THE

NEW PANTHEON;

OR,

AN INTRODUCTION

TO THE

MYTHOLOGY OF THE ANCIENTS,

IN QUESTION AND ANSWER:

COMPILED

FOR THE USE OF YOUNG PERSONS.

TO WHICH ARE ADDED,

AN ACCENTUATED INDEX,

QUESTIONS FOR EXERCISE,

AND

POETICAL ILLUSTRATIONS OF GRECIAN MYTHOLOGY,
FROM HOMER AND VIRGIL.

BY W. JILLARD HORT.

A NEW EDITION,

CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED BY THE ADDITION OF

The Driental and the Northern Mythology.

LONDON

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

PREFACE.

IN poetry and works of elegant literature allusions are so frequently made to the Mythology of the Antients, as to render it desirable that young persons should acquire some knowledge of that subject; yet few of the sources whence information of this kind can be derived, are sufficiently pure to meet the eye of innocence.

Before the glorious splendour of truth beamed forth from the Gospel of Christ, upon the darkened world, the pollutions of licentiousness were intermingled even with religious rites and compositions.

Passions so degrading, and actions so shameful, were attributed by the Heathens to the false divinities whom

their deluded imaginations had devised, that from the contemplation of such a spectacle, the delicate mind must turn away with disgust; so that, without some modification, such histories are utterly improper to be presented to the attention of youth. The following introduction to Pagan Mythology was intended to obviate this difficulty.

In the successive editions of this work which the approbation of the Public has called for, to the Grecian and Roman Mythology, illustrated by selections from Homer and Virgil, have been added brief accounts of the Buddhic, Indian, Persian, Egyptian, Scythian, Celtic, Arabian, and Canaanitish systems, diversified likewise by quotations from various poets; to which is subjoined a slight sketch of the Mexican and Peruvian religious fables and ceremonies.

The Mythology of the Greeks and

Romans is evidently drawn from that of the Oriental nations.

Orpheus, Pythagoras, Thales, and other founders of Grecian philosophy and mythology, studied in Egypt; and having learned the doctrines of its priests, introduced them, modelled agreeably to their own ideas, into their own country. As this is the case, it might have appeared more natural to place the source before the stream; to introduce the young student, first, to the Eastern mythology, and afterwards to conduct him to its corrupt but elegant offspring. Yet as the mythology of Greece and Rome occurs so much more frequently in those books which are most commonly, and most early, used in education, it has been deemed preferable to retain the order generally adopted in works of this kind.

The information given concerning the Oriental Mythology is borrowed