Note 482 — OB, OUB, PYTHO,

Hercules was esteemed the chief God, the same as Chronus; and was said to have produced the Mundane egg. He was represented in the Orphic Theology under the mixed symbol of a [482]lion and serpent: and sometimes of a [483]serpent only. I have before mentioned, that the Cuthites under the title of Heliadæ settled at Rhodes: and, as they were Hivites or Ophites, that the island in consequence of it was of old named Ophiusa. There was likewise a tradition, that it had once swarmed with [484]serpents. The like notion prevailed almost in every place, where they settled. They came under the more general titles of Leleges and Pelasgi: but more particularly of Elopians, Europians, Oropians, Asopians, Inopians, Ophionians, and Æthiopes, as appears from the names, which they bequeathed; and in most places, where they resided, there were handed down traditions, which alluded to their original title of Ophites. In Phrygia, and upon the Hellespont, whither they sent out colonies very early, was a people styled Οφιογενεις, or the serpent-breed; who were said to retain an affinity and correspondence with [485]serpents. And a notion prevailed, that some hero, who had conducted them, was changed from a serpent to a man. In Colchis was a river Ophis; and there was another of the same name in Arcadia. It was so named from a body of people, who settled upon its banks, and were said to have been conducted by a serpent: [486]Τον ἡγεμονα γενεσθαι δρακοντα. These reptiles are seldom found in islands, yet Tenos, one of the Cyclades, was supposed to have once swarmed with them. [487]Εν τῃ Τηνῳ, μιᾳ των Κυκλαδων νησῳ, οφεις και σκορπιοι δεινοι εγινοντο. Thucydides mentions a people of Ætolia called [488]Ophionians: and the temple of Apollo at Patara in Lycia seems to have had its first institution from a priestess of the same [489]name. The island of Cyprus was styled Ophiusa, and Ophiodes, from the serpents, with which it was supposed to have [490]abounded. Of what species they were is no where mentioned; excepting only that about Paphos there was said to have been a [491]kind of serpent with two legs. By this is meant the Ophite race, who came from Egypt, and from Syria, and got footing in this [492]island. They settled also in Crete, where they increased greatly in numbers; so that Minos was said by an unseemly allegory, [493]οφεις ουρησαι, serpentes minxisse. The island Seriphus was one vast rock, by the Romans called [494]saxum seriphium; and made use of as a larger kind of prison for banished persons. It is represented as having once abounded with serpents; and it is styled by Virgil serpentifera, as the passage is happily corrected by Scaliger.