iii. 4. Owen lib. iii. 8. † Hence also, two remarkable rocks called the Cyaneæ Petræ, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine, which had been probably high places, sacred to paradisaio memo was supposed, in the beginning, to have been founded upon two of these sacred stones;* which, moreover, when represented with their tree" in the midst," and the oracular serpent, were peculiarly consecrated to the honour of Hercules. One of those mentioned by Ptolemy Hephæstion as situated on the borders of the ocean, probably near Gades, (a Tyrian or Phonician colony) was called Petra Gigonia. It was a rocking stone, (like that in Cornwall, which is still called Main-amber) and could only be moved, as the author just mentioned supposes, by the touch of a plant named asphodel, which was a herb of the same nature as amaranth, and connected with the same paradisaical traditions; for asphodel, according to that excellent glossographer Hesychius, is only ་ rials were said to be " alive;” Διδυμοι γαρ εσαν ΖΩΑΙ. Pind. Pyth. iv. 372. For further accounts of the Symplegades see Stat. v. 347. Strabo iii. 149. Hygin. Fab. xix. Ovid. Plin. iv. 13, Metam. xv. 338. * Imp. Rom. Num. Car. Pat. p. 270. There was a famous temple at Tyre sacred to Hercules; in the centre of which were two columns, one of gold and the other of emerald; the latter answering to the tree of emeralds "in the midst" of the enclosure at Gades before mentioned. See Herodotus, Theophrastus, and Pliny, as cited by the erudite author last quoted. |