Note 516 — OB, OUB, PYTHO,

As the worship of the serpent was of old so prevalent, many places, as well as people from thence, received their names. Those who settled in Campania were called Opici; which some would have changed to Ophici; because they were denominated from serpents. [516]Οι δε (φασιν) ὁτι Οφικοι απο των οφιων. But they are, in reality, both names of the same purport, and denote the origin of the people. We meet with places called Opis, Ophis, Ophitæa, Ophionia, Ophioëssa, Ophiodes, and Ophiusa. This last was an antient name, by which, according to Stephanus, the islands Rhodes, Cythnus, Besbicus, Tenos, and the whole continent of Africa, were distinguished. There were also cities so called. Add to these places denominated Oboth, Obona, and reversed Onoba, from Ob, which was of the same purport. Clemens Alexandrinus says, that the term Eva signified a serpent, if pronounced with a proper [517]aspirate. We find that there were places of this name. There was a city Eva in [518]Arcadia: and another in [519]Macedonia. There was also a mountain Eva, or Evan, taken notice of by [520]Pausanias, between which and Ithome lay the city Messene. He mentions also an Eva in [521]Argolis, and speaks of it as a large town. Another name for a serpent, of which I have as yet taken no notice, was Patan, or Pitan. Many places in different parts were denominated from this term. Among others was a city in [522]Laconia; and another in [523]Mysia, which Stephanus styles a city of Æolia. They were undoubtedly so named from the worship of the serpent, Pitan: and had probably Dracontia, where were figures and devices relative to the religion which prevailed. Ovid mentions the latter city, and has some allusions to its antient history, when he describes Medea as flying through the air from Attica to Colchis.