Note 132 — SECTION III. HISTORICAL NOTES.[111]
Reading edition
This fact was not unknown to Bishop Warburton and to Lord Herbert of Cherbury. In the Egyptian hymn to Phthah we read: “Praised be thy countenance, Ruler of the World!” Ausonius thus explains the multitude of synonyms:
“Ogygia ME Bacchum vocat; Osirin Ægyptus putat; Mystæ Phanacen nominant; Dionyson Indi existimant; Romana sacra Liberum; Arabica gens Adoneum; Lucianus Pantheum.”
Those who see in ancient myths the eternal contest of sunlight and darkness; of summer and winter, and, in the moral world, of intelligence and ignorance, will find strong confirmation in Eddaic poetry and prose.