DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.7416#0080
70
thinking it unworthy of the majesty of the Deity to be represented
by any definite form, or to be circumscribed in any determinate
space. The universe was his temple, and the all-pervading element
of fire his only representative ; whence their most solemn act of de-
votion was, kindling an immense fire on the top of a high mountain,
and offering up, in it, quantities of wiue, honey, oil, and all kinds of
perfumes; as Mitliradates did, with great expense and magnificence,
according to the l ites of his Persian ancestors, when about to engage
in his second war with the Romans ; the event of which was to
make him lord of all, or of nothing.1
93. These offerings were made to the all-pervading Spirit of the
universe, (which Herodotus calls by the Greek name of Jupiter),
and to his subordinate emanations, diffused through the Sun and
Moon, and the terrestrial elements, fire, air, earth, and water. They
afterwards learned of the Syrians to worship their Astarte, or
celestial Venus ;1 and by degrees adopted other superstitions
from the Phoenicians and other neighbouring nations ; who probably
furnished them with the symbolical figures observable in the ruins-
of Persepolis, and the devices of their coins. We must not, how-
ever, as Hyde and Anquetil have done, confound the Persians of the
first with those of the second dynasty, that succeeded the Par-
thians; nor place any reliance upon the pretended Zendavesta, which
the latter produced as the work of Zoroaster ; but which is in
reality nothing more than the ritual of the modern Guebers or
Parsees. That it should have imposed upon Mr. Gibbon, is asto-
nishing ; as it is manifestly a compilation of no earlier date than the
eighth or ninth century of Christianity, and probably much later.
94. The Greeks seem originally to have performed their acts of
devotion to the ajtherial Spirit upon high mountains; from which new
titles, and consequently new personifications, were derived; such as
those of Olympian, Dodonaean, Idasan, and Casian Jupiter.3 They
1 Appian. <!e Bello Mithrad. p. 361.
* Herodot. 1. i. 131.
3 See Maxim. Tyr. Dissert, via.
thinking it unworthy of the majesty of the Deity to be represented
by any definite form, or to be circumscribed in any determinate
space. The universe was his temple, and the all-pervading element
of fire his only representative ; whence their most solemn act of de-
votion was, kindling an immense fire on the top of a high mountain,
and offering up, in it, quantities of wiue, honey, oil, and all kinds of
perfumes; as Mitliradates did, with great expense and magnificence,
according to the l ites of his Persian ancestors, when about to engage
in his second war with the Romans ; the event of which was to
make him lord of all, or of nothing.1
93. These offerings were made to the all-pervading Spirit of the
universe, (which Herodotus calls by the Greek name of Jupiter),
and to his subordinate emanations, diffused through the Sun and
Moon, and the terrestrial elements, fire, air, earth, and water. They
afterwards learned of the Syrians to worship their Astarte, or
celestial Venus ;1 and by degrees adopted other superstitions
from the Phoenicians and other neighbouring nations ; who probably
furnished them with the symbolical figures observable in the ruins-
of Persepolis, and the devices of their coins. We must not, how-
ever, as Hyde and Anquetil have done, confound the Persians of the
first with those of the second dynasty, that succeeded the Par-
thians; nor place any reliance upon the pretended Zendavesta, which
the latter produced as the work of Zoroaster ; but which is in
reality nothing more than the ritual of the modern Guebers or
Parsees. That it should have imposed upon Mr. Gibbon, is asto-
nishing ; as it is manifestly a compilation of no earlier date than the
eighth or ninth century of Christianity, and probably much later.
94. The Greeks seem originally to have performed their acts of
devotion to the ajtherial Spirit upon high mountains; from which new
titles, and consequently new personifications, were derived; such as
those of Olympian, Dodonaean, Idasan, and Casian Jupiter.3 They
1 Appian. <!e Bello Mithrad. p. 361.
* Herodot. 1. i. 131.
3 See Maxim. Tyr. Dissert, via.