Note 1144 — ANTIENT HEROES.

The story then of Cadmus, and Europa, relates to people from Egypt, and Syria, who went abroad at different times, and settled in various parts. They are said to have been determined in their place of residence by an ox, or cow: by which this only is meant, that they were directed by an oracle: for without such previous inquiry no colonies went abroad. An oracle by the Amonians was termed Alphi, and Alpha, the voice of God. In Egypt the principal oracular temples were those of the sacred animals Apis and Mneuis. These animals were highly reverenced at Heliopolis, and Memphis, and in other cities of that country. They were of the male kind; but the honours were not confined to them; for the cow and heifer were held in the like veneration, and they were esteemed equally prophetic. Hence it was, that they were in common with the Apis and Mneuis styled Alphi, and Alpha: which name was likewise current among the Tyrians, and Sidonians. In consequence of this, Plutarch, speaking of the letter Alpha, says, [1144]Φοινικας ὁυτω καλειν τον Βουν. The Phenicians call an ox Alpha. And Hesychius speaks to the same purpose. Αλφα, βους. Thus we find that Alpha was both an oracle, and an oracular animal. The Grecians took it in the latter acceptation; and instead of saying that the Cadmians acted in obedience to an oracle, they gave out, that Cadmus followed a cow. What is alluded to in the animal, which was supposed to have been his guide, may be known by the description given of it by Pausanias: [1145]Επι δε ἑκατερας της βοος πλευρας σημειον επειναι λευκον, εικασμενον κυκλῳ της Σεληνης. There was a white mark on each side of the cow like the figure of the moon. The poet quoted by the Scholiast upon Aristophanes speaks to the same purpose. [1146]Λευκον σχημ' ἑκατερθε περιπλοκον, ηυτε Μηνης. This is an exact description of the [1147]Apis, and other sacred kine in Egypt: and the history relates to an oracle given to the Cadmians in that country. This the Grecians have represented, as if Cadmus had been conducted by a cow: the term Alphi, and Alpha, being liable to be taken in either of these acceptations. Nonnus speaks of Cadmus as bringing the rites of [1148]Dionusus, and Osiris, from Egypt to Greece: and describes him according to the common notion as going in quest of a bull, and as being determined in his place of residence by a [1149]cow. Yet he afterwards seems to allude to the true purport of the history; and says, that the animal spoken of was of a nature very different from that, which was imagined: that it was not one of the herd, but of divine original.