HKB
and carry about in the fore part of their Ships in the form of Pygmies*: and [301] Bochart saith of this Venus Hospita, *Phoeniciam Venerem in Ægypto pro peregrina habitam._
As the Egyptians, Phoenicians and Syrians in those days Deified their Kings and Princes, so upon their coming into Asia minor and Greece, they taught those nations to do the like, as hath been shewed above. In those days the writing of the Thebans and Ethiopians was in hieroglyphicks; and this way of writing seems to have spread into the lower Egypt before the days of Moses: for thence came the worship of their Gods in the various shapes of Birds, Beasts, and Fishes, forbidden in the second commandment. Now this emblematical way of writing gave occasion to the Thebans and Ethiopians, who in the days of Samuel, David, Solomon, and Rehoboam conquered Egypt, and the nations round about, and erected a great Empire, to represent and signify their conquering Kings and Princes, not by writing down their names, but by making various hieroglyphical figures; as by painting Ammon with Ram's horns, to signify the King who conquered Libya, a country abounding with sheep; his father Amosis with a Scithe, to signify that King who conquered the lower Egypt, a country abounding with corn; his Son Osiris by an Ox, because he taught the conquered nations to plow with oxen; Bacchus with Bulls horns for the same reason, and with Grapes because he taught the nations to plant vines, and upon a Tiger because he subdued India; Orus the son of Osiris with a Harp, to signify the Prince who was eminently skilled on that instrument; Jupiter upon an Eagle to signify the sublimity of his dominion, and with a Thunderbolt to represent him a warrior; Venus in a Chariot drawn with two Doves, to represent her amorous and lustful; Neptune with a Trident, to signify the commander of a fleet composed of three Squadrons; Ægeon, a Giant, with 50 heads, and an hundred hands, to signify Neptune with his men in a ship of fifty oars; Thoth with a Dog's head and wings at his cap and feet, and a Caduceus writhen about with two Serpents, to signify a man of craft, and an embassador who reconciled two contending nations; Pan with a Pipe and the legs of a Goat, to signify a man delighted in piping and dancing; and Hercules with Pillars and a Club, because Sesostris set up pillars in all his conquests, and fought against the Libyans with clubs: this is that Hercules who, according to [302] Eudoxus, was slain by Typhon; and according to Ptolomæus Hephæstion [303] was called Nilus, and who conquered Geryon with his three sons in Spain, and set up the famous pillars at the mouth of the Straits: for Diodorus [304] mentioning three Hercules's, the Egyptian, the Tyrian, and the son of Alcmena, saith that *the oldest flourished among the Egyptians_, and having conquered a great part of the world, set up the pillars in Afric: and Vasæus, [305] that Osiris, called also Dionysius, *came into *Spain and conquered Geryon, and was the first who brought Idolatry into Spain. Strabo [306] tells us, that the Ethiopians called *Megabars_ fought with clubs: and some of the Greeks [307] did so 'till the times of the Trojan war. Now from this hieroglyphical way of writing it came to pass, that upon the division of Egypt into Nomes by Sesostris, the great men of the Kingdom to whom the Nomes were dedicated, were represented in their Sepulchers or Temples of the Nomes, by various hieroglyphicks; as by an Ox, a Cat, a Dog, a Cebus, a Goat, a Lyon, a Scarabæus, an Ichneumon, a Crocodile, an Hippopotamus, an Oxyrinchus, an Ibis, a Crow, a Hawk, a Leek, and were worshipped by the Nomes in the shape of these creatures.