DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0021
11
title derived from the exclamations uttered in the festivals of this
god ;* whose other Latin name Liber is also a title signifying the same
attribute as the Greek epithet AT2IOS or ATSflN, which will be
hereafter explained. But, from whence the more common Greek
name /1IONTSOS is derived, or what it signifies, is not so easy to
determine, or even to conjecture with any reasonable probability.
The first part of it appears to be from AETS, AIOS, or the
ancient name of the supreme universal god ; but whether the re-
mainder is significant of the place, from which this deity came
into Greece, or of some attribute belonging to him, vve cannot
pretend to say; and the conjectures of etymologists, both ancient1
and modern, concerning it are not worthy of notice.1 An ingenious'
writer in the Asiatic Researches derives the whole name from a
Sanscrit title of an Oriental demi-god ;2 and as Ausonius says iti
was Indian,4' this derivation appears more probable than most
others of the kind.
19- At Sicyon, in the Peloponnesus, he was worshipped under;
another title, which we shall not venture to explain, any further than
that it implies his having the peculiar superintendance and direc-
tion of the characteristics of the female sex.s At Lampsacus too,
on the Hellespont, he was venerated under a symbolical form
adapted to a similar office; though with a title of a different
signification, Priapus, which will be hereafter explained.6 ■
1 They are in fact the same name in different dialects, the ancient verb
FAXfl, in Laconian BAXa, having become by the accession of the augment
FIFAXfi, v. mx«.
1 See Macrob. 1. i. c. 18. Bryant on Ancient Mythology.
3 Vol. iii, p. 304.
4 - Ogygia me Bacclmm vocat,
Osirin iEgyptus putat;
Mysta; Phanaum nominant;
Dionysum Iudi existhnant, &c.
5 Aiovvaov 5e t?5t] <rtwira> top XOIPO^AAHN' ^ikvwviol rovrov irpoffKuyovcu't tcw
yvvaMuav Ta^avres tov Aiovwov fiopiuv. Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 33.
6rTtfiarai 5e irapa Aa.p.tya.KT)VOLs d ripiaTros, & avros a>v TCfi Aiovvfftp e| tiriQtTOv na\ov*
jxwos ovtus, is 0piap.&os Kai Ai6vpa.iJ.0os. Athenai. Deipnoi. lib. i. c. 23,j
title derived from the exclamations uttered in the festivals of this
god ;* whose other Latin name Liber is also a title signifying the same
attribute as the Greek epithet AT2IOS or ATSflN, which will be
hereafter explained. But, from whence the more common Greek
name /1IONTSOS is derived, or what it signifies, is not so easy to
determine, or even to conjecture with any reasonable probability.
The first part of it appears to be from AETS, AIOS, or the
ancient name of the supreme universal god ; but whether the re-
mainder is significant of the place, from which this deity came
into Greece, or of some attribute belonging to him, vve cannot
pretend to say; and the conjectures of etymologists, both ancient1
and modern, concerning it are not worthy of notice.1 An ingenious'
writer in the Asiatic Researches derives the whole name from a
Sanscrit title of an Oriental demi-god ;2 and as Ausonius says iti
was Indian,4' this derivation appears more probable than most
others of the kind.
19- At Sicyon, in the Peloponnesus, he was worshipped under;
another title, which we shall not venture to explain, any further than
that it implies his having the peculiar superintendance and direc-
tion of the characteristics of the female sex.s At Lampsacus too,
on the Hellespont, he was venerated under a symbolical form
adapted to a similar office; though with a title of a different
signification, Priapus, which will be hereafter explained.6 ■
1 They are in fact the same name in different dialects, the ancient verb
FAXfl, in Laconian BAXa, having become by the accession of the augment
FIFAXfi, v. mx«.
1 See Macrob. 1. i. c. 18. Bryant on Ancient Mythology.
3 Vol. iii, p. 304.
4 - Ogygia me Bacclmm vocat,
Osirin iEgyptus putat;
Mysta; Phanaum nominant;
Dionysum Iudi existhnant, &c.
5 Aiovvaov 5e t?5t] <rtwira> top XOIPO^AAHN' ^ikvwviol rovrov irpoffKuyovcu't tcw
yvvaMuav Ta^avres tov Aiovwov fiopiuv. Clem. Alex. Cohort, p. 33.
6rTtfiarai 5e irapa Aa.p.tya.KT)VOLs d ripiaTros, & avros a>v TCfi Aiovvfftp e| tiriQtTOv na\ov*
jxwos ovtus, is 0piap.&os Kai Ai6vpa.iJ.0os. Athenai. Deipnoi. lib. i. c. 23,j