Note 181 — CANAAN, CNAAN,

Some of the same family were to be found among the Atlantes of Mauritania, and are represented as having the shape of swans. Prometheus, in Æschylus, speaks of them in the commission which he gives to Io: [181]You must go, says he, as far as the city Cisthene in the Gorgonian plains, where the three Phorcides reside; those antient, venerable ladies, who are in the shape of swans, and have but one eye, of which they make use in common. This history relates to an Amonian temple founded in the extreme parts of Africa; in which there were three priestesses of Canaanitish race; who, on that account, are said to be in the shape of swans. The notion of their having but one eye among them took its rise from an hieroglyphic very common in Egypt, and probably in Canaan: this was the representation of an eye, which was said to be engraved upon the pediment of their [182]temples. As the land of Canaan lay so opportunely for traffic, and the emigrants from most parts went under their conduct, their history was well known. They navigated the seas very early, and were necessarily acquainted with foreign regions; to which they must at one time have betaken themselves in great numbers, when they fled before the sons of Israel. In all the places where they settled they were famous for their hymns and music; all which the Greeks have transferred to birds, and supposed that they were swans who were gifted with this harmony. Yet, sweet as their notes are said to have been, there is not, I believe, a person upon record who was ever a witness to it. It is, certainly, all a fable. When, therefore, Plutarch tells us that Apollo was pleased with the music of swans, [183]μουσικῃ τε ἡδεται, και κυκνων φωναις; and when Æschylus mentions their singing their own dirges; they certainly allude to Egyptian and Canaanitish priests, who lamented the death of Adon and Osiris. And this could not be entirely a secret to the Grecians, for they seem often to refer to some such notion. Socrates termed swans his fellow-servants: in doing which he alluded to the antient priests, styled Cycni. They were people of the choir, and officiated in the temples of the same Deities; whose servant he professed himself to be. Hence Porphyry assures us, [184]Ὁυ παιζων ὁμοδουλους αυτου ελεγεν τους κυκνους (Σοκρατης), that Socrates was very serious when he mentioned swans as his fellow-servants. When, therefore, Aristophanes speaks of the [185]Delian and Pythian swans, they are the priests of those places, to whom he alludes. And when it is said by Plato, that the soul of Orpheus, out of disgust to womankind, led the life of a [186]swan, the meaning certainly is, that he retired from the world to some cloister, and lived a life of celibacy, like a priest. For the priests of many countries, but particularly of Egypt, were recluses, and devoted themselves to [187]celibacy: hence monkery came originally from Egypt. Lycophron, who was of Egypt, and skilled in antient terms, styles Calchas, who was the priest of Apollo, a swan. [188]Μολοσσου κυπεως κοιτου κυκνον. These epithets, the Scholiast tells us, belong to Apollo; and Calchas is called a swan, δια το γηραιον, και μαντικον: because he was an old prophet and priest. Hence, at the first institution of the rites of Apollo, which is termed the birth of the Deity, at Delos, it is said that many swans came from the coast of Asia, and went round the island for the space of seven days.