AALT\ION, or 11.vmmoN, in the name of the Egyptian Jupiter. The Greeks give the following account of the origin of the name. Bacchus, they tell us, leading his army through the desarts of Assyria, was on the point of perishing with thirst, when his father, Jupiter, appeared in the shape of a ram, and conducted him and his army to a spot, where they were abundantly supplied with water. Out of gratitude for this kindness, Bacchus built a temple on the spot, and dedicated it to Jupiter .4mnzon, so called from ap.p...65, sand, because he had relieved his son in the sandy desart.
This etymology, like most others of Grecian manu facture, we may safely pronounce to be nonsense, and the story on which it is built to be an absurd fable. He rodotus says expressly, AKccoo A rxT.e 2f.l Tov 4,1x, the Egyptians call Jupiter ../ninion ; it was therefore absurd to seek for a Grecian etymology of an Egyptian word. Jupiter Annium was generally worshipped under the figure of a rain ; although, if we may believe Cur tius, I. iv. c. 7. the image in the famous temple, which Alexander visited, was of a very different shape. Id (plod pro deo coliiN•, non candem habet effigiem, quam Diis artifices accommodaverunt : umbilico maxime slit ills est.
That Jupiter Ammon was the same with Ham the son of Noah, is almost demonstrable. It is known to
every Hebrew scholar, that Dn Ham signifies to be hot, or warn? ; Zees, the Greek name of Jupiter, has the same signification, being derived was the youngest son of Noah, Jupiter was the youngest son of Saturn. Ham is said to have seen the nakedness of his father, and to have tad his brethren. This, with out all doubt, gave rise to the story of Jupiter emascu lating Saturn. This story, indeed, appears to !ase been not SO much a fiction, aS 10 have arisen born mistranslation: for it is very remarkable, that the He brew word, which is translated told, as above, signifies, when derived from a different root, abNcidit, cut ()II'. Egypt is called, in Hebrew, Mizraim, from Mizraim, the son of Ham; and Plutarch, in hide, informs us, that it was called Chemia, evidently from Ham, or Chain : From this, it is evident, that I lam, or his son Mizraim, peopled Egypt; and we need not be surprised, that a people so prone to idolatry as the Egyptians always were, should have deified the founder of their race. From Egypt, the worship of Ammon, or Ham, passed into Greece, where he was known by the name of Zeus, or Jupiter. Hence