A short history of the horse, and progress of horse knowledge / [Bracy Clark].

  • Bracy Clark
Date:
1824
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A short history of the horse, and progress of horse knowledge / [Bracy Clark]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    language of the breaker-in of the Horse, which Grecianized was made Ericthonius. He observes that the Thessalians, or inhabitants of Thessaly, were ancient Egyptian colonists, and that two other colonies afterwards arrived in Greece from Egypt, and were distinguished by the titles of the Argos and the Athenian Colonies. The Athenian Colony had for its leader Cecrops, in Coptic, Cecrop, the Greeks always adding an s to the final p, as in Pelop, Pelops; and in the Egyptian language this name was Sigraph, signifying conjunction or mixture, or of a mixed nature; some believe that he derived it from being of the figure of a Man upwards, and below of a Serpent; others that he obtained this name from being the institutor of marriages at Athens. This Cecropian colony began the Attic sera, and was estimated between 3 and 400 years before the taking of Troy, or about 3132 of the Julian period, or 1582 before Christ. And Honorius, Tricusphus, and Augustin, say that the Children of Israel passed out of Egypt while Cecrops reigned in Athens. Cecrops was also placed among the signs of the Zodiac for Aquarius, to record that before wine was used in sacrifices, water was employed; for the Egyptians held wine in abhorrence, and hence it became with other nations an abomination, as with the Magi, Gnostics, Arabians, Brachmans, and Monks of China; and God permitted the Jews to use wine in their sacrifices, in order that they might be distinguished from all other nations. After this first Colony of Athens came a second, about 1082, or 500 years before Christ, which was that of Ericthonius or Erictheus. It was during his time, if not his own act, according to Diodorus Siculus, that quantities of Corn were brought into Athens on account of a severe famine that then prevailed, and this favor was conferred on these Athenians because the colony was anciently from Egypt, established by Cecrops. To reward this act, the Athenians made him King, and gave to his brother Butes the priesthood of the holy Temple of Minerva and Neptune. And this Ericthonius, they say, taught the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ceres, perhaps a metaphorical allusion to the corn that he had supplied them with, and the arts of agriculture which he might have taught them. “Those have erred widely who have derived this name Ericthonius from the Greek language, since in the Egyptian appears to be the natural clue to it. Erictho, the ancient Egyptian word of which the Greeks made Erictheus and Ericthonius, as of Apollo they made Apollonius, is composed of two parts, eri, facere, vel rei allcujus auctorem esse and clito or ichto, Equus, the Horse, and hence Erictho, Autor Equitatus et Equorum, the occupation constantly ascribed to Ericthonius, as seen in the preceding lines of Virgil. Aristides and others confirm this by observing that he first tamed the Horse and then applied him to the chariot. It was on this account that he was placed among the constellations under the name of Auriga, Agitator, or Heniochus, the driver or charioteer.” What throws new light on this conjecture and confirms this etymology is, that Ericthonius or Erictheus was one of the surnames of Neptune; hence Lycophron 3
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