Note 695 — Goddess HIPPA.

Ceres had the title of Hippia: and the Goddess of wisdom, Minerva, had the same. We read also of Juno Hippia, who at Olympia partook of joint rites and worship, with those equestrian Deities Neptune, and Mars. Pausanias mentions [695]Ποσειδωνος Ἱππιου, μαι Ἡρας Ἱππιου βωμοι: and hard-by τῃ μεν Αρεως Ἱππιου, τῃ δε Αθηνας Ἱππιου βωμος. In Arcadia, and Elis, the most antient rites were preserved: and the Grecians might have known, that the terms Hippa and Hippia were of foreign purport from the other titles given to Juno at Olympia. For they sacrificed here to [696]Amonian Juno, and to Juno Paramonian; which were also titles of Hermes. Hippa was a sacred Egyptian term, and as such was conferred upon Arsinoë, the wife of Ptolemy Philadelphus: for the princes of Egypt always assumed to themselves sacred appellations. [697]Ἱππια Αρσινοη, ἡ του Φιλαδελφου γυνη. As the Grecians did not inquire into the hidden purport of antient names, they have continually misrepresented the histories of which they treated. As Ceres was styled Hippa, they have imagined her to have been turned into a [698]mare: and Hippius Poseidon was in like manner changed to a horse, and supposed in that shape to have had an intimate acquaintance with the Goddess. Of this Ovid takes notice.