Page:Proofs of the Enquiry into Homer's Life and Writings.pdf/41

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Proofs of the Enquiry into

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Proofs*?/" the Enquiry into

Sect.* The RETURN os the Princes, who came VII. ' home with Agamemnon from Troy.' i—"v—-» Eustathius on the Odyssey, and Plutarch on Music.

The Propagation of Religion and Arts over the Western World, by their gradual Advance ment from Egypt and the East, is one of the most entertaining Speculations in Learning. Herodotus, deservedly called the Father of HiP-S4 (g> story, says, ' That the Daughters of Danaus »5 Cd) < first brought this mystic Rite (the Thesmo' 8+ (r) ' "85 (t) ' ' S4. co Sj-ie)

phoria of Ceres) out of Egypt, and taught the Wives of the Pelafgi to practise it : And that almost all the Names of the Gods came from Egypt into Greece.' Euterpe. As to the Origin of the ancient Theology, ' Some Pieces of it, says Phornutus, were com^

  • posed by tht Magi in Babylon and Assyria ,
  • others by the Phrygians, and many, as

< well known, by the Egyptians.'

is

It must appear a strange Association of Cha racters to us, to hear of a Divine, all united in the the Ancients the two last subservient to the first,

Lawgiver, Poet, and same Person : Among Capacities were made and did real Service.

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